Light Sleeper
| Lightsleeper | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Paul Schrader |
| Produced by |
Linda Reisman Mario Kassar (executive) |
| Written by | Paul Schrader |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Michael Been |
| Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
| Edited by | Kristina Boden |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Fine Line Features |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 |
| Box office | $1,050,861 |
Light Sleeper is an American drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader in 1992. It stars Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, and Dana Delany.
The film, set in New York City, shows the tragic events following the encounter of a 40-year-old drug dealer and his former girlfriend.
John LeTour, a 40-year-old New Yorker, is one of two delivery men for Ann, who supplies an exclusive clientele in the banking and financing sector with drugs. While Ann contemplates switching to the cosmetics business, LeTour, who suffers from insomnia, has lost his perspective in life.
One night LeTour meets his former girlfriend Marianne, with whom he once shared an intense but destructive relationship due to drug abuse. Although they stopped taking drugs, Marianne refuses his offer for a new start. After spending one night together, she tells him that this was her way of saying good-bye. Unbeknown to Marianne, her mother died at the hospital while she was with LeTour. The next time he meets Marianne, she attacks him, demanding that he get out of her life once and for all.
Meanwhile, the police start observing LeTour because one of his clients, Tis, is connected to the drug-induced death of a young woman. On his next delivery, LeTour witnesses a heavily drugged Marianne in Tis' apartment. Only minutes after his departure, she falls several stories to her death. LeTour gives the police a lead to Marianne's last whereabouts. At the wake, Marianne's sister Randi tells him not to feel guilty for what happened.
When Tis orders a new supply and insists that LeTour delivers it, he senses that Tis wants to dispose of him. Ann accompanies him, but Tis' guards force her to leave the room. In the subsequent shootout, LeTour kills Tis and both of his henchmen, but is left critically wounded. He lies down on the hotel bed, showing no anger or pain, only a profound weariness, as police sirens can be heard in the distance.
Ann visits LeTour in jail, where he expresses his hopes for a better future. The film hints at the possibility that Ann will wait for him.
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.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.
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