Before Night Falls [Blu-ray]

Director: Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel

Overview

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 writer -- no easy task, considering the Castro regime's censorship of any work considered to be subversive or anti-authoritarian. Still, the author manages to smuggle his work out of the country through friends, who arrange for one of his novels to be published in France. Not only persecuted for his creative beliefs, the openly gay Arenas is jailed on a bogus sex charge; he escapes internment only to be captured and persecuted later for his contraband dispatches. In 1980, Arenas is finally allowed to leave Cuba for the United States, where he achieves freedom of expression but not prosperity. Schnabel's first film was another portrait of an artist, 1996's Basquiat; Bardem made his name in several of director Pedro Almodovar's Spanish-language productions. Before Night Falls premiered at the 2000 Venice Film Festival, where it received the Best Actor and Grand Special Jury prizes, and made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bardem would go on to receive a host of accolades, including an eventual Best Actor nomination at the 2001 Academy Awards.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/24/2023
UPC:	0810134943322
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	R
Language:	English
Time:	2:13:00
Sales rank:	17,781

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Javier Bardem	Reinaldo Arenas
Olivier Martinez	Lazara Gomez Carriles
Hector Babenco	Virgilio Pinera
Johnny Depp	Lt. Victor/Bon Bon
Andrea Di Stefano	Pepe Malas
Sean Penn	Cuco Sanchez
Michael Wincott	Heberto Zorilla Ochoa
Olatz Lopez Garmendia	Reinaldo's Mother
Vito Maria Schnabel	Teenage Reinaldo,Actor
Najwa Nimri	Fina Zorilla Ochoa
Jerzy Skolimowski	Professor
Sebastian Silva	Reinaldo's Father
Pedro Armendariz Jr.	Reinaldo's Grandfather
Pedro Armendariz, Jr.	Reinaldo's Grandfather
Carter Burwell	Composer

Technical Credits

Julian Schnabel

Cunningham O'Keefe

Lázaro Gómez Carriles

Julian Schnabel	Director,Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Cunningham O'Keefe	Screenwriter
Lázaro Gómez Carriles	Screenwriter
Jon Kilik	Producer
Christian Wangler	Sound/Sound Designer