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 Before Night Falls (DVD)
 Before Night Falls (DVD) ... released 22 May, 2001 at New Line Home Video / Features of the DVD: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC / 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 ShannonNewest Review: ... but its autobiography which shows a little bit about childhood of Arenas and then focuses on his life after Cuban revolution. ... more ... I can say this movie proceeds like an episode showing the story of writer and what is going around him. Movie presents a sharp picture on imposed Arenas. He matured as a poet and author, and start working on outstanding novels. His writing power pulls up the poverty of life and brings emotions to the depths. His work his based on natural beauty. This is one side of the movie and other side of the movie shows his gay lifestyle and his homosexual introduction. Movie is sometimes inspirational if you think that way, ...more |
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Price Comparison for Before Night Falls (DVD)
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Before Night Falls [DVD] [2000] [Region 1][US Import] [NTSC]
Based on the posthumously published memoir by Cuban poet Reinaldo ... Last Update 22.12.2009 05:45
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£ 6.06 |
   
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Before Night Falls (DVD): Before Night Falls (1068 words)
by - written on 23/04/09 (Very useful, 95 readings)
Rating:
Before night falls is a biography/ drama released in year 2000. Film is based on autobiography, written by Reinaldo Arenas. Movie is directed by Julian Schnabel and screenplay was written by Cunningham O'Keefe, Schnabel and Lazaro Gomez Carriles. Movie is a story of Cuban author who get into trouble because of his writing and spends his life in poverty. Javier Bardem was nominated for the Oscar for Best actor and film was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in year 2000. Star Cast: Javier Bardem portrays Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban author and central character of the movie Oliver Martinez plays a role of Lazaro Gomez Carriles. Johnny Depp ... Read the complete review
A Shattered Dream of a Cuban Poet (1204 words)
by - written on 11/02/09 (Very useful, 279 readings)
Rating:
Before Night Falls was the second feature film from New York modern artist turned filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who had made his name with his 1996 directional debut, Basquiat, about the Manhattan graffiti artist who rose from homelessness to fame before sinking into madness. Much the same territory is covered in Before Night Falls. Based on the posthumously published memoir by Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, the film is an episodic examination of the exiled author's life, from his childhood to his death in New York City. Arenas was born into crushing poverty in pre-Castro Cuba and, from a young age, had according to his teacher, a gift for poetry. When ... Read the complete review
by - written on 24/03/02
Rating:
Im up to date on everything I want to see on mainstream VHS so I thought would have a look at some highly acclaimed foreign stuff with a sprinkling of Hollywood in the world cinema section. This one was nominated in last years round of awards including best international picture at the Oscars. The first plus is the barnstorming lead performance by Javier Borden as the true life acclaimed handsome Cuban poet Renaldo Arenas. I don?t think I have seen better since Liam Neeson in Shindlers List. The movie is a biopic from youth to manhood of the famous Latin gay poet/writer growing up in post war Havana and all the revolutionary connertations of being ... Read the complete review
by - written on 30/07/01
Rating:
It was good and I really enjoyed it. The action was great and the love scenes were fantastic. The acting was good and all the guns and special effects were good. I went to the cinema with my friends to see this film and it was good. If you like good films you should see this because it was good. The lighting and music were good and the whole film was good. It was good. It was quite good. ... Read the complete review
Before Night Falls (DVD): Poetry in motion? (633 words)
by - written on 21/07/01 (Very useful, 46 readings)
Rating:
Before Night Falls Certificate: 18 Being a big film fan, I watch a fair few movies, and although on the whole I often stick to the mainstream Hollywood blockbusters, from time to time I like to take in something a little different in the hop of surprising myself with an unexpected classic. Being very different, the film 'Before Night Falls' is almost a biographical look at the life of the poet Reinaldo Arenas, who if I am totally honest, I had never heard of prior to watching this movie! With that remarkable fact in mind, it was hardly surprising that I held little hope for this film. In a very elegant and at times lifelike ... Read the complete review
Before Night Falls (DVD) : it was goodfrom
30/07/2001
Before Night Falls (DVD) : Poetry in motion?from Welshlad
21/07/2001
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