Romantic, innocent, thoughtful and beautiful.



Numerous references to James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" can be found in "Before Sunrise."
Both take place on June 16th, running into the early hours of June 17th. Both involve a journey around a single city (Dublin/Vienna) and include a visit to a graveyard.
Jesse's real name is James (Joyce's first name) and, like Joyce, he spent a long time wandering around the cities of Europe instead of going home.

The idea for the movie came from a night Richard Linklater spent walking around Philadelphia with Amy, a woman he met.
Contrary to the movie, they stayed in touch for a while, until contact was lost.
Linklater never heard from her again, not even when he became a director and Before Sunrise (1995) was released.
It was not for many years later that he found out that Amy had died in a traffic accident a few years after they had met.

The screenplay was written in eleven days.
Most of the sсript was re-written by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke.
Delpy later expressed frustration that they were uncredited for their work.