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Beauty not enough for this long winded drama
by Stephen Wong
One of the most difficult subjects for a filmmaker to cover is the life of an artist. The reason being,
an artist’s true passion and beauty lies in their work, not their life. The filmmaker must somehow balance
the portrayal of the artist with that of his art. It is the common dilemma that has plagued films in
this genre from the beginning. Those who usually come out smelling like roses are the filmmakers who choose
artists whose works are so strangely entwined with their way of life that the balance is no longer needed.
Successes include Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb, Milos Forman’s Amadeus and most recently Ed Harris’ Pollock.
With that said, we come to Julian Schnabel’s acclaimed film Before Night Falls, a work bursting with beauty and
poetry, but like a ship that’s lost its way on a splendid voyage, eventually find itself dead in the water.
Based on the best-selling autobiography of the extraordinary life of Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas,
the film follows his childhood of poverty in 1940s Cuba, through his persecution by the communist regime as a
political dissident and homosexual, to his tragic finish, as an exile living in New York City.
The film plays out more like a dreamscape that dips in and out of Arenas’ consciousness, from beautiful
poetic visions of Cuban freedom to the harsh realities of life as a persecuted homosexual in communist Cuba.
Schnabel’s most beautiful scenes involve Arenas (played to perfection by Academy Award nominated Javier Bardem)
thirsting for sexual freedom in the socially repressed Cuba. The cinematography is exquisite, turning the natural
backdrop of Cuba into a brilliant painting canvas, as Schnabel focuses on the heavy, strong colors of both water
and the forests.
But there’s something about Before Night Falls that just doesn’t translate. The sequences are slow and
deliberately drawn out, but so much so that Schnabel gradually loses his grip with the audience.
Eventually, the characters in Arenas’ life become inconsequential to the film as a whole, through
either a lack of development or simply from the muted pace of the film. Though Arenas’ tragic life
is a gut-wrenching tale of creativity and will overcoming oppression, by the time Before Night Falls
reaches its conclusion in New York City, I felt myself completely distanced from the film. Before Night
Falls is one of those films that I truly wanted to like. Sadly, after two hours and 13 minutes that seemed
more like twelve, I too was simply lost.
Stephen Wong, 2001
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