Notre Dame Cathedral tragedy was predicted in the film 'Before Sunset' 15 years before it happened
As the world slept on the night of April 15, a raging fire gutted the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The 850-year-old structure was undergoing renovations at the time when the fire suddenly engulfed the famed gothic building. The cathedral is one of the most historic landmarks in the city and it is also known world over as a popular tourist attraction. Even though the spire of the structure collapsed in the blaze, the main building of the cathedral itself was saved after firefighters spent hours putting out the inferno, a top fire official in Paris said late on April 15.
Many theories started bouncing around, however, that the horrific tragedy had already been predicted and was destined to happen. Social media users took to multiple platforms soon after images and videos from the blaze started making the rounds, recalling a particular scene from director Richard Linklater's film 'Before Sunset'.
'Before Sunset' is an American romantic drama that was released in 2004 to much acclaim from film critics. It came as a sequel to the 1995 film 'Before Sunrise' and starred Ethan Hawke as young American author Jesse and French-American actress Julie Delpy as his lover Céline. The story of the film began where the previous one ended after the couple spend a passionate night together in Vienna.
They meet again nine years later in Paris and the film appears to show them in real time spending an afternoon together. Linklater's film received major critical acclaim and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
In the scene that social media users are referring to with regard to the cathedral fire, Jesse (Hawke) looks at the structure and tells Céline (Delpy) about a legend which speaks of the beauty of the cathedral while they are on a boat on River Seine.
Jesse says in the film: "I heard this story once, about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back, they wire Notre Dame to blow. But they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch and the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was. And then, when the Allied troops came in, they found all the explosives just lying there... and the switch unturned and they found the same thing at Sacre Coeur... Eiffel Tower and a couple of other places, I think."
Céline replies: "Is that true?" to which Jesse says: "I don't know... I always liked the story though." Céline finally says: "Yeah, that's a great story. But you have to think that Notre Dame will be gone one day. There used to be another church or cathedral... Right there."
The prediction, depending on how you look at it, or coincidence, of the tragedy from a film 15 years ago, seems to have rocked the social media world with many users paying tribute to the city and the cathedral with photos from that iconic scene.