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Leaving Las Vegas
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.
1995 · Directed by Mike Figgis · 111 min · Drama · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 14 frames
Tagline
I love you... The way you are.
Plot
Ben Sanderson is an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who has lost his job, family, and friends. With nothing left to live for, and with a sizable severance check from his boss, he heads to Las Vegas where he plans on drinking himself to death. One early morning, he drives drunkenly from his Los Angeles home down to the Las Vegas Strip; he nearly hits a woman, Sera, on the crosswalk. She chastises him and walks away.
Sera is a prostitute working for abusive Latvian pimp Yuri Butsov. Russian mobsters are after Yuri, so he ends his relationship with Sera for fear that the Russians might otherwise hurt her.
On his second day in Las Vegas, Ben contacts Sera. He introduces himself and offers her $500 to spend an hour in his room with him. Sera agrees, but Ben does not want sex. Instead, they talk and develop a rapport; Sera invites Ben to move into her apartment. Ben makes Sera promise to never ask that he stop drinking; in return, Ben promises never to criticize her occupation. She thanks him and agrees to his terms.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Mike Figgis
- Cinematography: Declan Quinn
- Edited by: John Smith
- Music: Mike Figgis
- Production design: Waldemar Kalinowski
- Produced by: Annie Stewart, Lila Cazès
Cast
- Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson
- Elisabeth Shue as Sera
- Julian Sands as Yuri
- Richard Lewis as Peter
- Steven Weber as Marc Nussbaum
- Kim Adams as Sheila
- Emily Procter as Debbie
- Stuart Regen as Man At Bar
- Valeria Golino as Terri
- Graham Beckel as L.A. Bartender
Production
- Country: France, United Kingdom
- Language: English, Italian, Russian
- Studios: Initial Productions, Lumière Pictures
- Budget: $3,600,000
- Box office: $49,800,000
- Themes: hotel room, dying and death, individual, prostitute, lovesickness, rage and hate, casino, unsociability, alcohol, love at first sight
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