It’s the late 1990s in New York City. Erik Rothman, a gay Danish documentary filmmaker, long broke off his last serious relationship with a man named Paolo. Since, he has moved from one one night stand to another, many of those connections through a telephone gay cruising service. It is through those means that Erik meets bisexual corporate lawyer Paul Lucy, who admits he is already in a heterosexual relationship.
Their initial sexual encounter is meant to be a one time only thing, but they slowly move that one time encounter into a relationship. The roller coaster that is their relationship is presented over the following approximate ten years. The highs are fueled by their sexual passion for each other, the lows largely a manifestation of mistrust, in what the other does when not around, Paul’s disappearances, physically and emotionally, which are often, and disagreements about whether Paul has a crack problem, crack which increasingly seems to be routinely incorporated into their lovemaking.
Their problems are exacerbated by each turning to comforts in their life, for Paul being more drugs which further clouds his judgment, and for Erik the thoughts of being with other men, either the known such as remembering back to Paolo or the unknown through such avenues as the old telephone cruising line.
Keep the Lights On is a 2012 American drama film written by Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias and directed by Sachs. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and was released on September 7, 2012 by Music Box Films. The film is based on Sachs’ own past relationship with Bill Clegg, a literary agent who published his own memoir about his struggles with addiction, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, in 2010.
Keep the Lights On (2012)
Directed by: Ira Sachs
Starring: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Paprika Steen, Sebastian La Cause, Marilyn Neimark, Sarah Hess, Roberta Kirshbaum, Jamie Petrone, Maria Dizzia
Screenplay by: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias
Production Design by: Amy Williams
Cinematography by: Thimios Bakatakis
Film Editing by: Affonso Gonçalves
Costume Design by: Elisabeth Vastola
Set Decoration by: Amilia Tybinka
Art Direction by: Laura Miller
Music by: Arthur Russell
Distributed by: Music Box Films
Release Date: September 7, 2012
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