Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Ah, Before Midnight. Another one of the year’s best reviewed films that will sadly probably go unnoticed by the Academy due to the early release date. The idea of a film purely based around 2 people talking for 100 minutes should never have worked, but as the Before series progresses, it only gets better.
As mentioned with Bradley Cooper, Delpy (along with the equally tremendous Ethan Hawke) captures a performance with so much naturalism that one can only assume that it is tremendously well rehearsed improv. It is, however, completely the opposite. Before Midnight is by all accounts meticulously faithful to the written word and is one of the miraculous occasions in which the performance and script come together to produce something that feels real and totally in the moment.
It helps that Delpy and Hawke both had a hand in writing a script and are thereby able to tune it to their voice, but the fact that it is pulled off successfully with minimal self indulgence is very admired. Despite the fact that Celine becomes more and more irritable, defensive and accusatory as the film develops, Delpy never makes her unsympathetic and you still want to see these people together. It is a flashier role than Hawke’s, but that just makes it all the more impressive that it feels like it is coming from a real, emotional place. Pure genius. And if you don’t believe me, check out the clip below.