Julian Schnabel (USA, 1951) debuted with a biopic about
the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Basquiat (1996).
Before Night Falls (2000) is a terrible (and terribly long) film,
the fictional biography of a Cuban poet and homosexual that the director
uses to attack both communism and capitalism and to equate them
in a clumsy way. To say that the film looks like an unfinished, hastily
pasted together work is to be very generous.
The film follows the (mis)adventures of Reinaldo from his childhood in
pre-Castro Cuba, when he was living with his mother in the grandparents'
farm, to his last day in New York, some forty years later.
Each episode is barely sketched, with virtually no humour and no grace.
First we see the child dealing with poverty and an estrangered father.
Life is sort of magic in the jungle and by the sea. But soon a teacher
discovers Reinaldo's talent for writing and the grandparent is taken by
a Biblical fury. The family moves to the town and Reinaldo gets in touch
with the juvenile delinquents, the decadent clubs and the revolutionaries.
Castro wins the revolution and Reinaldo discoveres his homosexuality.
Homosexuality becomes a form of protest against the dictatorship, that in
fact persecutes gays. His first book is a success and wins him important
friends, including a couple that will take his new censored work to Paris.
He gets arrested after thieves claimed he molested them.
Reinaldo jumps into the sea and goes into hiding but eventually the police
find him. In jail, he becomes
popular writing letters for the convicts, but eventually is singled out by
the guards and subjected to harsh confinement. In order to return to normal
life, he accepts to sign a confession for a sexy commander. Regained his
freedom, he joins instead the rebels who have built a balloon in the
abandoned cathedral and plan to send three of them to America. During a
party, Reinaldo's ex lover, who has found out his new whereabouts, steals
the balloon, but only to crash minutes later.
In 1980 Reinaldo takes advantage of an offer by the regime to expel all
criminals, mentally ill people and homosexuals. He finally reaches America
and starts a new life. He has a love affair with a concierge but lives in
poverty. His lover saves his life when he attempts suicide, but then,
when he comes back from the hospital and has lost all strength,
he helps Reinaldo die by suffocating him with a plastic bag.
helps him die
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(Tradotto da Erika Sofi)
Before Night Falls (2000) e' un film terribile (e terribilmente
lungo),
la biografia romanzata di un poeta omosessuale cubano che il regista usa per
attaccare sia il comunismo che il capitalismo e per metterli goffamente
sullo stesso piano.
Dire che il film sembra un lavoro incompleto messo su frettolosamente
significa essere molto generosi.
Il film narra le (dis)avventure di Reinaldo, dalla sua infanzia
nella Cuba pre-Castro, quando viveva con la madre nella fattoria dei nonni,
fino al suo ultimo giorno a New York, circa quarant'anni dopo.
Ogni episodio e' appena abbozzato, di fatto senza umorismo ne' garbo.
All'inizio il bambino e' alle prese con la poverta' e con un padre assente.
La vita e' una specie di magia nella giungla e sul mare. Ma presto
un'insegnante scopre
che Reinaldo ha talento nello scrivere e i suoi nonni esplodono in un'ira
biblica
La famiglia si trasferisce in citta' e Reinaldoviene a contatto con
la delinquenza giovanile, i club decadenti e i rivoluzionari.
Castro vince la rivoluzione e Reinaldo si scopre omosessuale.
L'omosessualita' diventa una forma di protesta contro la dittatura, che di
fatto perseguita
i gay. Il suo primo libro si rivela un successo e Reinaldo si guadagna
amicizie importanti, tra cui una coppia che portera' la sua opera censurata
a Parigi.
Reinaldo viene arrestato dopo essere stato accusato di molestie da alcuni
ladri .
Reinaldo si getta in mare e cerca di nascondersi ma alla fine la polizia lo
trova. In prigione diventa
famoso scrivendo lettere per i carcerati, ma alla fine viene preso dalle
guardie e messo in
isolamento. Per poter ritornare a una vita normale
accetta di firmare una confessione per un aitante comandante. Riconquistata
la liberta',
si unisce ai ribelli che hanno costruito un pallone aerostatico nella
cattedrale abbandonata
e progettano di mandare tre di loro in America. Durante una festa,
l'ex amante di Reinaldo, che ha scoperto il suo ultimo rifugio, ruba il
pallone, ma soltanto
per poi precipitare qualche minuto dopo .
Nel 1980 Reinaldo approfitta della proposta del regime di espellere tutti i
criminali,
i malati di mente e gli omosessuali. Alla fine giunge in America
e comincia una nuova vita. Ha una relazione con un portinaio, ma vive in
poverta'.
Ma il suo amante salva la vita a Reinaldo dopo che questi tenta il
suicidio, ma poi, una volta uscito dall'ospedale privo di forze,
lo aiuta a morire soffocandolo con un sacchetto di plastica.
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Le Scaphandre et le Papillon/ The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007),
based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, is a powerful melodrama with several
surrealistic scenes.
A man wakes up after a long coma. He is paralyzed and cannot speak, but he
can hear and understands everything. He is in a hospital bed and soon a doctor
comes to tell him that a massive stroke left him in a rare condition. They
also have to sew one eye to avoid permanent damage to the cornea.
We can hear Jean-Do's thoughts but they don't become words that others can
hear.
A speech therapist is assigned to his case. She teaches him how to spell words
by blinking his eyes, so he can communicate.
His body slowly appears in the film and eventually we get to see his face
and his body when he is placed on a wheelchair and begins to receive visits
from friends and from the wife that he deserted, Celine.
One of the first people to visit him is Pierre, a stranger whose fate
grotesquely intersected with him: years earlier Jean-Bo gave his airplane seat to Pierre and that plane was hijacked. Pierre ended up spending four years
hostage of terrorists.
His ex-wife brings him the children on father's day.
His lover, instead, does not visit him.
We learn that Jean-Do is a celebrity: he was the editor of a popular fashion magazine.
He had signed a contract with a publisher to write a novel and suddenly he
decides to write it, despite his conditions. The publisher sends him a girl
who will painfully put together his sentences using the code that the
speech therapist devised for him.
We now hear his thoughts and guess that these are also the sentences that
he dictates to Claude.
A flashback introduces us to his father.
When the speech therapist takes him to church against his will and he is offered the chance to
travel to Lourdes (where miracles are said to happen), we see a flashback of
his visit to Lourdes with his lover.
His father calls but is too dejected to say much.
His lover Ines finally calls just when his wife Celine is next to him.
Celine has to swallow her pride and "translate" Jean-Do's answers to Ines'
questions, including the final love message.
Jean-Do is happy when doctors, nurses and family celebrate his birthday.
He even tries to sing along. However, just when it looks like there is
some progress in his conditions, he catches pneumonia.
As he is dying, we see the final flashback to the day that he took his son
for a ride and he had the stroke.
His book has been published and Claude reads him the raving reviews that are
being written about it, but he dies.
Miral (2010) is an adaptation of the 2003 novel by Rula Jebreal.
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