Light Sleeper

6.9

1,795

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Original title: Light Sleeper
Year: 1992
Running time: 103 min.
Country: United States
Director: Paul Schrader
Screenwriter: Paul Schrader
Music: Michael Been
Cinematography: Edward Lachman
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt, Victor Garber, Jane Adams, Paul Jabara, Robert Cicchini, Sam Rockwell, Rene Rivera
Producer: Seven Arts Pictures
Genre: Drama | Drugs
Synopsis: John LeTour (Dafoe) is a 40-year-old drug dealer whose drifting existence is thrown into crisis when his boss Ann (Sarandon) decides to retire. He encounters his ex-lover (Delany), by chance, which leads to his involvement in a murder case concerning a dead girl who is found in possession of cocaine indirectly linked to LeTour.

Schrader has described the film as a "man and his room" story like American Gigolo and his most famous screenplay, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, and in this case his character dealing with anxiety over his life and the external forces that threaten it. The insomniac LeTour spends his nights writing a journal, but whenever he comes to the end of a volume he simply throws the notebook away. Light Sleeper also shares with American Gigolo an ending patterned after Robert Bresson's Pickpocket in which the imprisoned hero is shown contemplating a new and hopefully better existence.

Awards: 1992: Berlin Film Festival: Official Selection

1992: Independent Spirit Awards: Nom. for Best Screenplay and Cinematography

Critics' reviews

"In film after film, for year after year, Paul Schrader has been telling this story in one way or another, but never with more humanity than this time (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: rogerebert.com
"'Light Sleeper' manages to be simultaneously uninflected and melodramatic, its narrative prompting neither intellectual nor emotional response (...) The material is dim, humorless and arid"

Vincent Canby: The New York Times
"Buoyed by [Schrader's] questing spirit and Dafoe’s mesmerizing performance, 'Light Sleeper' might just keep you up nights."

Peter Travers: Rolling Stone
"The approach is not so much emotional as carefully precise and almost distanced and it is a film easier to admire for its style (...) than for the warmth of its concern"

Derek Malcolm: The Guardian
"It does develop powerfully the themes of Schrader's earlier work and will not disappoint his fans (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

Kim Newman: Empire

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