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Before Night Falls
July 26, 2008 at 12:30am ET / 9:30PT
Before Night Falls exposes the life of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, from his humble childhood to his complicated adulthood. Based on the autobiography of this controversial wordsmith, this film spotlights Arenas’ literary career and the persecution he endured due to his writing and homosexual lifestyle.
From early on in his life, Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem in an Oscar®-nominated role) created a stir with his writing and his penchant for male companionship. When a grade school teacher tells Arenas’ grandfather about the young boy’s talent, the elder relative reacts as though Arenas has committed the worst possible offense. As he gets older, Arenas’ written word and sexual preference make him a target for Fidel Castro’s homophobic and revolutionary regime. Since Arenas’ work was deemed anti-Castro, he understood that staying in his mother country would stifle his literary and personal freedom. In the film Arenas laments, “The revolution wasn’t for everybody.”
Through his journey, Arenas meets several people who change the course of his life. Lázaro Gómez Carriles (Olivier Martinez), a young man who refuses his advances at their first meeting, becomes one of his closest allies. But not all of Arenas’ acquaintances had his well-being in mind. Pepe Malas (Andrea Di Stefano) leaps from friend to foe when he betrays Arenas’ trust and jeopardizes the Cuban writer’s life.
Castro’s regime continues to mar Arenas’ existence as his manuscripts get confiscated and the writer himself gets incarcerated for his work and supposed deviant sexual behaviour. Arenas is coerced into rejecting his true self as a means of reforming himself both politically and sexually. When Castro allows homosexuals, criminals, and mentally disturbed people to leave Cuba via boat, the ostracized novelist decides to board it and start a new life in America.
Directed by Julian Schnabel, Before Night Falls traces the gritty circumstances plaguing the life and work of one of the most prolific writers of the Cuban literary set. Javier Bardem’s casting as Arenas is close to perfection – from the physical resemblance to the overall essence of the Cuban writer. Bardem’s performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Based on Reinaldo Arenas’ autobiography, the screenplay was written by Julian Schnabel, Cunningham O'Keefe, and Arenas friend, Lázaro Gómez Carriles.
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