Before Night Falls (2000)
A Lyrical Fight for Survival, without the Survival
Filmed with such undistracting and unrelenting imagination, Before Night Falls is not only beautiful and seamless, it's a surprise, frame after frame. And it manages to keep flowing visually, with invention, without distracting from the personal plight of the central character, the writer Reinaldo Arenas. Add the full blooded performance by Javier Bardem, who is something of a one man show, and the movie is intrinsically special.
Julian Schnabel is turning out to be a better movie director than artist, maybe because his tendency toward formal invention made his art contrived while in the movie world this formalism is embedded with more evident meaning, and so it has something to support beyond its own effects. His subjects show a consistency that reveals an artistic devotion to himself, yes, as an auteur, or as a concerned person. Herzog might be another good example, offhand. From the flawed Basquiat to the compelling (and depressing) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Schnabel digs into those people who are pushed to be exceptional. All three of these films, at least, are about individuals with enormous talent and resolve, but they are all three also driven by circumstance to be even greater than themselves, or to make themselves into something beyond what even they expected. All of Schnabel's films are artfully made without being indulgent--even the exaggerated special effects used in Diving Bell are necessary.
And all three of these examples end in affecting, very personal tragedy. After the Lou Reed concert film diversion (which I haven't seen), it'll be worth watching what this relative newcomer to the movies brings out next.
A Lyrical Fight for Survival, without the Survival
Filmed with such undistracting and unrelenting imagination, Before Night Falls is not only beautiful and seamless, it's a surprise, frame after frame. And it manages to keep flowing visually, with invention, without distracting from the personal plight of the central character, the writer Reinaldo Arenas. Add the full blooded performance by Javier Bardem, who is something of a one man show, and the movie is intrinsically special.
Julian Schnabel is turning out to be a better movie director than artist, maybe because his tendency toward formal invention made his art contrived while in the movie world this formalism is embedded with more evident meaning, and so it has something to support beyond its own effects. His subjects show a consistency that reveals an artistic devotion to himself, yes, as an auteur, or as a concerned person. Herzog might be another good example, offhand. From the flawed Basquiat to the compelling (and depressing) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Schnabel digs into those people who are pushed to be exceptional. All three of these films, at least, are about individuals with enormous talent and resolve, but they are all three also driven by circumstance to be even greater than themselves, or to make themselves into something beyond what even they expected. All of Schnabel's films are artfully made without being indulgent--even the exaggerated special effects used in Diving Bell are necessary.
And all three of these examples end in affecting, very personal tragedy. After the Lou Reed concert film diversion (which I haven't seen), it'll be worth watching what this relative newcomer to the movies brings out next.