The Before Trilogy - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

The cornerstone of director Richard Linklater’s career‑long exploration of cinematic time, this celebrated three-part romance captures a relationship as it begins, begins again, deepens, and strains over the course of almost two decades. Chronicling the love of Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke), from their first meeting as idealistic twentysomethings to the disillusionment they face together in middle age, The Before Trilogy also serves as a document of a boundary-pushing and extraordinarily intimate collaboration between director and actors, as Delpy and Hawke imbue their characters with a sense of lived-in experience, and age on-screen along with them. Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time’s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, the Before films chart the progress of romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life.

United States

101 / 80 / 109 minutes
Color
1.85 : 1
857 / 858 / 859
English

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

- New, restored 2K digital transfers of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset and a 2K digital master of Before Midnight, approved by director Richard Linklater, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Before Sunrise Blu-ray and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Before Sunset and Before Midnight Blu-rays
- New discussion featuring Linklater and actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, moderated by critic Kent Jones
- Behind-the-scenes footage and interviews from the productions of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset
- Audio commentary on Before Midnight by Delpy, Linklater, and Hawke
- Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, a feature-length 2016 documentary by Louis Black and Karen Bernstein
- After Before, a new documentary by Athina Rachel Tsangari about the making of Before Midnight in Greece
- New conversation between scholars Dave Johnson and Rob Stone about Linklater’s work
- Episode of the radio program Fresh Air featuring host Terry Gross, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke
- Linklater // On Cinema & Time, a 2016 video essay by filmmaker :: kogonada
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay on the trilogy by critic Dennis Lim

*Cover art by Michael Gillette