Before Night Falls (2001)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 72 | Rotten: 26
An impressionistic, fragmented look at Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls' imagery manages to evoke a sense of the writer's artistry, and Bardem's strong performance holds the film together. Finally, a biopic done well.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 30
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 2
An impressionistic, fragmented look at Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls' imagery manages to evoke a sense of the writer's artistry, and Bardem's strong performance holds the film together. Finally, a biopic done well.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
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Movie Info
For his sophomore feature film effort, visual artist Julian Schnabel chronicles the life of one of Cuba's most charismatic literary voices, the late Reinaldo Arenas. Working with Arenas' friends and family, Schnabel recounts the author's impoverished rural upbringing and the intense love and support he receives from his mother (played by the director's wife, Olatz Lopez Garmendia). As a young man, Arenas (Javier Bardem) is singled out by his teachers and encouraged to further his skills as a
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Cast
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Javier Bardem
Reinaldo Arenas -
Olivier Martinez
Lazaro Gomez Carriles -
Andrea Di Stefano
Pepe Malas -
Johnny Depp
Bon Bon, Lieutenant Vic... -
Sean Penn
Cuco Sanchez -
Michael Wincott
Herberto Zorilla Ochoa -
Najwa Nimri
Fina Correa -
Hector Babenco
Virgilio Pinera -
Vito Maria Schnabel
Teenage Reinaldo -
Olatz Lopez Garmendia
Reinaldo's Mother -
Jerzy Skolimowski
Professor -
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All Critics (114) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (73) | Rotten (26) | DVD (16)
In uniting to honor Arenas, Bardem and Schnabel create something extraordinary.
Top CriticClearly this is Bardem's show. And Bardem walks away with it.
It's a struggle not just to make art but to exist, which is itself an art. And to that goal, the cast members, led by the astonishing Bardem, allow themselves to be devoured by the roles they are playing.
Though Schnabel's first picture, Basquiat, was notable for its excess and self-indulgence, the filmmaker shows restraint and maturity in this moving depiction of Arenas's life and loves.
Soulful, deeply moving.
This could have been a compelling movie about a wonderful writer, but instead it's a tedious, pointless mess. After spending over 2 hours with Arenas, I still knew nothing about him. Javier Bardem's great performance seemed to be a complete waste.
One of the first features about Castro's impact on artists and homosexuals, this biopic is well acted by Bardem
"Before Night Falls" exuberantly portrays a writer whose legacy remains an acutely observant childhood spirit that no perversion of politics could break. Javier Bardem blends the swagger of Robert Downey Jr. and the brooding of a young Al Pacino.
Schabel's most recent work fails to move me. While the story of Reinaldo Arenas is tragic enough to be interesting (and Javier Bardem's performance sympathetic) the film as a whole simply seems long and indulgent.
despite a real commitment to Arenas and his work, the film just falls short.
Saddled with a wandering opening and an equally listless conclusion, a more fitting name for this two hour-plus biopic might well be Before Night Falters.
The cinematography is beautiful and clearly shows the director's artistic bent, but the storytelling is often disjointed. . . . Ultimately, Before Night Falls is more successful as a Javier Bardem showcase than a movie.
[Bardem] simply does what the script calls for him to do, which is basically sustain a look of pain for two-hours plus.
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Foreign Titles
- Avant la nuit (FR)
Schnabel and lead actor Javier Bardem worked together beautifully to bring this man's story to life. Bardem is radiant with the joy of a young gay man coming out of the closet and feeling love for the first time. I presume Bardem is straight. To see a straight man find it with himself to feel this is tonic for the soul. Schnabel I believe is also straight. For two straight men to come together to tell the story of this flamboyant gay man and to do it in such a tender and loving way truly amazes.
Some straight men really can feel deep in their soul the anguish and gladness of gay men. Astonishing.
The only sadness to me is that in the past decade Schnabel has not been able to produce more work of this caliber. But we still owe him a real debt of gratitude for giving us this treasure. And my appreciation for Bardem just keeps getting greater. He is moving near the top of my list of Greatest Male Screen Actors in the World. He's got Marlon Brando in him, mixed with a delight in the world that reminds me at times of a butterfly. What an extraordinary mixture. It's as if he's both straight and gay.