Before Night Falls

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140.241.225.100

I caught this one in LA a couple weeks ago; now that it's in general release, I'll say a couple things. The director Julian Schnabel is a painter with one movie (Basquiet) already under his belt. Apparently he is largely concerned with gay people, and the protagonist here -- Reinaldo Arenas, a late Cuban poet -- is one too. HOWEVER: There are no pornographic sequences, nothing even close; the narrative more closely follows the guy's *artistic* development, and insofar as it succeeds at that task to a degree far, far greater than any other movie, it's well worth seeing. In fact it's cut rather too episodically for my taste, but hey! In a certain respect it carves whole new territory.
To wit, Arenas was openly homosexual and in the early days of the Revolution that was cool, but as Castro tightened his grip on the island the sexual openmindedness proved temporary and soon Arenas found himself followed, frisked, detained and finally imprisoned. this movie's portrayal of the Communist regime as brutal thugs has never been seen in American media before. Quite the thing.
Johnny Depp takes a couple roles, but is so chillingly, hauntingly FRIGGIN' GREAT that he actually detracts from the story. Javier Bardem, a leading Spanish actor, captures the spirit and looks terrific -- too good, really; when he is called to run around in Speedos (in which he's hauled off to jail once), you see the body of an athlete, not a poet. Unreal.
About that poetry: It sucks. Anyway in the English translations offered. You'd think someone would have been more sensitive to language...
clark

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Topic - Before Night Falls - clarkjohnsen 13:57:55 02/06/01 (1)

Thanks for the review! - TAFKA Steve 20:12:33 02/06/01 (0)

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