Leaving Las Vegas

Leaving Las Vegas is a 1995 romantic drama film written and directed by Mike Figgis and based on the 1990 semi-autobiographical novel by John O'Brien. Nicolas Cage stars as a suicidal alcoholic in Los Angeles who, having lost his family and been recently fired, has decided to move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. Once there, he develops a romantic relationship with a prostitute (Elisabeth Shue). Leaving Las Vegas was filmed in super 16 mm instead of 35 mm film; while 16 mm was common for art house films at the time, 35 mm is most commonly used for mainstream film.