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Leaving Las Vegas

Berlinale Classics 2026
© Initial Films 1995
Screenwriter Ben Sanderson is a hopeless alcoholic. His wife has left him, his friends avoid him, and his boss sends him packing with a payoff. Ben leaves Hollywood behind. He plans to drink himself to death – in Las Vegas, where the bars never close. On the neon streets, he meets sex worker Sera. She too is a lonely heart; her pimp abuses and humiliates her. Ben leaves his sleazy hotel and moves in with her. They make a deal that she will not prevent him from drinking and he will never criticise her profession. Things go well for a while. Then Sera begins to fall in love with Ben. That means responsibilities …
Audiences will be shaken not stirred by this chronicle of a planned suicide. Leaving Las Vegas, searingly unemotional and unsentimental, was based on an autobiography. Only the bar jazz score by Mike Figgis and Sting’s dulcet singing soften its flintiness. The Super 16 camera negative provided the basis for the 4K restoration. The smaller camera was necessary for the authentic shots in Las Vegas’ streets and casinos that are key to this realistic film drama.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Mike Figgis (Director, Screenplay)
with Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Steven Weber, Kim Adams, R. Lee Ermey, Shawnee Smith, Emily Procter, Mariska Hargitay USA 1995 English 112' Colour International premiere of the digitally restored version Rating R 16

With

  • Nicolas Cage
  • Elisabeth Shue
  • Julian Sands
  • Richard Lewis
  • Steven Weber
  • Kim Adams
  • R. Lee Ermey
  • Shawnee Smith
  • Emily Procter
  • Mariska Hargitay

Crew

Director Mike Figgis
Screenplay Mike Figgis based on the novel by John O’Brien
Cinematography Declan Quinn
Editing John Smith
Music Mike Figgis
Sound Design Nigel Heath
Production Design Waldemar Kalinowksi
Costumes Laura Goldsmith
Make-Up Kathryn Bihr
Casting Carrie Frazier
Executive Producers Stuart Regen, Paige Simpson

Additional information

DCP: Studiocanal, Berlin

Photos