Review of Before Night Falls (2000) by Helen L — 17 May 2011

Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls".

(From January 2001) Within a span of seven days, I've had the opportunity to watch two autobiographical films, "Pollock" and "Before Night Falls". The first is a look at the life of self destructive painter Jackson Pollock while the latter is about exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas.

As in "Pollock", I made an effort to read up on Reinaldo Arenas' life prior to watching the film in order that going in, I have just about enough knowledge about the lives of the two protagonists so that I am more able to focus on the film itself. I found the narrative in "Before Night Falls" to be richer with the characterizations having more texture than "Pollock".

Javier Bardem gives a dynamic and electrifying performance. He showed a wide range of emotions and considers his performance much more challenging than that of Ed Harris.

With this type of subject matter, the film could have easily been a by-the-numbers account of Arenas' life. Instead, under Julian Schnabel's direction and camera work, he paints a bigger picture of the life of an artist with some mesmerizing passages and beautiful poetry. One such example is the scene where Arenas and a friend finally make it to the United States under a snowy sky. One is not only able to see the freedom being experienced by the two characters but, instead, one can almost taste it.

Another powerful scene is when Arenas was being interrogated by a cruel Army lieutenant played by Johnny Depp. Faced with the possibility that he might be killed, the emotions that come out of Bardem are just about as honest and gripping as they can get.

The film is based on Arenas' memoir of the same name. It takes us from his early childhood living in poverty, his love of literature as an adolescent, his sexual awakening, his early pro-Castro Cuba sentiments, which would later turn into repression and persecution by that same government because of his sexual orientation and writings, his exile into the United States and his death from AIDS ten years later.

This is by no means a perfect film. When the story shifted to the United States, it felt a little bit rushed and fragmented. Nevertheless, this is a very minor complaint and this artistic choice was probably made in order to keep the film's running time well below the 2 ?1/2 hour mark and still be palatable for most audiences. Such as it is, this is probably the less viewed film with a Best Actor Oscar nominated performance in it.

In depicting the harsh realities of human emotion under the clouds of repression and persecution, no other film is more honest this year than "Before Night Falls". It is a provocative and powerful film about human rights with a very strong central performance.