Description:Before Night Falls is a touching screen adaptation of the autobiography of gay Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas that convincingly shows how freedom is the air that writers must breathe in order to fully express their creative souls.
Through extreme rises and falls—impoverished youth to lively gay freedom in mid-1950's CubaBefore Night Falls is a touching screen adaptation of the autobiography of gay Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas that convincingly shows how freedom is the air that writers must breathe in order to fully express their creative souls.
Through extreme rises and falls—impoverished youth to lively gay freedom in mid-1950's Cuba; imprisonment during Castro's antigay regime; moving to New York City in 1980; followed by a battle with AIDS and subsequent suicide in 1990—Arenas is always writing, his typewriter his most faithful lover and weapon against the dark forces that surround him.
Director Julian Schnabel 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. Javier Bardem—the first Spanish actor to receive an Oscar nomination—inhabits the role of Arenas with subtle ferocity, charting this emotional odyssey with outer reserve, but blazing infernos of internal passion. ... (more)(less)
"Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist and playwright. Some of his works are:
-El mundo alucinante
-Antes que anochezca (Before Night Falls)"
" December 27th - Before Night Falls has a wonderful performance by Javier Bardem as the writer and poet Reinaldo Arenas and is absolutely riveting in every scene and paints a vivid and nuanced portrait of him as a person and artist. True to Julian Schnabel's talent he creates some wonderful poetic moments that capture the sadness yet also the beauty that make up Reinaldo's life and art. Although it is very much Reinaldo Arenas' film he also shares it with Cuba to tell his homeland's story par"