Light Sleeper (1992)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Paul Schrader

Writer (WGA):

Paul Schrader (written by)

Release Date:

13 March 1992 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

A story about the discovery of the spirit, the Lure of Decadence, and the Chance for Escape. [Australia theatrical]

Plot:

A drug dealer with upscale clientele is having moral problems going about his daily deliveries. A reformed addict...

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Existentialism | Insomnia | Diary | Suicide

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Willem Dafoe	...	John LeTour
Susan Sarandon	...	Ann
Dana Delany	...	Marianne Jost
David Clennon	...	Robert
Mary Beth Hurt	...	Teresa Aranow
Victor Garber	...	Tis Brooke
Jane Adams	...	Randi Jost
Paul Jabara	...	Eddie
Robert Cicchini	...	Bill Guidone
Sam Rockwell	...	Jealous
Rene Rivera	...	Manuel
David Spade	...	Theological Cokehead
Steven Posen	...	Hasid
Ken Ladd	...	Carlos
Brian Judge	...	Thomas

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | UK:15 | USA:R | Norway:15 (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Equitable Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Grain of Sand Productions

Trivia:

In one scene, John LeTour (Willem Dafoe) is shown sitting on his bed watching old photographs and listening to some CDs. One of the CDs is the soundtrack from Walter Hill's Streets of Fire (1984), which was Dafoe's first starring role.

Quotes:

Marianne: I envy you. Convenient memory is a gift from God.

Movie Connections:

Features Scorpio Rising (1964)

Soundtrack:

Twisted

An absorbing experience

Willem Dafoe is Johnny LeTour, a drug dealer selling to high society clients. He is already experiencing a midlife crises, when an influential man's daughter is found dead from an overdose. Increased pressure from the police and LeTour's boss' (Susan Sarandon) plans to give up dealing and establish a legitimate enterprise force him to reconsider his own existence. LeTour starts to slowly loose what fragile grip on things he has had, when a dramatic incident causes him to bring about the long due change in his life through an act of violence.

This movie was called "The Taxi Driver of the 90s", when it was released. This was partly because it was written and directed by Paul Schrader, who had written Taxi Driver, too. There are other similarities: There is the motive of observing through a car window a world from which the protagonist is becoming more and more estranged. Both Robert De Niro's Travis and Willem Dafoe's LeTour are men who ultimately lack the intellectual capacity to comprehend the reasons for their failure in life. Both find outward reasons to blame, both use violent means to try and solve matters, though the only thing changed will be their own existence, but not the world.

The story doesn't sound like much, and when I saw the movie at a theater, a considerable amount of viewers left, apparently having expected a more violent, action packed movie. For me, though, watching it was a revelation, and the movie has stayed on my list of personal favorites to this day. The story of a basically good man, who finds himself in a less than good life in a less than good world, is easy to relate to. It has both philosophical and psychological implications which have made re-watching the movie over the course of two decades very rewarding. Like any work of art, this movie is bound to reflect the viewer, and tell him more about himself, than about its seeming object (the story). This is what I come for in a movie.

Also, this is a visually and acoustically stunning film. The atmosphere is extremely dense, locations chosen very carefully and symbols (often in the form of pictures visible in the background) add to the story. The soundtrack is an integer part of the story, too. The songs sung by The Clash's Michael Been act as an inner voice of LeTour's expressing his emotional state at different moments. I find these dark, brooding weltschmerz songs completely arresting. (Unfortunately, Been and the film company argued about the rights, and the soundtrack was removed from the shelves after a short time. It is available only at auctions, today, and I confess to paying almost 40 Euros for my copy.)

All in all a truly absorbing experience.