Before the Last Curtain Falls

German filmmaker Thomas Wallner presents a highly stylized documentary about older LGBT performers whose worlds are divided by relatively quotidian offstage lives and flamboyant onstage personas. Before the Last Curtain Falls centers on members of a production of Belgian choreographer Alain Platel's Gardenia, featuring a cast of seemingly larger-than-life drag queens and transgender entertainers. While the Gardenia segments are rich with a Bob Fosse-worthy swirl of energy and color, the material on the daily lives of the performers is often bleak and unsettling. One of the cast works as a janitor in a brothel, while another ponders his isolation from the wider world and glumly imagines how long it would take anyone to realize he is missing should he die alone in his apartment. Wallner gains enough trust from the performers for them to offer in-depth detail on the social and emotional hardships they faced growing up, as well as their experiences of growing old in a world that, until fairly recently, was often hostile to anyone identified as being LGBT. Before the Last Curtain Fallscelebrates art, offers a meditation on the fears of aging, and examines personal challenges faced by members of the LGBT community. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)