- Actors: Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt
- Directors: Paul Schrader
- Writers: Paul Schrader
- Producers: G. Mac Brown, Linda Reisman, Mario Kassar, Ronna B. Wallace
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Import
- Language: English
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Artisan (Universal)
- Release Date: Mar 26 2002
- Run Time: 103 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005Y6XB
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
This compelling 1992 drama is often cited as the third film in writer-director Paul Schrader's trilogy of "nocturnal alienation" that includes Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (which Schrader wrote) and American Gigolo. Like those other films, this one deals with a solitary man who works almost exclusively at night, and the film immerses us in the rhythms and psychology of his lifestyle. In this case, Willem Dafoe plays a cocaine addict who has kicked the habit that almost killed him, but still delivers drugs to clients for a dealer (Susan Sarandon) who dreams of opening a legitimate cosmetics business. He meets an old lover (Dana Delany) who fears he will draw her into their old life of drug abuse, but that proves to be the least of their worries. Simultaneously sad, funny, and fascinating, the film inevitably leads to the outburst of violence that has become a kind of signature in Schrader's work. It lacks the visceral impact of Taxi Driver, but few directors can match Schrader's gift for creating fully realized characters on the fringes of a society to which they don't quite belong. Insomnia, in Schrader's world, is a condition suffered by those whose dreams remain elusive, just beyond their grasp. --Jeff Shannon
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Willem Dafoe: Major Romantic & Erotic Dream Figure,
By
This review is from: Light Sleeper (DVD)
Writer-director Paul Schrader delivers his most satisfying film for me. He is even better known for his work when he solely screenwriters, such as for his unsurpassed "Taxi Driver," directed by his frequent collaborator, Marty Scorsese. For his own solo film though, this is my favorite. Schrader's film work is frequently compared to the late Robert Bresson's films. However, Bresson has always been a little too painterly for me. Schrader is painterly enough and to make it any more so evokes that dreaded word in film: slow. I frankly prefer this film to the Bresson films I've seen, which makes me a film heretic I realize. Urban alienation is at the core of this film, which is true of all Schrader's work, and Willem Dafoe plays a nocturnal drug dealer who doesn't get much sleep (hence the title), probably because his dreams remain so elusive from his grasp, as a metaphor for the overall film. Two women present the immediate conflict in the film. Susan Sarandon plays a drug dealer who Dafoe works for and she tells him that they both need to get out of dealing. She plans to open a legitimate cosmetics business and seems capable of following through on the idea. She is the most in control of her life of the three main characters. Dana Delany plays Dafoe's former lover, who doesn't want anything to do with him because they were substance abusers together in the past. Although he's clean now, he still deals. But is her character as squeaky clean as she now proclaims to be? Dafoe needs to figure that out. Further tension comes about from the eroticism between Dafoe and Delany plus the growing potential for eroticism between Dafoe and Sarandon. Dafoe is absolutely wonderful in this film and becomes a major romantic and erotic dream figure for the viewer regardless of what the viewer thinks of him vis a vis the two women.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good flick, great acting from Willem Dafoe,
By A Customer
This review is from: Light Sleeper (VHS Tape)
This is a pretty good movie about a drug dealer with a conscience. I enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but felt that the script and storyline struggled at points. In one instance, Dafoe's character relates "White drugs for white people". Also, Dana Delaney puts in a good performance but definitely second to Dafoe's - her performance is not quite complete, and I was left feeling as though the film just had that extra something missing. Still, Dafoe does enough subtle things with his character to make the movie worth watching.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Willem Dafoe in good movie shocker!,
This review is from: Light Sleeper (VHS Tape)
Anyone who's seen Willem Dafoe onstage doesn't need to be convinced that the man is a great actor; unfortunately, his film career has been at best patchy. Light Sleeper's one of his best, though, and since Paul Schrader is a man who hasn't been allowed to make as many films as he deserved, it's a pleasure to see both on such good form.It's one of Schrader's by now sort-of-trademarked studies in urban loneliness, out of noir via Bresson. Dafoe is beautifully quiet and understated as the drug-dealing hero, Sarandon is as excellent as ever and Dana Delany is extremely good as Dafoe's hapless, tragic ex-lover - a very pleasant surprise to one who hadn't been wildly impressed with her female-Alan-Alda trip on the interminable TV series China Beach. Just goes to show that you can mistake bad scripts for bad performances. It has to be said the final scene is a rip-off twice over - not only is it almost identical to the final scene in American Gigolo, each are all but indistinguishable from the final scene in Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket" (and since Schrader's book "Transcendental Style in Film" was partly about Bresson, I think we can assume that a hommage of sorts is going on here.) Still, respect to Schrader for showing that there was fight in him yet. He went on to make the mighty "Affliction", so clearly the man is not yet ready to bow out. Even a sub-standard Schrader film (I'm thinking of "Patty Hearst") has a lot more soul and imagination than anything by Roland Emmerich.
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