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The same PICKPOCKET ending of this and THE CARD COUNTER was also done in AMERICAN GIGOLO, which is basically the same film as LIGHT SLEEPER but a tad more impressive in terms of sound and image imo.

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founding

I saw this one on the big screen when it came out, though I only had the barest notion who Paul Schrader was. I remembering liking it a lot at the time. It's well overdue for a rewatch, now that I'm much more familiar with Schrader's work.

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The first Schrader I saw on the big screen was AFFLICTION, which I mostly sought out because it’s based on a Russell Banks novel and I had recently been impressed with Atom Egoyan’s adaptation of THE SWEET HEREAFTER. I caught up with this one a few years back when it was on the Criterion Channel. It still managed to make an impression.

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I saw Affliction with a friend of mine who grew up in upstate New York, very much the setting of the movie. One detail that he pointed out that I still remember twenty plus years later is that when Nolte hits Coburn on the head with a wine bottle, the bottle does not shatter. He thought this was very realistic, in a movie full of brutal realism.

Also, how good was Dafoe in that film? Totally played against type and pulled it off beautifully.

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Woah I was just catching up on old Next Picture Shows and just listened to the Card Counter episode.

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One of those movies that I'm going to have to cave and buy digitally one of these days. Keep waiting for a US Blu, but no luck...

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