Katie Dermody Palmer

Record Shop Scene 

Katie Dermody Palmer recreates the music of this scene from the film Before Sunrise (1995).

• Video transcript

  A feminine-appearing person and a masculine-appearing person are sitting next to each other on a tram.  

  Feminine-appearing person: It’s my turn now.You’re going to answer. 

  Masculine-appearing person: Yes, I’m going to answer.  

  Feminine-appearing person: So what’s a problem for you? 

  Masculine-appearing person: You, probably. 

  Feminine-appearing person: Huh, what?(Smiles) 

  Masculine-appearing person:No, really, I had a thought about a week ago that’s kind of a problem. 

  Feminine-appearing person: What is it? 

  Masculine-appearing person: Do you believe in reincarnation? 

  Feminine-appearing person: Yeah, yeah, it’s interesting. 

  Masculine-appearing person: Yeah. It seems like a lot of people are talking about past livesand all that. And even if you don’t believe in that in a specific way, most people have some notionof an eternal soul, right? So, 50,000 years ago... not even a million people were there. 10,000 years ago, we had 2 million people on the planet. Now we have 5-6 billion people, right? If we all have our individual, unique souls, where do they all come from? Modern souls are only a fraction of origin souls? That’s about a five-thousand-to-one split of each soul in just the last fifty thousand years, which is justa blip in the earth’s time. At best, we’re just a tiny fraction of a soul. Is that why we all feel so scattered? 

  Feminine-appearing person: So, that’s a problem? 

  Masculine-appearing person: I know, it’s kind of a scattered thought, which is all the more reason it makes sense. 

  Feminine-appearing person: Yeah, I agree with you.  

  They both share a laugh and get off the tram. They walk into a vinyl-only store and start to browse.  

  They keep looking through albums. The feminine-appearing person eventually finds an album and holds it up the other person. They decide to walk into the listening booth to listen to the album. 

  The feminine-appearing takes the album out and puts it on the turntable. As the music starts they both kind of lean against opposite walls in the small glass booth and concentrate on the song. 

  SONG 

  There’s a wind that blows in from the north 

  And it says that loving takes its course 

  Come here, come here 

  No, I’mnot impossible to touch 

  I have never wanted you so much 

  Come here. Come here...
  

  They glance subtly up at each other but usually not when the other is looking. The song makes both a little nervous. 

  They are both outdoors again. They walk past parks, sculptures and get on a tram.