Back To Index Before Night Falls
 Barnes & Noble Overripe and intensely lyrical, Julian Schnabels second film is a fever dream of a biopic. Based on the memoir of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls chronicles the authors poverty-stricken childhood in rural Cuba, his artistic and sexual awakening in a Havana during the early, heady days of Castros revolution, and his eventual persecution by the Communist government, both for his writing and his homosexuality. The story, as rendered by Schnabel, is a gorgeous, pulsating swirl of images -- as dense and visceral as the directors infamous Neo-Expressionist paintings, Before Nightfall soars where the directors first feature, Basquiat, fell flat. Holding it all together is the wonderful Spanish actor Javier Bardem (High Heels), whose affecting, Oscar-nominated performance as Arenas supplies the film with an unshakable center of emotional gravity. Schnabel -- whose film is a vast improvement on his previous portrait of an artist, Basquiat -- takes liberties with his source material; in particular, he downplays the obsessive promiscuity that Arenas describes in his autobiography. This decision, along with some lapses in narrative clarity, makes the film less coherent than it might have been. Yet, it doesnt really matter. Before Night Falls is so visually seductive that it does justice to its subject in a way that few artist biopics do. The DVD edition includes an interview with the real Reinaldo Arenas. Kryssa Schemmerling Interested in the song lyrics? - Check out themostlyrics.com! Looking For A DVD? - Check out dvd-a-rama.com! |
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