Leaving Las Vegas

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Movie
German title Leaving Las Vegas - love to the death
Original title Leaving Las Vegas
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Mike Figgis
script Mike Figgis
production Purple Cazès
Annie Stewart
music Mike Figgis
camera Declan Quinn
cut John Smith
occupation
synchronization

Leaving Las Vegas (Alternative title: Leaving Las Vegas - love until death ) is a multi-award winning American film drama by director Mike Figgis from the year 1995 . The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by John O'Brien , the main actors are Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage , who was honored with an Oscar for his portrayal .

action

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic and professionally and privately failed screenwriter , decides to go to Las Vegas to drink himself to death there after burning all his household effects. There he met the prostitute Sera, with whom he soon developed an intense friendship. However, with special rules: Sera must not try to prevent Ben from doing his job. In return, Sera's livelihood should not be an issue between the two. A deal that is only superficially viable. Despite all the desolation or hopelessness of the respective perspectives, a special form of love has developed, which in the end cannot change the fact that Ben finally implements his plan.

Background and miscellaneous

  • Leaving Las Vegas was shot on super 16 mm film material , a film format that is not currently used for Hollywood productions.
  • John O'Brien's literary source processes experiences the author has had with his own alcohol addiction. Two weeks prior to shooting Leaving Las Vegas , O'Brien committed suicide at the age of 33 after learning that his novella would serve as the basis for the film. John's father then announced that John's writing also served as a suicide note.
  • Nicolas Cage got drunk in preparation for the role and was filmed by a friend so he could learn how to speak while drunk.
  • Elisabeth Shue wears clothes by English fashion designer Vivienne Westwood in the film .
  • Director Mike Figgis has a cameo as one of three gangsters in the film. In addition to travel often in front of taxis, their roofs a poster with the inscription Red Mullet with a bearded man's face is next to it. The face is also Mike Figgis, Red Mullet is the name of his film production company.
  • The musician Julian Lennon made a guest appearance as a helpful innkeeper in the biker bar, where Ben Sanderson's nose was bleeding. The taxi driver who gives Sera relationship advice towards the end of the film is played by soul singer Lou Rawls .
  • Sting sings some songs on the soundtrack , the jazz piano pieces Angel Eyes , My one and only Love and It's a lonesome old Town . Nicolas Cage sings the song Ridiculous , which he wrote with Phil Roy.

German dubbed version

Leaving Las Vegas was dubbed by Magma Synchron GmbH. The dialogue book was written by Joachim Kunzendorf, who also directed the dialogue.

character actor Voice actor
Ben Sanderson Nicolas Cage Michael Christian
Sera Elisabeth Shue Arianne Borbach
Yuri Julian Sands Martin Keßler
Peter Richard Lewis Jörg Hengstler
Marc Nussbaum Steven Weber Ralph Beckmann
Sheila Kim Adams Natascha Rybakowski
Paul R. Lee Ermey Eberhard Mellies
Terri Valeria Golino Anja Godenschweger
Mrs. Van Houten Laurie Metcalf Liane Rudolph
Mister Simpson Thomas Kopache Wilfried Herbst
Bartender Graham Beckel Tilo Schmitz
Debbie Emily Procter Andrea Plany
Cynical taxi driver Xander Berkeley Tim Moeseritz

Martin Keßler has dubbed Nicolas Cage more than 40 times since then. But here he synchronizes Julian Sands.

Reviews

In the opinion of most critics, the director has achieved an impressive psychodrama with Leaving Las Vegas . The film critics particularly praised the oppressively realistic portrayal of an alcoholic, for which Nicolas Cage received an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award .

“An unadorned inventory of the human capacity for suffering and love, in which documentation and poetry meet in a depressing and unsettling description of existential borderline situations. In its uncompromising consistency, for some viewers a film that is certainly difficult to bear, which refuses moral categorization and instead invites reflection on individual fates. "

- Lexicon of International Films

“[The movie] does not promise any kind of salvation. It shows the frenzy and the delirium, it shows the smacking, the gurgling, the trembling, the gagging, the drooling, the throwing up, and in all of this it lets the man on the way to death experience a love story that is the horror of having to die strangely transfigured and transformed. The enormity of this love gives the film its pull, its magic, its shocking power. [... The] music emphasizes that you are telling a story full of nostalgia, that you sing the song of the loser again, celebrate lonely downfall, the romance of self-destruction. "

- Urs Jenny : Der Spiegel 17/1996: A place for losers

“The pictures show this condition as a natural obsession: As if it were about the passionate enjoyment of a person at archery or at the tea ceremony . They are images on the verge of madness, but poetized in a way that suggests that they offer moments of the highest sensual pleasure. [...] Why the two do what they do, the film does not answer. [...] In their moments together, however, a solemn peace shimmers. [...] The city is, emphasized coarse-grained and recorded with a shaking hand camera, staged like a supermarket of civilization, like a richly filled chamber that only offers the space to self-destruct in peace and quiet. "

- Norbert Grob : Die Zeit 20/1996: Cinema: "Leaving Las Vegas" - A drinker film by Mike Figgis

“Leaving Las Vegas is not a conciliatory drama, but an irreconcilable delirium. Great cinema because it's about life, even when it's about death. "

- kino.de

Awards and nominations (selection)

1996:

  • Oscar for Best Actor (N. Cage). Also nominated in the categories of Best Actress (E. Shue), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Actor / Drama (N. Cage). Also nominated for Best Film / Drama , Best Director and Best Actress (E. Shue)
  • Independent Spirit Awards in the categories of Best Actress (E. Shue) and Best Feature Film , Best Director and Best Cinematography . Also nominated in the categories Best Actor (N. Cage) and Best Screenplay
  • Nominated for the BAFTA Award in the categories of Best Actor (N. Cage), Best Actress (E. Shue) and Best Adapted Screenplay
  • The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John O'Brien (author de Leaving Las Vegas) . In: babelio.com . (French)
  2. ^ Leaving Las Vegas. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on June 12, 2016 .
  3. ^ Leaving Las Vegas in the Lexicon of International Films Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  4. ↑ Urs Jenny : A place for losers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1996 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Norbert Grob : Cinema: "Leaving Las Vegas" - A drinking film by Mike Figgis . In: The time . No. 20/1996. May 10, 1996.
  6. ↑ Online resource . In: kino.de . Retrieved April 12, 2007.