Co-written in just 11 days by Texas born director Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan, Before Sunrise traces the relationship that develops between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) from the time they meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna until they part company the next morning having spent the night together wandering the streets of the evocative Austrian capital.

Employing the same loose structure and impressionistic sense of place he used to such great effect in Slacker (1991) and Dazed and Confused (1993) – both of which featured screenwriter Krizan in memorable albeit brief bit-parts – Linklater used this film to highlight his strong connection with trends in European art-house cinema over anything on offer from Hollywood at the time.

Winning the Silver Bear for Best Direction at Berlin, this still stands up as one of the most appealing, uninhibited films from the ’90s. (Notes by Alice Butler.)

Richard Linklater’s 2nd film in this trilogy, Before Sunset, is showing on June 4th (18.30) and 8th (18.30). His latest, Before Midnight, is opening at the IFI on June 21st.