Critic's View
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 15, 2008
Before Night Falls
World Movies, 10.50pmJavier Bardem's funny and unaffected depiction of Cuba's dissident poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas won him the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, as well as nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe. It's quite a haul for a film which strays so far from the well-beaten tracks of commercial movie-making that its director, Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell And The Butterfly), was forced to finance it himself. Taking Arenas's autobiography as its starting point, most of the story is there, from Arenas's country childhood to his escape from Cuba in 1980 and his final years in New York. But your sense of time is distorted, and amid the parade of friends, mentors, persecutors and lovers drifting in and out of his life, it's hard to get a handle on those who really matter or what his work is like. Yet even amid these distractions, Bardem (pictured on left) keeps you tuned in. Send us your view on a TV show: thelist@smh.com.au.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald