One of the most beloved romances in modern cinema actually happened. The woman who inspired it never got to see the film.

In the fall of 1989, a 29-year-old filmmaker wandered into a Philadelphia toy shop and met a young woman working behind the counter. They talked through the night, walked the city until dawn, then went their separate ways.

Richard Linklater never forgot that night. Years later, he turned it into a movie, secretly hoping the young woman might see it, that she might come back into his life.

She never did. Around 2010, Linklater learned why.

Amy Lehrhaupt had died in a motorcycle accident on Mother's Day in 1994, three months before his cameras rolled.

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) gives their singular night of intimacy to two strangers, an American named Jesse and a French student named Céline, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. They meet on a train, get off in Vienna, and spend one night walking and talking and falling in love before they part at dawn.

Ethan Hawke told Linklater: "On the one hand I feel like crying; on the other if you hadn't met her we wouldn't have met. She brought us together."

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Produced on a modest budget of $2.5 million, principal photography took place on location over a few weeks in Vienna, Austria. It was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment and Detour Filmproduction, and made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 1995. Distributed theatrically by Columbia Pictures, the film was released in the United States on January 27, 1995, grossing $22.5 million worldwide.