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Light Sleeper

6.9

1,989

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Original title

Light Sleeper

Year

1992

Running time

103 min.

Country

United States

Director

Paul Schrader

Screenwriter

Paul Schrader

Cast

Music

Michael Been

Cinematography

Edward Lachman

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

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User history

Light Sleeper

1992

Paul Schrader

6.9

(1,989)