By
Graig Uhlin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Grade: A-
In a memorable scene from Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls," Johnny Depp plays a prison-fly transvestite named Bon Bon who, through creative use of his, well, ass, manages to smuggle the entirety of a novel out of jail.
The lesson is clear - artistic expression comes neither easily nor cleanly.
This is the central theme behind Schnabel's new film which recounts the life of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem) who faced persecution for his anti-fascist writings and his homosexuality at the hands of the Castro regime.
Arenas, as Schnabel posits him, is a man destined to express himself, both artistically and sexually. He carves his poems into the bark of trees. He taps furiously and endlessly at his typewriter. He steals glances at naked men swimming in a nearby river - this film, for the record, has more male frontal nudity than any other in recent or distant memory, which stands as an example of its commitment to free expression. He sleeps with countless men. Although the film itself only shows brief sexual interludes, the real-life Arenas claimed to have slept with 5,000 men by age 25.
Arenas, in short, is all about letting it all hang out.
But if that's true, the film is all about his oppressors wanting him to put it back in - embodied in one scene by his father's slammed fist when a teacher visits his home to tell his parents of his poetic talents.
The story of Arenas' life is thus the story of the struggle of artistry and sexuality to find opportunities for their expression in the face of extreme adversity. Arenas has to smuggle his novels out of Cuba - once through visiting French artists and another time, through Bon Bon's aforementioned unique storage capabilities. He has to hide his homosexuality from the public sphere for fear of incarceration - Arenas does indeed end up in prison.
Schnabel, in this regard, establishes artistry as the most admirable virtue. It is the vehicle of truth and its creators are heroes among men. Art is good. Art is life. Art is, yeah, all that cool stuff. Schnabel makes no pretenses about hiding his reverence for art in the film - that is, after all, the point of his film. He explores the way that oppressive structures can work diligently to silence the voices of artists, and while they may temporarily succeed, only art lasts forever.
Moreover, Schanbel does not simply villainize Castro's oppressive communism. He does not depict Cuba as a suffocating environment that one must escape from in order to have artistic and sexual freedom. In fact, he does quite the opposite. In his lush landscapes and unabashed romanticization of Cuban culture - with extended scenes in slow motion even - Schnabel shows that it is only fascism that stifles creativity in a country where it would normally flourish.
Further, Schnabel is an equal opportunity critic. When Arenas finally escapes from Cuba in 1980, and later moves to New York City, he finds that capitalism is similarly oppressive, until by the film's end, he, suffering from AIDS, commits suicide in his Manhattan apartment. The final scene, shot in real-time, not only saves the film from overwrought sentimentality, but also demonstrates the tenacity of the artist's voice to fall silent.
"Before Night Falls" is a remarkable achievement. Oscar-nominated Bardem delivers a brave, subtle performance, steering clear of gay stereotypes, while also bringing a fragility to a character who faces overwhelming adversity. The film itself is artistry at its near best, and remains true to its purpose - the right of humanity to freely express itself both artistically and sexually.
