The Joy of Studying Abroad and Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise”
Image Courtesy of The Criterion Collection
By Dean Robbins
This is an independently submitted op-ed for our Quill section. Views and statements made in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Tower
The story of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, the first part of the director’s 18-year spanning Before trilogy, is deceptively simple. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American traveling through Europe who, on his last night, meets French student, Celine, (Julie Delpy) on a train and asks her to join him in walking the streets of Vienna. She agrees and the pair fall in love over the course of one night. Essentially, the film is a long walk and talk. The film is not only one of the greatest cinematic portrayals of love, it is also a perfect allegory for the experience of studying abroad.
Near the end of the movie, Celine says, “[I]f there’s any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something.” If her statement is true for love, it is also true for experiencing a new culture. In Rome, where this article was written, there is the literal angle of a language barrier. Even if many locals speak some English or visitors speak some Italian, there is always something lost in translation. But, on a slightly more subliminal level, understanding and discovery is the heart of any interaction between traveler and resident.
Jesse has to get on the train in the morning. He has no money left to continue. Both Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset (2004) are rigidly structured by an extreme time constraint. In Before Sunrise, it is one night, while in Before Sunset, it is only a few hours in the afternoon. The difficulty of studying abroad in a foreign country is that a student’s time there is long enough to warrant investment but completely defined from the start by its finitude. Of course, one of the students at the CUA Rome Campus or myself could end up living in Italy later in our lives but that is unlikely for most. If the imminent love of Jesse and Celine is destined to end at a specific time, so too is the study abroad program. You will know the day and maybe even the hour. The visitor, the lover of the place, then finds themself consumed by an apocalyptic voraciousness. Like Jesse and Celine attempt to condense a lifetime into one night, so too do some visitors attempt to condense a culture of experience into one semester. Both are impossible.
One of the few complaints raised against Before Sunrise is its possible romantic projections. Does that one night really matter so much? Is the entire film merely a pseudointellectual conversation whose meaning is derived less from its meaning and more from its passion? When studying abroad, one of the easiest traps to fall into is that of romantic projection. Oxford is going to be like this. Rome is going to be like that. We attempt to graft artificial futures into our reality only to find ourselves disappointed by the result. In one scene of the film, Jesse and Celine meet a poor man who says he can write a poem based on any word for money. The resulting poem, based on the word “milkshake”, begins with the line “daydream delusion” and ends with the line “Don’t you know me by now?” The genuine experience of a place, a people, a person is that of gradual discovery and understanding. That is the magic of love and the magic of immersing oneself in a new culture. Do not see the place of study as an object to be gleaned from. A culture, like a person, is immensely complex, beautiful, and imperfect.
There are some aspects of studying abroad that no college would put on their brochure. For the Rome program, the visa process can be quite stressful and confusing. Pickpocketing runs rampant in tourist hotspots. The museums can sometimes be so crowded that it is hard to appreciate the treasures of Western culture contained within. But studying abroad is worthwhile for the same reasons that love is worthwhile, it is about the journey. Celine follows her previously quoted line about magic that “I know, it’s almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.” No love will be without moments of doubt and frustration. No student studying in Rome will become a true Roman in one semester.
In the final installment of the Before trilogy Before Midnight (2013), a wise, aged Greek woman tells Celine and Jesse that “like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear…we are so important to some, but we are just passing through.” Life is after all a journey, a pilgrimage towards our true Home. This is what studying abroad and the Before trilogy reflect in microcosm like an entire life in the course of one semester or a great love in one night. So, if the option is allowed, do not pass up the ability to pass through somewhere. An experience impossible to be complete or as nearly as deep as life in its fullness but full of transformative answers in the attempt.
