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
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DVD Release Date: May 22, 2001
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Stats: 924 reviews
Flixster Reviews (924)
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September 22, 2009A 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!
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August 11, 2009The 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)
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February 17, 2009Quite 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) -
September 30, 2008an 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.
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May 31, 2008Glimpses 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)
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November 2, 2009Malgré 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.
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October 31, 2009Based 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) -
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October 22, 2009Creepy! Javier Bardem and Johnny perform well opposite each other! Even though Johnny is in drag!
Critic Reviews
June 4, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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
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December 12, 2006Getting 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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