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Before Night Falls [2001] [DVD]
 
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Before Night Falls [2001] [DVD]

DVD ~ Javier Bardem
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Frequently Bought Together

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Before Night Falls [2001] [DVD]
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Before Night Falls [2001] [DVD] 4.1 out of 5 stars (11)
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Product details

  • Actors: Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, Olatz López Garmendia, Giovanni Florido, Loló Navarro
  • Directors: Julian Schnabel
  • Writers: Julian Schnabel, Cunningham O'Keefe, Jana Bokova, Lázaro Gómez Carriles, Reynaldo Arenas
  • Producers: Julian Schnabel, Jon Kilik
  • Format: PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English, French, Russian, Spanish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 5 Aug 2002
  • Run Time: 128 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000067NPE
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,697 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on the posthumously published memoir by Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls is artist-director Julian Schnabel's second exercise in artist biography, but where Schnabel's earlier film Basquiat was relatively conventional, this film is bolder in both style and execution. Schnabel is perhaps too enamoured of his subject as a noble martyr, lending the film a somewhat inflated sense of importance. Still, it's rare to see an artist's life and work so elegantly interwoven, and Before Night Falls uses all of Arenas's life as its canvas, from impoverished youth to lively gay freedom in mid-1950's Cuba; imprisonment during Castro's antigay regime; and to New York City in 1980, followed by Arenas's battle with AIDS and subsequent suicide (depicted here as assisted) in 1990.

Through these extreme rises and falls, Arenas is always writing; his typewriter his most faithful lover and weapon (by way of smuggled manuscripts) against the dark forces that surround him. As Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, Arenas is "a serious actor's dream role: to be a gay Jesus in a modern Passion Play," and Javier Bardem--the first Spanish actor to receive an Oscar nomination--inhabits the role with subtle ferocity, charting this emotional odyssey with outer reserve but blazing infernos of internal passion. While Schnabel suffers from a hyperactive camera, there's poetry here--visual, dramatic, and literal--and vibrant humour to temper the deep tragedy of Arenas's life. Schnabel also uses his actor friends to good advantage: a nearly unrecognizable Sean Penn adds an ironic touch to his brief appearance as a peasant, and Johnny Depp is both funny and fearsome in dual roles as a drag queen and vicious army interrogator. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
A look at the life of the brilliant Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas, from his poverty-stricken childhood to his prosecution, torture and exile from Fidel Castro's Cuba.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars colorful, multi-layered and richly-textured, 16 Jan 2008
By H. Serkan SILAHSOR (Ankara, TURKEY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
A beautiful film in every terms: from outstanding cinematography to dazzling ambiance, from stirring performances to gripping theme. Having the bittersweet taste of an independent film, it defies categorization, grimly realistic and highly improvisational. What I particularly found captivating is its almost-documentary nature and realness, a razor-sharp realness disguised under character persona.

The film traces the chaotic life of Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas, from his unwanted birth in absolute poverty in Oriente to his death in NYC at the age of 47. Multi-layered and absorbing, the film follows a narrative-based episodic course and never gets bogged down in long and boring psychological analyses and free from any kind of unnecessary details. What's more, mercifully no moron-oriented Hollywood sentimentality is dragged in to undermine its effectiveness.

From the very beginning, ex neo-expressionist painter Julian Schnabel, famous for huge canvasses, imbues the film with vibrant colors and stylish "strokes". Everything begins with a highly artsy-craftsy scene which heralds the coming of the striking leitmotif: a close-up of a little boy, totally naked, playing with mud in a squalid hole surrounded by an incredible beauty. He's naked because he possesses no clothes; he's playing with mud because he owns no toys. From now on, his childhood in absolute poverty, his youthful idealism to join to rebels against Batista regime, the discovery of his writing talents as well as his homosexuality, his sufferings during repression and persecution period just after Cuban Revolution, his arrest and brutal imprisonement at El Morro, his escape to the U.S. during the 1980 Mariel Boatlifts and his last crash as the life is drained out of him in NYC, all told in a sense giving the taste of beauty and aesthetics of a poetry.

My only complaint is that although the main language of the film is English, some scenes are shot in English, some Cuban-Spanish. For a film with such helluva visual and emotional moments in exotic backdrops of Cuba, the spoken English moments are pointless and undercut the film's effectiveness. It would be better if the film was served entirely in Spanish.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, 25 Aug 2005
By A Customer
I haven't seen this for a while but I think its quite stunning. Its poignant, moving, interesting and humourous, tragic and shocking. The latter refers simply to the fact that Reinaldo Arenas' life ended in this suicide, when the film creates (in its portrayal of 1950's Cuba) a world almost before innocence lost! Obviously that might not make sense completely - But I mean it is portrayed as a vibrant, bright, free and easy world.
This contrasts strongly with the representation of Castro-era Communism.
I think the film, like the book, is just utterly moving and quite beautifully filmed. As well, it makes some important observations about the period in history and freedom from censorship, be it the banning of free media/authorship or the censorship of unwanted deviants from society.
If you haven't seen it, do so. You'll be proud to have it and see it again.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Transports You, 8 Aug 2004
By Westley (Stuck in my head) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
"Before Night Falls" recounts the incredible life of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, played with great sensitivity by Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Born a peasant in the 1930's, Arenas had the great misfortune of being a gay writer in a country that considered art and homosexuality to be counter-revolutionary. "Before Night Falls" is based on his memoir and relates his imprisonment in Cuba and subsequent exodus to the United States. Despite this persecution, Arenas' work flourished and was published widely, albeit mostly outside of Cuba.

Director Julian Schnabel is a well-known "neo-expressionist" painter; accordingly, he is able to bring an artist's understanding and sensibility to the story. His prior film was "Basquiat," about the 1980's graffiti artist. Although Schnabel seems to be limiting himself to portraits of artists, the two films are very disparate. Specifically, "Before Night Falls" is much grander in scope and incorporates more directorial flourishes than does "Basquiat." Despite the epic sweep of the film, Schnabel successfully tells Arenas' very personal and heart-rending story. Another major asset of the film is the cinematography and ambiance; vibrant colors and people populate the film. The viewer is transported to 1960s Cuba; you can feel the humidity and the pulse of the Mambo music.

Javier Bardem gives an astonishing performance, for which he deservedly received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor. For the role, he was required to learn Cuban-Spanish as well as English. The DVD extras include a 7 minute interview with Arenas, and it's apparent that Bardem nails the look and speech of the artist, without reverting to a simple impersonation. Although most of the actors are of Latin descent, two big American stars have small roles: Johnny Depp has hilarious joint roles as a Cuban transvestite and a Cuban general, and Sean Penn plays a peasant farmer, rather convincingly too. The only minor debit of the film is that it's a tad over-long and could have used a bit more editing. However, overall, "Before Night Falls" is a superb film that perfectly captures another time and another place. Most highly recommended.

Extras: The extras include an interesting commentary track with Schnabel and Bardem, a short behind-the-scenes documentary filmed by Schnabel's daughter, and an interview with Arenas conducted in 1984 after he immigrated to the U.S.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars One to see...
What can I say...
I saw this movie some years ago at a GLBT film festival in Copenhagen and it left images imprinted on my mind. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Jeep Tenk

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!
Julian Schnabel, a painter, has directed one of the most extraordinary films of recent times. I saw it in the theater on its initial release, and reccently watched it on DVD... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2007 by G. V. Cherian

5.0 out of 5 stars rich moving film about humanity
Having just watched this for the second time in a month, after having first taped it to help with my spanish studies (and because of the added bonus of Johnny Depp being in it! Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2005 by waterceltfire

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited appeal
I only watched this because i knew Johnny Depp had a small part in it. I didn't know what it was about and only knew that Depp played a drag queen. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Renaldo Arenas
Before Night Falls is a brilliant portrayal into to the life of cuban writer Renaldo Arenas. The movie is so powerful that after watching it it plays on your mind. Read more
Published on 7 April 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Before Night Falls
Loved the book but its the same old story the book is never like the movie. Loads from the book left out but still a deep disturbing film, well acted and filmed.
Published on 25 Sep 2003

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit too long..........
Ever since I saw edward scissorhands and sleepy hollow i realised who brilliant of an actor and Johnny Depp is and i soon came to realise as i watched more and more of his films... Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Biopic of Cuban writer.
Before Night Falls is the second film from artist Julian Schnabel (after another biopic of another homosexual artist- Basquiat), culled from the autobiography of the late Cuban... Read more
Published on 10 May 2003 by Jason Parkes

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