Leaving Las Vegas

Ben, a screenwriter who has lost his job and his family, goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. What starts with Sera, a sex worker he meets there, rests on one condition: neither will try to change the other. The heaviest thing about it is the source. It comes from John O'Brien's semi-autobiographical 1990 novel, and O'Brien died by suicide in April 1994, shortly after learning it would be filmed. Nicolas Cage did his research his own way, drinking heavily in Dublin for two weeks and having a friend videotape him so he could study his speech. He called it one of the most enjoyable pieces of research he had done. It brought him the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor. Mike Figgis shot it on Super 16 rather than 35mm, on a budget between 3.5 and 4 million dollars. Cage found that liberating: a 16mm camera in his face was much smaller, so he did not feel intimidated by it. It grossed 49.8 million dollars worldwide and took four Oscar nominations. Who it is for: anyone who can take addiction without romance. Who it is not for: viewers looking for hope. The film states its ending at the start and does not go back on it.