Andrea Di Stefano, Hector Babenco, Javier Bardem

This is the story of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. Raised in the Oriente Province of Cuba in the 1940s, Arenas began his life-long love of the sea and water. Leaving home as a young adolesc...( read more  read more... )ent, he moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the revolutionary spirit and joins a circle of writers and artists. His first novel, "Singing from the Well," is published in Cuba, but as Castro's oppressive regime gathers force, Arenas' homosexuality and political writing make him a target. After being falsely accused of molestation, Arenas is arrested and imprisoned at El Morro. Eventually released from prison after dehumanizing treatment, Arenas flees Cuba in the 1980 Mariel Harbor boatlift. After moving to New York with his friend Lazaro Gomez Carilles, Arenas' hopes for a new life are destroyed by AIDS, and he dies in 1993, at the age of 45.

Flixster Users

79% liked it

17,617 ratings

Critics

74% liked it

94 critics

R, 2 hrs. 5 min.

Directed by: Julian Schnabel

Release Date: December 22, 2000

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DVD Release Date: May 22, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (924)


  • September 22, 2009
    A beautiful film with a strong message, Julian Schnabel is a great film maker and Javier Bardem is brilliant as Reinaldo Arenas! This is a warning from the past and should be on the curriculum!
  • August 11, 2009
    The narrative style is captivating, Julien Schnabel doesn't shy from showing the virtues and the vices of Reinaldo Arenas's literary circle. Arenas, a Cuban poet, confronts the Revolution he once believed in when persecution against homosexuals in Cuba becomes blatant. In a very ...( read more)Schnabel fashion, we find a character struggling to remain human in the midst of de-humanization, crisis, and humilliation. And not just any character, a poet. There is always the notion that tragedy and comedy, fun and pain, are inseparable and his life is irrefutable testament to it. Javier Bardem's performance is very powerful, sefless, and beautiful. There are appearances by other actors, more famous than he was at the time, but this is clearly his film.
  • February 17, 2009
    Quite a difficult one to rate, as the acting was superb, whilst the film was long and drawn out. Great narration throughout by Javier Bardem, which worked well and he, as always was very impressive.

    The story of Reinaldo Arenas? life is certainly an interesting one, but the f...( read more)ilm does take some perseverance.

    A very small role here for Johnny Depp and an even smaller (almost unrecognisable) role for Sean Penn.
  • September 30, 2008
    an interesting but fairly run-of-the-mill biopic. it seems to only scrape the surface of the life of reinaldo's life. the cameos from depp and penn are almost laughable.
  • May 31, 2008
    Glimpses of cinematographic brilliance in the opening sequences, a la Terrence Mallick, do not prevent the film from meandering into mediocrity in the 2nd and 3rd acts. Also be warned that certain scenes in the film are reminiscent of Schnabel's most recent ("Diving Bell") film i...( read more)n terms of inescapable misery and claustrophobia.

    Terrific acting by Javier Bardem who should have won an Academy award for this movie. Better still were cameos by Sean Penn playing a Cuban farmer and Johnny Depp in the twin roles of a transvestite and jail warden.
  • November 19, 2009
    It has Johnny Depp in it of course I want to see it.
  • November 2, 2009
    Malgré sa superbe réalisation, Schnabel peine à conserver notre attention avec cette histoire qui en évoque tant d'autres sans nécessairement se distinguer malgré de beaux moments et de bons interprètes.
  • October 31, 2009
    Based on Reinaldo Arenas life, a writer that was a supporter of the communist revolution, but later rebelled against it.
    Sounded interesting, but it was not, I found myself frequently drifting, and thinking of anyting else, but the movie. The main reason was the pacing, but not ...( read more)the sole reason. I think the screenplay had a lot of "holes" in it.
    Reinaldo Arenas sexuality takes central stage in this movie, yes was important to the story, but the movie goes on and on about it, and to be honest his "fighting" against the regime was, at least according to what was on the screen, meagre. He rebelled against Castro, ok. In what way was that? Sleeping with as much men as he could, that corresponding with his words. The same idea is found in Orwell's "1984", hm...
    His position is never displayed (joke aside), but only a brief disscusion with a fellow literati, in rest is more or less implied.
    Another aspect that didn't seem to fit was his relationship with his mother. She's a big part of his life, the thing is she's never present or contacted. I didn't understand it and at some point I stop caring.
    Reinaldo had one thing in mind, he was a sybarite, his pleasure came first.
    The movie lacks coherence in story and the characters, or I should say character, because the others are very one dimension-like.
    Javier Bardem brings some sympathy with a strong performance, and Johnny Depp presence was appealing, but couldn't save this movie.
  • October 27, 2009
    Linda história. Javier Bardem está maravilhoso, como sempre!
  • October 22, 2009
    Creepy! Javier Bardem and Johnny perform well opposite each other! Even though Johnny is in drag!

Critic Reviews


June 4, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

In uniting to honor Arenas, Bardem and Schnabel create something extraordinary. full review

February 2, 2001
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Arenas is not presented as a cliche, as the heroic gay artist crushed by totalitarian straightness, but as a man who might have been approximately as unhappy no matter where he was born. full review

View more Before Night Falls reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • Ish678
    December 12, 2006
    Getting Johnny Depp to play Bon Bon was an inspired choice! He is hilarious in that very small role - and worryingly he was a convincing lady too! Well, once he'd had a shave anyway Haha
    It's a good movie with a meaningful underlying message. But I couldn't really get into to it.

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