Light Sleeper by Paul Schrader (1992)
Ex-drug addict John Le Tour makes a living dealing drugs to upscale clients in Manhattan. A chance encounter with Marianne, an old flame, will give a definitive jolt to his daily routine.
“It’s going to rain today.”
“It’s good for the plants.”
“Yes, but why does the Almighty only care about farmers?”
– Ann & Robert
The Diary of a Dealer
John writes his thoughts down. On a piece of paper. Black on white. He heard that’s what you do when you decide to change your life.
It’s like a first, fundamental step towards redemption. After all, he has already stopped using, and Ann also seems willing to give everything up to dedicate herself to the cosmetics market.
And that life is no longer for him. He realizes this more and more often when he goes out at night, in the streets overflowing with trash, with people passing by like ghosts, between a client who talks to him about God and another who begs him to save him from the police.
In short, it’s not just about making deliveries, collecting money, and leaving: there’s much more at stake.
There’s the constant and tangible possibility of finding oneself in danger at any moment, as that psychic also told him… although perhaps the threat is more inside him than outside… unless the encounter with Marianne changes everything.
Schrader uses a noir structure to talk about the dreams, hopes, and frustrations experienced by the various characters involved.
It’s a sort of mosaic that comes together as the film progresses and is the result of interacting with a sick and oppressive environment from which there is no escape.
Accompanying the scenes is a truly atmospheric soundtrack and the remarkable and twilight cinematography by Ed Lachman.
A solid, nocturnal, dark, and pessimistic film that has passed somewhat unnoticed here but certainly deserves a viewing.
Willem Dafoe is perfect in the role of a desperate protagonist marked by loneliness, with a perpetually detached gaze, alien to the hell surrounding him.
Susan Sarandon is her usual masterful self. But the entire cast, in general, works well.
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