Reinaldo Arenas - Before Night Falls
Reinaldo Arenas was born on July 16, 1943.
A Sadness as Deep as Sea by Jaime Manrique
“Jaime, what a life I’ve had. Even before the revolution, it was bad enough the agony of being an intellectual queen in Cuba. What a sad an hypocritical world that was,” he paused. “Finally, I leave that hell, and come here full of hopes. And this turns out to be another hell; the worship of money is as bad as the worst in Cuba. All these years, I’ve felt Manhattan was just another island-jail. A bigger jail with more distractions but a jail nonetheless. It just goes to show that there are more than two hells. I left one kind of hell behind and fell into another kind. I never thought I would live to see us plunge again into the dark ages. This plague — AIDS — is but a symptom of the sickness of our age.”
Seres extravagantes
From Center for Free Cuba
Look me in the eyes with contempt then sentence me, My Lover Sea.
The ocean….Blue….Not at first (the first sentence of his novel, Farewell to the Sea, a Novel of Cuba.)
Before Night Falls, a beautiful film based on his memoire adapted and directed by Julian Schnabel. (Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed provided some of the soundtrack music)
Julian Schnabel, Javier Bardem talking about Before Night Falls, here.
Saw this film for the 3rd or 4th times just a few days ago and thought that if anything Schnabel will be remembered more for this film if not for his neo-expressionist paintings of the early 80’s.
Group Photo of Reinaldo with Nestor Almendros in Cuba.
Reinaldo was a Cancer/Goat, a sensitive provider.