Arenas’ complex life dissected in ‘Before Night Falls’

Max Jacobson

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

'Before Night Falls'

Grade: ****

Starring: Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano and Johnny Depp.

Screenplay: Cunningham O'Keefe, Lazaro Gomez Carilles and Julian Schnabel.

Director: Julian Schnabel.

Rated: R for strong sexual content, some language and brief violence.

Running time: 143 minutes.

"Before Night Falls" is the sophomore effort of the artist-turned-film director Julian Schnabel. The film represents a quantum leap from his initial effort, "Basquiat," a colorfully insubstantial film about a street artist. This is a mature and polished work, one that resonates long after you leave the theater.

It's a comprehensive biopic that chronicles the life of Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem), set against the pastiche of revolutionary Cuba. Every frame is filled with color and rhythm; the visual acuity of the director is never in doubt. The story, though, is as much about Arenas' persecution as a homosexual as it is about his art.

Persistent themes such as poverty, censorship, artistic freedom and freedom of sexual expression echo throughout the film, like ripples of water on a fetid pond.

Bardem, as Arenas, carries the film, and it's no accident that he has been nominated for Best Actor by the Academy this year. He may remind you of an Iberian Robert Downey Jr., and his performance, a combination of Spanish and English, is a real tour de force. He has a vulnerable quality, but above all, he is an actor who reeks of determination. And because of the broad sweep of years the film spans, he is called upon to undergo a variety of sweeping changes.

The story opens when Arenas is a child in the '50s, the son of an unfortunate mother who has been abandoned by an itinerant husband. Soon the family discovers the young Arenas has a gift for self expression, and later in 1958 he leaves home to join the rebels.

Castro, an all too real eminence grise in green fatigues, appears in clips throughout the film. As he rides triumphantly into Havana, the almost 20-year-old Reinaldo has been accepted into the University of Havana, where his writing talents blossom. The year is 1962.

Soon he publishes his first novel, "Singing From The Well," winning an Honorable Mention in a contest for young writers and attracting the attention of literati all over Cuba. This is also the time, however, when he discovers his sexuality. Arenas is seduced by a dynamic bisexual named Pepe Malas (Andrea Di Stefano), and soon falls into a crowd dominated by gay men.

Things go relatively well for him, but during the late '60s the Cuban government cracks down viciously on homosexuals and Arenas becomes an undesirable who runs afoul of the law. First he gets in trouble when he has his latest novel, "Hallucinations," smuggled out of Cuba.

Then in 1973 after an altercation on a public beach, Arenas' life turns into a nightmare, after he is falsely accused of molesting a pair of teenage thugs.

From there it is a slow descent into the maelstrom. Arenas is first confined to the dreaded El Morro prison, where he is held in solitary confinement until one of the prison officers (effectively played by the chameleonic Johnny Depp, who plays a dual role as a transsexual Arenas meets in prison) gets him to denounce his writing and support Castro.

And later in 1980 when Castro permits homosexuals, mental patients and criminals to leave Cuba in small boats, Arenas makes his way to the United States, where he leads the life of an exile and eventually dies of AIDS. "Before Night Falls," published in 1993, was his autobiography and the last of his 20 books.

This isn't always an easy film to watch, but it has a terrible beauty and powerful energy. Early in the film when Arenas is received by an admiring host, he is warned that, "Beauty can't be controlled, so it must disappear." That is largely what we see happen in Cuba, as the story slowly unfolds.

The film is never more effective that when Bardem reads (in English) prose written by Arenas, beautifully evocative stuff that vibrates to the base of your spine. "Before Night Falls" won't be everyone's cup of tea, though, because graphic depictions of gay life are so central to the story's theme.

But before Arenas is depicted as a homosexual or a writer, it is his humanity we confront, his struggle to breathe clear, clean air. Because of that, "Before Night Falls" must be considered, like any art of true importance, a work of universal relevance.