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IMDbPro

Before Night Falls

  • 20002000
  • RR
  • 2h 13m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
26K
YOUR RATING
Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls (2000)
Theatrical Trailer from Fine Line
Play trailer2:16
1 Video
83 Photos
BiographyDramaRomance
The life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.The life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.The life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
26K
YOUR RATING
    • Julian Schnabel
  • Writers
    • Cunningham O'Keefe
    • Lázaro Gómez Carriles
    • Julian Schnabel
  • Stars
    • Javier Bardem
    • Johnny Depp
    • Olatz López Garmendia
    • Julian Schnabel
  • Writers
    • Cunningham O'Keefe
    • Lázaro Gómez Carriles
    • Julian Schnabel
  • Stars
    • Javier Bardem
    • Johnny Depp
    • Olatz López Garmendia
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 141User reviews
    • 60Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar

    Videos1

    Before Night Falls
    Trailer 2:16
    Watch Before Night Falls

    Photos83

    Javier Bardem, Andrea Di Stefano, and Santiago Magill in Before Night Falls (2000)
    Johnny Depp in Before Night Falls (2000)
    Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls (2000)
    Johnny Depp and Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls (2000)
    Johnny Depp in Before Night Falls (2000)
    Before Night Falls (2000)
    Javier Bardem and Olivier Martinez star as Reinaldo & Azaro
    Cuco and a teenage Reinaldo
    Andrea Di Stefano at an event for Before Night Falls (2000)
    Barbara Eden at an event for Before Night Falls (2000)
    Barbara Eden at an event for Before Night Falls (2000)
    Javier Bardem at an event for Before Night Falls (2000)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Javier Bardem
    Javier Bardem
    • Reinaldo Arenas
    Johnny Depp
    Johnny Depp
    • Bon Bon…
    Olatz López Garmendia
    Olatz López Garmendia
    • Reinaldo's Mother
    • (as Olatz Lopez Garmendia)
    Giovani Florido
    Giovani Florido
    • Young Reinaldo
    Loló Navarro
    • Reinaldo's Grandmother
    Batan Silva
    Batan Silva
    • Reinaldo's Father
    • (as Sebastián Silva)
    Carmen Beato
    Carmen Beato
    • Teacher
    Cy Schnabel
    • Smallest School Child
    • (as Cy)
    Olmo Schnabel
    Olmo Schnabel
    • Smallest School Child
    Vito Schnabel
    Vito Schnabel
    • Teenage Reinaldo
    • (as Vito Maria Schnabel)
    Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
    Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
    • Reinaldo's Grandfather
    • (as Pedro Armendáriz)
    Diego Luna
    Diego Luna
    • Carlos
    Lia Chapman
    • Lolin
    Sean Penn
    Sean Penn
    • Cuco Sanchez
    Jerzy Skolimowski
    Jerzy Skolimowski
    • Professor
    Aquiles Benites
    • Translator
    Ewa Piaskowska
    Ewa Piaskowska
    • Pretty Blonde Student
    Patricia Reyes Spíndola
    Patricia Reyes Spíndola
    • María Teresa Freye de Andrade
      • Julian Schnabel
    • Writers
      • Cunningham O'Keefe
      • Lázaro Gómez Carriles
      • Julian Schnabel
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Almost every scene, according to Guillermo Rosas, was photographed with a chocolate-colored filter on the camera lens. This contributed a great deal to the distinctive colors and textures in the film, especially the skin tones, and the vibrancy in green hues.
    • Quotes

      Reinaldo Arenas: Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers. Past buildings that you jump to avoid because they will fall on you. Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you. Past closed shops, closed markets, closed cinemas, closed parks, closed cafes. Sometimes showing dusty signs, justifications: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION," "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS." What kind of repairs? When will these so-called renovations be finished? When at last will they begin? Closed... closed... closed... everything closed. I arrive, open the countless padlocks and run up the temporary stairs. There she is, waiting for me. I pull off the cover, and stare at her dusty, cold shape. I clean off the dust and caress her. With my hand, delicately, I wipe clean her back, her base and her sides. In front of her, I feel desperate and happy. I run my fingers over her keyboard and suddenly it all starts up. With a tinkling sound the music begins, little by little, then faster; now full speed. Walls, trees, streets, cathedrals, faces and beaches. Cells, mini- cells, huge cells. Starry nights, bare feet, pines, clouds. Hundreds, thousands, millions of parrots. A stool, a climbing plant, they all answer my call, all come to me. The walls recede, the roof vanishes, and you float quite naturally. You float uprooted, dragged off, lifted high. Transported, immortalized, saved. Thanks to that subtle, continuous rhythm, that music, that incessant tap-tap.

    • Alternate versions
      The UK version is cut by 18 secs to remove a shot of a live bird caught in a noose.
    • Connections
      Edited from P.M. (1961)
    • Soundtracks
      El Que Siembra Su Maiz
      Written by Miguel Matamoros

      Performed by Trio Matamoros

      Published by Peer International Corp.

      Courtesy of Discos Revuelta SADECV

    User reviews141

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Engaging, poetic, touching bio-pic about Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas.
    Incredible central performance from Javier Bardem ties the film together and makes you really care what happens. Great supporting players: Sean Penn has one incredible scene early on, who had us convinced he was Cuban. We didn't at all recognise him. Johnny Depp plays two small parts, but two very memorable ones. Growly-voiced Michael Wincott (played the bad guy in The Crow and Along Came a Spider and The Doors' manager in The Doors) is memorable. Andrea di Stefano is great as a central antagonist of Reinaldo, as is the now-Hollywood-famous Olivier Martinez who plays a touching, platonic friend to Reinaldo.

    Beautifully photographed and directed in an admirable manner that draws attention to style every now and then in a poetic way very fitting for a bio-pic about a poet, and at other times just utilises style to tells the story very well, and seem not to be fussing about style at all.

    There are scenes here where the sound effects track stops and this gorgeous cello music by Carter Burwell (composer of Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Man who Wasn't There, with another beautiful score) plays while we watch Bardem sitting in a club while people dance around him, and the music tells us he is far away. It is a wonderful scene, akin to Kurosawa's use of music in the brilliant burning of the first castle scene in Ran.

    The way the camera tells this story was so marvellous and slick (though using rough camera work to tell moments of uneasiness, importantly this is not over-used as it was in the recent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) that i knew the filmmaker had been influenced by American filmmaking, but throughout i had no idea the guy actually WAS American! The TV program misleadingly told us it was a Cuban movie (which it is not - it is an American production with Spanish, Cuban and American actors)

    I'm even more shocked considering this is the guy who made Basquiat, which i always thought was more a tele-movie, and more about art than about movie-style. Julian Schnabel, i now learn, was a neo-expressionist painter in the 80's! Basquiat, about an artist, perhaps was a movie where he was making the transition between art-language and movie-language. Before Night Falls uses traditional storytelling, to be sure, but it has such a spellbinding cinematic quality i felt sure its director was one with cinema on the brain. Perhaps Schnabel has caught the bug after all.
    helpful•35
    9
    • Ben_Cheshire
    • Apr 25, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 23, 2001 (United States)
      • United States
      • Mexico
      • New Line
      • English
      • Spanish
      • Russian
      • French
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico
    • Production companies
      • El Mar Pictures
      • Grandview Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 2 hours 13 minutes
      • Dolby Digital

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