Light Sleeper
1992 · Movie · 103 min. · United States
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.
Direction Paul Schrader
Cast Willem Dafoe · Susan Sarandon · Dana Delany · David Clennon · Mary Beth Hurt · Victor Garber · Jane Adams · Paul Jabara · Robert Cicchini · Sam Rockwell · Rene Rivera
Soundtrack Michael Been
Screenplay Paul Schrader
Cinematography Edward Lachman
Original title Light Sleeper
6.9
2K votes (FilmAffinity)
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