BEFORE NIGHT FALLS

Peter Keough

Julian Schnabel, whose overlooked first film, Basquiat, roughly captured the torment and vision of the tragic '80s painter of the title, made this true story of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, who's played with utter conviction and disarming playfulness by Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Arenas had the triple misfortune to be a lover of beauty, a lover of freedom, and a lover of men in Castro's Cuba. Born into abject rural poverty and recognized early on as one of the country's best writers, he was passed over nonetheless by the powers that be and through the '60s and '70s got deeper into trouble with the authorities for his uncompromising prose, lifestyle, and attitude. He smuggled manuscripts out and won awards in other countries, but in Cuba he was hounded and imprisoned. He escaped to the US in the 1980 Mariel boatlift; 10 years later he died in poverty and obscurity, a victim of AIDS. Schnabel and Bardem capture their hero's indomitable spirit and imagination through Arenas's own words, startling images, and a layered free-associative narrative that imitates the workings of memory and experience. Night re-creates and vindicates not just this tragic Cuban writer's soul but everyone's.