There is this movie that came out in 1995 called ‘Before Sunrise.’ It stars a very young Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke as Celine and Jesse, and it consists of them spending a single night together walking through Vienna. There were two sequels, Before Sunset and Before Midnight, the most recent of which came out this year. Unsurprisingly, given the title of this post, the focus is on the first one and its setting of Vienna. Though Marisa and I are both fans of the movie (she introduced me to it), for some reason I took a stronger interest in visiting the places where many of the key scenes were filmed. The thing is, we didn’t have all night and we weren’t fueled by fate (or narrative) like Jesse and Celine. On top of that, the actual route defined by the scenes in the movie makes no rational sense. So instead of following the movie, scene by scene, we decided to visit just a few of the same spots, and to save time we decided to do it on bikes.

They started at the same train station that we arrived at, Wien Westbanhaus (platform 7, specifically, its current incarnation pictured below). From there, they roamed around the city, making friends, borrowing wine, getting their fortunes read, riding a ferris wheel, all the while discussing love, religion, identity, relationships, and each other. It’s a pretty classic Linklater (the guy that made Waking Life, in which I’m pretty sure a Jesse and Celine from an alternate universe make a cameo).

The next stop was the record store where Jesse and Celine make cute faces at each other in a listening booth. You might not notice it from the street  if it weren’t for the cool sign hanging above the door. It’s one of the more accurate signs you’ll ever see, too. The place is packed with records old and new. I felt weird pointing my camera at the nice old lady that was organizing the records in there, so no pictures  of the inside. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

After that we rode to bridge where Jesse and Celine ran into a couple of Austrian youths that end up inviting them to a play they’re putting on. It’s distinct from the other bridges that cross the same canal. The others are pretty enough, but in a simple, gray cement kind of way. This one is very different. It has a nice green steel arch and a train track that runs cross-wise underneath that gives the space a pleasing complexity. You can see it on google maps here. It’s a cool place to be even if you didn’t know anything about the role it played in a movie. We were surrounded by art students furiously sketching the architecture around the bridge. None of it seemed particularly interesting, but then again I’m not an art student.

 

Following the bridge was the Prater amusement park just north of the river. It was at the top of the Wiener Riesenrad, the Giant Ferris Wheel, that Jesse and Celine had their first kiss. Unfortunately, Marisa and I already reached that landmark, but it was still nice to hold hands and look out at the city. The view is incredible and the machinery that gets you up there is fun to watch in action.

While we were on the ferris wheel, we saw in the distance what looked like a chair swing ride. We couldn’t quite believe it at first, since it looked so high, but when we got down to the ground we decided to check it out. Sure enough, we had stumbled across the world’s highest chair swing (117 meters). We mustered up the nerve to try it out, though I was pretty sure that my stomach wouldn’t handle it. Everything turned out fine, in case you were worried, and I even risked making a video with my phone to show everyone how much fun we had.

The next stop on the tour was a certain spot on the canal. It’s where an Austrian poet makes a deal with the young couple. Instead of just giving him money, he offers to write Jesse and Celine a poem that includes any word of their choice in exchange for whatever money they feel inspired to part with. Celine requested he use the word ‘milkshake’. You don’t actually find out what they gave him, but here is the poem. You can judge for yourself what it’s worth:

Daydream delusion
Limousine Eyelash
Oh, baby with your pretty face
Drop a tear in my wineglass
Look at those big eyes
See what you mean to me
Sweet cakes and milkshakes
I am a delusion angel
I am a fantasy parade
I want you to know what I think
Don’t want you to guess anymore
You have no idea where I came from
We have no idea where we’re going
Lodged in life
Like two branches in a river
Flowing downstream
Caught in the current
I’ll carry you. You’ll carry me
That’s how it could be
Don’t you know me?
Don’t you know me by now?

The steps where he is sitting are more or less the same, but the entire canal has been lined with a combination of large art pieces and graffiti tags. It definitely brightens up the area a bit, though the art varies in quality.

Finally, the last stop we made on our self-guided tour was at the Maria am Gestade church on Salvatorgasse. It doesn’t play a huge role in the film but it was on the way back to the apartment. It was good we decided to visit it, since it took us into a part of Vienna that felt very different from the expansive imperial grounds that seem to be focused on by tourists. The streets were narrower and the buildings felt taller. It reminded me of the other famous film set in Vienna, Orson Welles’ The Third Man (also worth watching).

So that’s it! After stopping at Maria am Gestade we slowly made our way back to the CityBike station by Westbahnhauf. We got to experience seeing Vienna’s architectural marvels at night and would highly recommend it to anyone that ends up there. It’s a bit like DC in that way. The memorials are beautiful in the daytime, but the lighting at night combined with the relative absence of people makes it feel a lot more personal. Combined with the shared connection we have to Vienna as the setting for Before Sunrise, it made for a wonderful visit.