Before Night Falls

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.

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80% liked it

Critics

74% liked it

R, 2 hrs. 5 min.

Directed by: Julian Schnabel

Released: December 22, 2000

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DVD Released: May 22, 2001

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Top Flixster Reviews


  • 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 )
  • November 16, 2008
    Poetry can be interesting and poetry can be poetry. This movie is poetry. It movies very slooooowly and the deaths are very peaceful but it has a purpose: It expresses the rights of the gay man. Other than Bardem's performance and Schnabel's directing I don't think this movie was... ...( read more )
  • 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 )
  • May 30, 2008
    The kind of film you watch to remember why Bardem is a great actor. Also, probably the last good film that Johnny Depp made.
  • June 20, 2009
    I liked this so much that I read every book by Arenas in English available... yes, every one of them. Amazing performance by Javier Bardem and crazy cameo by Johnny Depp!

Critic Reviews


View more Before Nig... reviews at RottenTomatoes.com
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

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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