1995 Directed by Mike Figgis
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
Nicolas Cage Elisabeth Shue Julian Sands Richard Lewis Steven Weber Kim Adams Emily Procter Stuart Regen Valeria Golino Graham Beckel Albert Henderson Shashi Bhatia Carey Lowell Anne Lange Thomas Kopache Vincent Ward Lucinda Jenney French Stewart Ed Lauter Waldemar Kalinowski Mike Figgis David Kriegel Bill Thompson Marek Stabrowski R. Lee Ermey Mariska Hargitay Danny Huston Laurie Metcalf David Brisbin Show All…
远离赌城, 兩顆絕望的心, Leaving Las Vegas - Liebe bis in den Tod
Moving relationship stories Humanity and the world around us emotional, emotion, sad, drama or illness artists, biography, musician, songs or emotional sex, sexual, relationships, erotic or sensual teenager, friendship, sad, adolescents or coming of age gambling, casino, unpredictable, engaging or drama Show All…
>Nicolas Cage researched his character by binge drinking, and would film himself drunk to study his speech patterns.
One of the great pains in my life is that I will never see this footage.
This film kicks my teeth in in the most beautiful way every time I watch it.
Whenever an artist manages to combine and contrast beauty and reality I'm always sucked in without reservation, often leaving me wrecked but smiling. Figgis, Cage and Shue made promises here they unfortunately never kept in their later careers.
The notion of a man leaving everything behind to drink himself to death in the capital of sin is as strong as it is fraught with the danger of skirting melodrama. Figgis manages to walk this tightrope really well as he is as unrelenting for his audience as Cage's character is for himself. He cuts no corners and unveils two lives that meet, linked in misfortune,…
Writing a film review and drinking go hand in hand. And I've discovered there's actually a bell curve. The review is better the more you've had to drink, then there's the peak of creative genius where you've ingested just the right amount of booze, then there's the inevitable degradation in quality as you realize you've sold all your possessions and are sleeping under a bridge.
"Hey man, you want a drink?"
"Nah, I just watched Leaving Las Vegas"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I'll see you around"
"Maybe"
It’s never occurred to me that Leaving Las Vegas is a film that revolves around depression, alcoholism or prostitution; you’ll have to include scenes where the hardships of coming from those backgrounds are the matter but the film struck me for a couple of reasons that are not associated with any of these things. Mainly, it is a touching story with realistic people in it in real-life relationships. It is about people with those backgrounds but the backgrounds don’t really say anything about their personalities. They can be tender. Much of the film is about the capacity to contain hope in the midst of knowing that we are empty and hollow, and that there will always be people who care…
Now I've done some binge drinking in my day but this is just ridiculous!
🥴🍾🍷🍸🍹🍺🍻🥂🥃🍶🧉
A modern-day love-triangle in which the bottle is the third component. Mike Figgis’ unfiltered foray into alcoholism is as grim as it gets, a silver-lining emerging in its central relationship. More than anything, Leaving Las Vegas shows how love is love regardless of situation, and that whenever we feel those inexplicable butterflies, we’re forced to take the bad with the good in our significant other. Setting aside the often hokey, dated direction, addiction has rarely felt so real on film, the backdrop of Las Vegas lounge songs adding a dizzying euphoria to the hazy blur of bright lights and slot-machines. It may have taken years of internal deliberation, but I’ve come to realise that Nicolas Cage is now one of…
Whenever Cage talks about acting in interviews, he talks about his desire to move away from naturalism, or to find a way to combine naturalism with the "expressionism" of silent-film acting. I get excited hearing him talk about these ideas, and then wonder if he uses his dozens of under-the-radar, direct-to-VOD jobs as opportunities to experiment. But then I check him out in something like Rage or Left Behind and my excitement immediately deflates.
Anyway, Cage absolutely pulls it off here. Elisabeth Shue also very good.
Film #58 of Project 90
”We both know that I'm a drunk. And I know you are a hooker.”
This is tragedy in its purest and most upsetting form, Leaving Las Vegas is a bitter, shattering and emotionally crushing story of failure, desolation and woe, it masterfully portrays how easily the glamour and happiness of a human being’s life can turn into ashes and how sorrow and melancholy can easily replace joy and delight. It is a film that attaches itself to your mind and soul, the hopelessness of its universe will surely put you in a state of shock for some time and with its morally devastating portrayal of a human being’s gradual collapse it is an experience that…
I'm not sure whether I relate more to the depressed lonely person or the depressed suicidal person here.
