2004 Film Was Just Named the 'Most Perfect Romantic Movie of the Last 40 Years'

The enjoyment of a romance film can be entirely subjective, arguably more so than other genres. However, some romance movies, specifically released within the past four decades, are more praiseworthy than others.

For instance, the publication Collider recently released a ranking of “the 10 most perfect romantic movies of the last 40 years,” which featured films like Past Lives from 2023, 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, and 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The 2004 film Before Sunset, which is the second movie in the Before trilogy, took home the list’s top spot. According to Collider, the Richard Linklater-directed film deserved the title of the “most perfect romantic movie of the last 40 years” because of its effective storytelling, rooted in realism.

Before Sunset, which stars Ethan Hawkeas Jesse and Julie Delpy as Celine, has a score of 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 91 on Metacritic.

Ethan Hawke Discussed Making ‘Before Sunset’ & ‘Before Sunrise’ in a 2007 Interview

In a 2007 interview for the documentary Ethan Hawke: Jealousy Is A Simple Waste Of Time, Hawke discussed making Before Sunset, a sequel to the 1995 romance, Before Sunrise. He noted that the premise of Before Sunset is that Celine finds Jesse again after he publishes a novel inspired by their brief romance in Before Sunrise. According to Hawke, Linklater came up with the idea after he visited the actor, who has published several books, one of his book tours.

“I was at the such and such book shop in Austin, Texas doing this reading, and Rick was there. And he came up to me afterwards, he goes, ‘What if this is how they met again, you know, they lost each other. And he wrote a book about her, and she came to the reading. And that’s how they met again. Wouldn’t that be great?'” recalled Hawke.

Hawke, who had already been interested in making a sequel to Before Sunrise, said he was immediately on board with the idea.

“I was like, ‘Yes!’ And that’s how it started, so I mean the real life and film life are intertwined in a way that’s impossible to take apart,” said Hawke during the 2007 interview.

Hawke and Delpy reprised their roles for the 2013 film Before Midnight.