Review of Light Sleeper (1992) by Ian M — 17 Jul 2010
A self-consciously stylized companion piece to Schrader's earlier Taxi Driver and American Gigolo, and one of his best films. Here he sets the romantic fatalism of film noir against the spartan aesthetics of his transcendental heroes Bresson and Ozu, impartially rendering his eternal, nocturnal, urban male loner through a series of fluid tracking shots, mismatched set-ups, 360-degree spaces and vertical partitions.
Michael Been's power ballads, whose literal lyrics would be overkill in another film ("Maybe I'll see better when the storm inside has passed/Maybe I'll see better when I see your face at last"), here provide a welcome counter to the rigorous formalism.
As always with Schrader, it insists on being watched alone at night.
This review of Light Sleeper (1992) was written by Ian M on 17 Jul 2010.
Light Sleeper has generally received positive reviews.
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