Before Night Falls (2000)

A film with strong and powerful moments. The movie uses some documentary footage and exposition about the revolution in Cuba and the problems that people went through, but the real story is about a writer and his struggle to find peace and recognition.It took some time for me to get invested. It bothered me a bit because the movie is narrated by the writer and you see his life since he was young. So, you would expect you to be invested right away. But, for me it took some time in first act getting in to the story because here and there stock footage would pop up and it would take me out of it. Once the main character ends up being accused for something he didn't do, the film picks up and his journey becomes riveting.I like the vintage look of this film, the colors makes it feel like the film was made in the 60's and 70's. Johnny Depp is funny playing two roles, but the actor stealing the show is Javier Bardem who is fantastic in this performance. The movie does a good job in making you understand his motives and ambitions. Even though I didn't care much about his relations, you still understand the fact that it's just how he is personally and he doesn't try to force you to like him. He just appears like himself and doesn't try to be someone he isn't. Which makes the audience respect him.The scenes in a prison were really hard hitting, especially when he is forced to be in a tiny, tiny cell. That most be horrifying, and Bardem completely made you believe what kind of a traumatic affect it would have on someone. Brilliantly made.In short, a fantastic performance all the way through (especially towards the finale), but the film is a bit unbalanced and some of the most interesting parts of the story pass by too soon. It stays a little too long on the writer's romantic life in the beginning, and unfortunately that aspect wasn't as compelling as I think the filmmakers were hoping it would be. Everything about the writers escape and the prison scenes are however great and I would still recommend checking it out.

Visual artist Julian Schnabel was the perfect choice for bringing to the screen the richly colorful life and times of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990). BEFORE NIGHT FALLS began as a book, Arenas' memoir, translated and released in 1993: time has aged the eloquence of this memoir but has not marred the impact of the brilliance of the writing. Arenas wrote with a degree of truth and keen observation that makes his moments of antics with his characters like comic relief in a Shakespearean play. The screenplay was written by Lázaro Gómez Carriles, Cunningham O'Keefe and Julian Schnabel who with great homage to Arenas made his life as narrated by Arenas, in an inextricable mix of his memories, dreams, nightmares and pure fiction. He grew up as poor, naked illegitimate child, joined Castro's Cuban revolution and became an intellectual, employed in the public library. After discovering his gay sexuality, he soon shares in the regime's inconsistent persecution. His work and life become dominated by the mix of temptation, fear, betrayal and man hunting in both senses. Finally he makes it to Manhattan, only to get caught in another trap for which there is only one tragic escape in the end - his death from AIDS.Arenas had a gift of distilling Magical Realism, transforming even the radical ugliness of Castro's Cuba into the topical paradise so beloved by Cubans everywhere. This cinematic version lets the viewer experience that rich literary output of one of the most exciting writers of the last century. For example, 'Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers. Past buildings that you jump to avoid because they will fall on you. Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you. Past closed shops, closed markets, closed cinemas, closed parks, closed cafés. Sometimes showing dusty signs, justifications: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION," "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS." What kind of repairs? When will these so-called renovations be finished? When at last will they begin? Closed... closed... closed... everything closed. I arrive, open the countless padlocks and run up the temporary stairs. There she is, waiting for me. I pull off the cover, and stare at her dusty, cold shape I clean of the dust and caress her. With my hand, delicately, I wipe clean her back, her base and her sides. In front of her, I feel desperate and happy. I run my fingers over her keyboard and suddenly it all starts up. With a tinkling sound the music begins, little by little, then faster; now full speed. Walls, trees, streets, cathedrals, faces and beaches. Cells, mini- cells, huge cells. Starry nights, bare feet, pines, clouds. Hundreds, thousands, millions of parrots. A stool, a climbing plant, they all answer my call, all come to me. The walls recede, the roof vanishes, and you float quite naturally. You float uprooted, dragged off, lifted high. Transported, immortalized, saved. Thanks to that subtle, continuous rhythm, that music, that incessant tap-tap.'Javier Bardem completely inhabits the poet that was Arenas - a performance so delicately nuanced that it remains one of the great moments in cinema. He is ably supported by Olivier Martinez as Lázaro Gómez Carriles, and incidental roles by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Diego Luna, Jerzy Skolimowski, Hector Babenco and a host of other fine actors. This is one of those films that remains a standard of the industry and certainly Javier Bardem will never be forgotten for his inhabiting the essence of what made Reinaldo Arenas a great writer. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

This Film Before night falls was amazing... I was so intrigued by the struggle that I ordered the book online from overseas... The book was even more riveting...Not something that I would normally watch or read but very interesting.. About the years of fidel castro and one mans fight against the regime being gay having no rights in and out of the most appalling jails well if you can call them that... and then a sad untimely ending....I have never seen a film like it......Fantastic acting from Javier...

A wonderful interpretation of the late Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas by Javier Bardem makes this film worthwhileIt appears that this great writer was just destined for a life of tragedy.From the time of living with an outrageous grandfather to his university years followed by enthusiasm leading to disgust with the Castro Administration, Bardem has the right appeal as the intellectually vulnerable youth who chose homosexuality as his way of life.From the time of trumped up charges against him for allegedly molesting a youth, it was all down-hill in his life with his eventual escape to New York followed by a fatal illness.This film reinforces the idea of the closed society of Cuba's Castro.