Before Night Falls (2000)

Director
Julian Schnabel

Main cast
Diego Luna; Javier Bardem; Olivier Martinez; Andrea Di Stefano; Johnny Depp

Genres
Drama

Description
Spanning several decades, this powerful biopic offers a glimpse into the life of famed Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, an artist who was vilified for his homosexuality in Fidel Castro's Cuba.


Similar movies

A British mercenary arrives in pre-Revolution Cuba to help train the corrupt General Batista's army against Castro's guerrillas while he also romances a former lover now married to an unscrupulous plantation owner.
In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub owner to flee to New York.
Biography of Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his struggle against the corrupt Batista regime, eventually resulting in the overthrow of that government and Castro's taking over of Cuba. The film covers Guevara's life from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in an ambush by government troops in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967.
This Sequel to Dirty Dancing stars a hot young cast and has a sizzling style and rhythm all of its own. In pre-revolution Cuba, Katey Miller (Romola Garai - Vanity Fair) is about to defy everyone`s expectations. Instead of a parent-approved suitor (Jonathan Jackson - Tuck Everlasting), Katey is drawn to the sexy Javier, a waiter who spends his nights dancing in Havana`s nightclubs. And as Katey secretly learns to dance with Javier, she learns the meanings of love, sensuality and independence. Also starring January Jones (American Wedding), Mika Boorem (Sleepover) and Grammy Award-winning singer Mya.
Japanese fishery instructor Akira is attracted to beautiful Cuban young girl Martia. Though initially rejected, Akira still returns with Martia to her homeland. On the way he sees a post-revolution Cuba, cultivating fields, relics from the revolution, armies in training, and Castro in a political rally.
Edad dela Peseta or "silly age" is the term used in Cuba for the pre-adolescent period from the age of seven to the age of eleven. Director Pavel Giroud's stylish, assured period study of this awkward time takes him back to the very moment of the revolution of Fidel Castro, to 1958. Samuel (Ivan Carreira) is ten.
In 1959, a young journalist ventures to Havana, Cuba to meet his idol, the legendary Ernest Hemingway who helped him find his literary voice, while the Cuban Revolution comes to a boil around them.
Longtime Companion follows the lives of a small circle of friends from the first mention of the disease in the New York Times in 1981. First referred to as "Gay-Related-Immune-Disorder," we watch the effect of the disease as it devastates the lives of our protagonists. Jumping between Manhattan and Fire Island, vignettes carry us from the it-couldn't-happen-to-me mentality of the early days of the disease to the invasive effect it has had on all of our lives, today. The title of the film comes from the New York Times' refusal to acknowledge homosexual relationships in their obituary section during this period. Instead, survivors were referred to as "Longtime Companions" of the deceased
An American professional gambler named Jack Weil (Redford) decides to visit Havana, Cuba to gamble. On the boat to Havana, he meets Roberta Duran (Olin), the wife of a revolutionary, Arturo (Julia). Shortly after their arrival, Arturo is taken away by the secret police, and Roberta is captured and tortured. Jack frees her, but she continues to support the revolution.
Set in the mid-eighties Michael Pierson, a young gay man, is struck with AIDS in the prime of his life. He's forced to be open about the disease and his homosexuality for the first time with his co-workers (he's a successful lawyer) and family. He, and the people around him, must face up to the inevitablity of his death and the disease that's killing him. "An Early Frost" was many people's first look at an AIDS victim as a human being instead of a statistic.
The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),
A patriot (René Lavan) with a rebellious brother falls in love with a dissident's daughter (Mayte Vilán) in Castro's Cuba.
An unabashed exercise in cinema stylistics, I Am Cuba is pro-Castro/anti-Batista rhetoric dressed up in the finest clothes. The film's four dramatic stories take place in the final days of the Batista regime; the first two illustrate the ills that led to the revolution, the third and fourth the call to arms which cut across social and economic lines.
No one would take his case until one man was willing to take on the system. Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
In the early 1970s, Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (Andy Garcia) is torn between his own musical dreams and the dreams of his wife, Marianela (Mía Maestro), a fervent supporter of the ideals of the Castro revolution. Also starring Charles S. Dutton as Dizzy Gillespie and José Zúñiga as Paquito D'Rivera, this gripping jazz biopic is at once a detailed portrait of a musician and a stinging critique
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
A pair of teenage boys growing up in a working-class neighborhood become aware of their homosexuality. While both were vaguely aware they might be gay, neither had ever acted on their impulses. Once they decide that they're attracted to each other, neither is sure just what to do.
As influential Italian artist Caravaggio dies in exile in 1610, he recalls his short life, from his childhood to his initial artistic failures to his later triumphs as he catches the eye of a sympathetic cardinal to his destructive relationship with a dashing gambler.
The story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who became an outspoken agent for change, seeking equal rights and opportunities for all. His great love for the city and its people brought him backing from young and old, straight and gay, alike – at a time when prejudice and violence against gays was openly accepted as the norm.
Diego, a cultivated, homosexual and skeptical young man, falls in love with a young heterosexual communist full of prejudices and doctrinary ideas. First come rejection and suspicion, but also fascination. Fresa y chocolate is the story of a great friendship, that is, a great love between two men, which overcomes incomprehension and intolerance.
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocates them to a high-security "escape-proof" camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
A group of homosexual people try to live with dignity and self-respect while events build to the opening battle in the major gay rights movement.
The film narrates the story of Cuba Mukundan (Sreenivasan) who can be called an 'impractical idealist.' He is a staunch leftist who lives for the movement. Circumstances force him to take up a job in Dubai. But he finds himself a misfit in a highly materialistic world. He also realizes that the Malayalis working in this region, whom he had earlier mocked for leaving the country for monetary gains, actually perform menial jobs and physical labor in order to support their families back home. He has always had a soft corner for China as a result of his leftist leanings and when he meets a Chinese girl, she quickly finds a special place in his heart as she symbolizes China to him. Through her, he also learns of the Communist failings in other parts of the world.
Reportedly the first film to come out of East Germany to deal openly with gay issues. Philipp, a closeted teacher is dating a female collegue to keep up appearances. One night, by 'accident' he stumbles into a gay bar, meets and promptly falls in love with a young man. Transformed by this love he is no longer afraid to face up to who he is.
A young Jewish girl, Sarah, is looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain by a smuggler who betrayed them while attempting to escape to England. Terrified, she is sheltered by her childhood friend Jean, a homosexual in a clandestine relationship with his lover Philippe.
Jeffery, a young gay man in New York, decides that sex is too much and decided to become celibate. He immediately meets the man of his dreams and must decide whether or not love is worth the danger of a boyfriend dying.
Paul and Eddie have just begun previews for the new Off-Broadway musical "Adam and Steve Just the Way God Made 'Em." Their lives strangely mirror the characters they are playing. Paul is looking for the perfect man and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix
In this adaptation of Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence -- which is considerable.
Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss) and Christian Markelli (Wes Ramsey) are the two most opposite people in the world. Aaron is a young Elder (or a Mormon missionary) who wants to do his family proud and is quite passionate about his religion and film. Christian is a shallow WeHo waiter/party boy who only looks forward to bedding a new guy every night.
The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba
Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.
Zürich in the mid 50‘s: The young shy teacher Ernst Ostertag becomes a member of the gay organisation DER KREIS. There he gets to know the transvesti- te star Röbi Rapp – and immediately falls head over heels in love with him. Röbi and Ernst live through the high point and the eventual decline of the organization, which in the whole of Europe is seen as the pioneer of gay eman- cipation. Ernst finds himself torn between his bour- geois existence and his commitment to homosexuality, for Röbi it is about his first serious love relationship. A relationship which will last a lifetime. The film looks back from the present to the time when the „Mother“ of all European homosexual or- ganizations had its high point to the time it slowly fell apart. While the repression against homosexu- als became increasingly more intense in Zurich, two young and very different men fight for their love and – together with their friends – for the rights of gays.
When 19-year-old gay-rights activist Tommy and 24-year-old Alan first meet in 1973, they find themselves on the opposite sides of the political coin...
AIDS doctor Antonia's husband is killed by a car. She gets depressed until she learns he had been cheating on her with a man. She goes to see her husband's lover, Michele, and finds a huge apartment that he shares with gay and transgendered friends. Antonia is reluctant to tell these people of her relationship to the dead man, but needs prompting to move on to a new phase of her life.
Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.
Set ten years after the most peaceful revolution in United States history, a revolution in which a socialist government gains power…
Images and reality intermingle in this account of a writer's experiences under a totalitarian regime.
Two strangers become dangerously close after witnessing a deadly accident. On a beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside with his partner, Claire. But as Joe and Claire prepare to open a bottle of champagne, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. A hot air balloon drifts into the field, obviously in trouble. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. Joe and three other men rush to secure the basket. But fate has other ideas...
Based on true facts, the film revolves around 6 brave soldiers who escape from the clutches of the Pakistan Army and risk death with honour and courage with sacrifice towards their journey home.
The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness and success.
Steven Ray was never quite normal. But when tragedy strikes in the form of a deadly hit-and-run incident at a city cross walk, his violent and bizarre behavior becomes uncontrollable. One night, as Steven plots his next murder, he meets Percival, whose unsuccessful attempt at suicide not only interferes with Stevens plans, but the chance encounter also introduces the two into each others sad and lonely lives. Percival believes hes cursed after miraculously surviving each suicide attempt and concludes fate brought he and Steven together. So he hires Steven to assist him in suicide. Steven does not believe in fate and thinks Percival is desperate and delusional. But he accepts the offer. Easy money. After Percival continues to miraculously survive each attempt on his life, Steven starts to believe. He tries to help Percival figure out ways to break the curse. And in the process, they form an unlikely friendship through the common bond of tragedy.
New York is a contemporary story of friendship set against the larger than life backdrop of a city often described as the centre of the world. Omar has gone abroad for the first time in his life and soon enough he begins to see and love America through the eyes of his American friends - Sam and Maya. It is the story of these three friends discovering a new world together.
In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.
Years ago, Lepel's parents left an hot air balloon world tour. He stays with granny Koppenol, a mean bitch who constantly exploits him for domestic chores, in her buttons shop and even as accomplice in the department store where she steals the buttons from clothes. After she won't even leave him the balloon kind salesman Max gave him, Lepel, now 9, runs away. He meets Max's slightly older daughter Pleun. Schoolmaster Bijts is also looking for him, but only as arithmetics talent for an academic schools contest. Max accidentally finds out the sad truth about Lepel's family.
Trevor sometimes-violent skinhead with no regard for authority, and would rather spend his time stealing cars than sitting in the detention centre to which he is sent. His social worker, Harry Parker, tries to do his best, but Trevor is only interested when there’s something that he can get out of it. The authorities within the centre try to make Trevor conform to the norms of society, but he takes no notice, and would rather speak in a torrent of four-letter words and racial abuse.
When 54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train it appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Does the new all-girl group Desert have anything to do with it? Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer, which isn't as simple as he had hoped.
China Valdes joins the Cuban underground after her brother is killed by the chief of the secret police, Ariete. She meets and falls in love with American expatriate Tony Fenner. Tony develops a plan to tunnel under the city's cemetery to a plot owned by a high official, assassinate him, and blow up the whole Cuban hierarchy at the ensuing state funeral. Together with a band of dedicated revolutionaries, they begin digging.
An intimate biopic of Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive Cuban-American, who was cast for the MTV reality show, The Real World: San Francisco, in 1994. Due to his experience on the Real World, Pedro became a celebrity and a sympathetic face of the AIDS epidemic for millions of Americans who had never met anyone with HIV/AIDS.
A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong when corrupt pigs hijack it for their personal gain.
In medieval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.
Johnny (Johnny Ferro) is an art student in Nassau whose technique is perfect, but he’s creatively blocked. His teacher sends him off to the rural island of Eleuthera where he meets Romeo (Stephen Tyrone Williams), a hot musician. They begin a clumsy dance of attraction and romance. Romeo has a fiancé and is identified as straight, but he’s been known to play with the boys on the side secretly. The Bahamas are bound by religious traditions that discourage homosexuality and end up forcing gay men into the closet. Lena is a pastor’s wife. Her husband demonizes homosexuality to further his career, yet he’s on the DL as well. When Lena discovers that her husband has infected her with VD, he accuses her of infidelities. These characters are all bound together in this intense drama of love, family and secrets.
The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story delves into the experiences of six unknown young actors placed into the Hollywood spotlight, exposing the challenges of growing up under public scrutiny.
An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
Dexter, age 11, who has AIDS, and his next door neighbor Eric, a little older and much bigger, become best friends. Eric also becomes closer to Dexter's mother than to his own, who is neglectful and bigoted and violently forbids their friendship upon learning of it. Dexter and Erik start the journey to find "The Cure" they had read about in the local newspaper.
Under an Eastern European totalitarian regime, a prominent dissident writer survives repression by resuming a submissive sexual relationship with her former lover. After their split-up years ago, he had joined the Secret Police in order just to take her back and provide the protection she needed. Struggling to preserve her humanity, she falls in love with a young platonic dreamer, a kind of rebel without cause, whom she initiate in literature and reinvents as a character capable to meet her own desires of freedom. BEYOND AMERICA is a love story and an action drama altogether, with archetypes of an aggressive, totalitarian society.
Fictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well; first, the journey proves more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food.
A classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

© Valossa 2015–2024