Before Night Falls (2000)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Julian Schnabel

Writers:

Cunningham O'Keefe (written by) &
Lázaro Gómez Carriles (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 January 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood...

Plot Keywords:

Novelist | Prison | Persecution | Cuba | Letter

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 11 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Olatz López Garmendia	...	Reinaldo's Mother (as Olatz Lopez Garmendia)
Giovanni Florido	...	Young Reinaldo (as Giovani Florido)
Loló Navarro	...	Reinaldo's Grandmother
Sebastián Silva	...	Reinaldo's Father
Carmen Beato	...	Teacher
Cy Schnabel	...	Smallest School Child (as Cy)
Olmo Schnabel	...	Smallest School Child
Vito Maria Schnabel	...	Teenage Reinaldo
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	Reinaldo's Grandfather (as Pedro Armendáriz)
Diego Luna	...	Carlos
Lia Chapman	...	Lolin
Sean Penn	...	Cuco Sanchez
Jerzy Skolimowski	...	Professor
Aquiles Benites	...	Translator
Eva Piaskowska	...	Pretty Blonde Student

Also Known As:

Antes que anochezca (USA: Spanish title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, some language and brief violence.

Runtime:

133 min | South Korea:123 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | Russian | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | UK:15 (cut) | Portugal:M/16 | Canada:14A (Ontario - 2006) | Finland:K-15 (2007) (self applied) (TV rating) | Finland:K-18 (2006) (self applied) (TV rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:18 | France:U | Peru:18 | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R | South Korea:15 (cut)

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Company:

El Mar Pictures

Trivia:

Almost every scene, according to Guillermo Rosas, was photographed with a chocolate-colored filter on the camera lens. The contributed a great deal to distinctive colors and textures in the film, especially the skin tones, and the vibrancy in green hues.

Quotes:

Reinaldo Arenas: Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers. Past buildings that you jump to avoid because they will fall on you. Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you. Past closed shops, closed markets, closed cinemas, closed parks, closed cafes. Sometimes showing dusty signs, justifcations: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION," "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS." What kind of repairs? When will these so-called renovations be finished? When at last will they begin? Closed...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Sean Hayes/Shaggy (#26.12)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Baton Rouge

In my top ten of all time.

BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, directed by Julian Schnabel is the best movie made since SCHINDLER'S LIST, and just might surpass it.

There is hardly anything I would change about this movie, it is in my mind as perfect as they could have made it. The only thing that could have been better was going deeper into Bardem's character, but I don't think that they really needed to, because like in OUT OF AFRICA, the character is not gone into very deeply, but the performance of Meryl Streep, or in this case Javier Bardem makes you feel like you know Arenas. The tiniest nuance is played out beautifully by Bardem, who had to learn Cuban Spanish and English with a cuban accent as well as gain a lot of weight, and probably hours of thought put into his performance.

The writing is amazing, going from one event to the other, more about the author and what happens around him than an actual basic plotline. The music is terrific and well chosen, and Burwell's original score is the best original music in film history. The cinematography is innovative and excellent, audiences have seen few examples of the photography used in this film.

And to top it all off, Julian Schanbel does a perfect job of directing, showing Arenas's life with a beautiful new narrative technique, while at the same time showing the contrast of the Revolution and it's events and the beautiful Cuban country. As in the memoir by Arenas, the film is seen through Arenas's eyes, and it is like the whole world is gay, in a sense, and it's fabulous. I also love how when showing the documentary footage, and Bardem read excerpts of Arenas's writing, it was spoken in Spanish, being true to the author's work, while the beautiful Burwell music played.

Granted, this film is not for everyone, in fact I expect ninety percent of people to detest it, but to me, it is an amazing movie that is one of the few to get a ten out of ten from myself.

Absolutely fabulous, but if you like a basic, clear plotline with rising events, climactic end, action, and humour that comes out as jokes and not just funny situations and such, you won't like it. In fact, as I said, I expect most people reading this not to like it, but to me, it may be in my top five, should've won best picture.