Other Titles • Before Night Falls • Antes que anochezca (2000)
Synopses for Before Night Falls (2000)
1.
The life of Reinaldo Arenas, an exiled Cuban homosexual writer, is chronicled in an adaptation of his memoir BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, directed by Julian Schnabel (BASQUIAT). Javier Bardem (in an Oscar-nominated performance) portrays Arenas as he journeys from poverty to university to the sexual revolution and homosexual subculture in Havana to persecution and imprisonment under the policies of Fidel Castro for being both gay and a writer. Despite the harsh conditions of prison, the courageous Arenas continued not only to write but also to publish his works abroad. Ultimately, he was allowed to leave Cuba for America, but there he faced new struggles as a man without a country battling AIDS. Schnabel's beautifully filmed sophomore directorial effort captures the essence of Cuba during the revolution. Johnny Depp is featured in the dual supporting roles of the cross-dressing prison inmate, Bon Bon, and the brutal officer, Lieutenant Victor. A well-disguised Sean Penn appears as Cuco Sanchez. Olivier Martinez as Lázaro Gómez Carillo and Andrea Di Stefano as Pepe Malas deliver standout performances. The film received accolades at the 2000 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals.
(13 votes)
2.
Reinaldo Arenas was born on July 16, 1943 to a beautiful young woman (Olatz Lopez Garmendia) who was soon abandoned by Reinaldo's father. So his mother returned with him to her parents farm where he grow up as a young boy.
Reinaldo's life was an exploration of his identity as a writer and a homosexual, each activity pursued with zest and joy. He entered a storytelling contest, and his evident gifts led to his securing work at the prestigious National Library. He was befriended by some of Cuba's most celebrated writers. At the age of 20, he wrote his first novel, 'Singing From the Well', which was awarded First Mention in the country's Cirilo Villaverde National Competition.
'Singing From the Well' was to be Reinaldo's only book published in his native country. By the late 1960s, the Cuban government had begun a brutal crackdown on artists and homosexuals. Writers were forced to renounce their work and homosexuals were rounded up and sent to labor camps whose flowery titles belied their cruelty. Despite the danger, Reinaldo continued to write, giving free reign to his irreverent, outspoken vision. His second novel, 'Hallucinations', was smuggled out of Cuba and published in France, earning him the hostility of Castro's government.
In 1980, Castro allowed homosexuals, mental patients and criminals to leave Cuba in the Mariel Harbor boatlift; a last-minute change to his passport allowed Reinaldo to leave the country undetected. Settling in New York, he began his life as an exile: impover ished and stateless, but with his appetite for life and writing still fierce, his humor, rage and honesty intact. His struggles were far from over, though; after he contracted AIDS, he waged a truly furious race against death to complete his works-in-progress. By the time of his death in 1990, Reinaldo had written over 20 books, including 10 novels as well as numerous short stories, poems, essays and plays. His body of work is arguably the most passionate and angry ever written against the totalitarian state. Reinaldo Arenas' memoir, 'Before Night Falls', was published in English in 1993 and was listed by 'The New York Times Book Review' as one of the year's Best Books.
(8 votes)
3.
Based on the posthumously published memoir by Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls is artist-director Julian Schnabel's second exercise in artist biography, but where Schnabel's earlier film Basquiat was relatively conventional, this film is bolder in both style and execution. Schnabel is perhaps too enamoured of his subject as a noble martyr, lending the film a somewhat inflated sense of importance. Still, it's rare to see an artist's life and work so elegantly interwoven, and Before Night Falls uses all of Arenas's life as its canvas, from impoverished youth to lively gay freedom in mid-1950's Cuba; imprisonment during Castro's antigay regime; and to New York City in 1980, followed by Arenas's battle with AIDS and subsequent suicide (depicted here as assisted) in 1990.
Through these extreme rises and falls, Arenas is always writing; his typewriter his most faithful lover and weapon (by way of smuggled manuscripts) against the dark forces that surround him. As Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, Arenas is "a serious actor's dream role: to be a gay Jesus in a modern Passion Play," and Javier Bardem--the first Spanish actor to receive an Oscar nomination--inhabits the role with subtle ferocity, charting this emotional odyssey with outer reserve but blazing infernos of internal passion. While Schnabel suffers from a hyperactive camera, there's poetry here--visual, dramatic, and literal--and vibrant humour to temper the deep tragedy of Arenas's life. Schnabel also uses his actor friends to good advantage: a nearly unrecognizable Sean Penn adds an ironic touch to his brief appearance as a peasant, and Johnny Depp is both funny and fearsome in dual roles as a drag queen and vicious army interrogator. --Jeff Shannon
(9 votes)
4.
One of the most universally acclaimed films of the year, Before Night Falls appeared on over 75 "Ten Best" lists and features Academy Award® nominee Javier Bardem in a "mesmerizing and inspired performance!" (Rex Reed, The New York Observer)
Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) directs this incredible journey through the life and work of the late Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. Victimized by a government that banned his books and jailed him for a crime he didn't commit, Reinaldo endured unspeakable persecution in a courageous stand against censorship and oppression. Without a country but not without integrity, he fled to America where he continued to fight for personal expression and produced a stirring body of work.
Featuring a dual performance by Johnny Depp, Before Night Falls is a tribute to the liberating power of art… and one man's undying passion for life.
(3 votes)
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