The Lost Weekend

Rating:
Summary: Compelling vintage classic
Review: "The lost weekend" was a great adaption of Charles Jackson same name novel.Billy Wilder's terrific directing always a bonus. It's about a struggling writer's weekend. Everything happened over a weekend.

The film began with Don pretend to pack his luggage with a bottle tied to a string hanging outside his window.Don's life and fate changed. Don Birnam has writer's block, he is also a alcoholic. He is aware but unable to kick it.He even trade his typewriter for drinks. He been through a lot in a few days and forced to face up to his problem. Luckily he has love and support from his brother and girlfriend.

Ray Milland gave a splendid performance which totally deserved his oscar.He showed Don's fear, depression and all his emotions so vividly. His role is pathetic and psychologically realistic.

This film has a superb script with detailed description of nightmares images and visions. Breakthrough during that era. One of the memorable scene is when Don went to a musical play with actors drinking and he see 'Bottles dancing' instead.

Although this film is black and white I find it amazingly well made and many contemporary movies couldn't hold a candle.

I'm always fascinated by old classic film from 1940 to 1970. Although I belong to new generation I love the feeling and sincerity of old movies.

I find this film psychoanalytic,truthful,compelling and a vintage classic! One of the best film ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling vintage classic
Review: "The lost weekend" was a great adaption of Charles Jackson same name novel.Billy Wilder's terrific directing always a bonus. It's about a struggling writer's weekend. Everything happened over a weekend.

The film began with Don pretend to pack his luggage with a bottle tied to a string hanging outside his window.Don's life and fate changed. Don Birnam has writer's block, he is also a alcoholic. He is aware but unable to kick it.He even trade his typewriter for drinks. He been through a lot in a few days and forced to face up to his problem. Luckily he has love and support from his brother and girlfriend.

Ray Milland gave a splendid performance which totally deserved his oscar.He showed Don's fear, depression and all his emotions so vividly. His role is pathetic and psychologically realistic.

This film has a superb script with detailed description of nightmares images and visions. Breakthrough during that era. One of the memorable scene is when Don went to a musical play with actors drinking and he see 'Bottles dancing' instead.

Although this film is black and white I find it amazingly well made and many contemporary movies couldn't hold a candle.

I'm always fascinated by old classic film from 1940 to 1970. Although I belong to new generation I love the feeling and sincerity of old movies.

I find this film psychoanalytic,truthful,compelling and a vintage classic! One of the best film ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Hasn't dated well.
Review: 'The Lost Weekend' leaves a lot of fascinating questions unanswered - for instance, why wasn't Don 'Lester' Burnam fighting in the war? There are some remarkable sequences here, in particular the opera scene nodding to Chaplin's 'The Gold Rush', or the Kafkaesque purse-snatching incident. Throughout, Wilder emphasises the circle, the vicious circle, the noose, encircling even the narrative, ironising any 'cop out' move towards resolution, which, based on pure talk, has no solidity. This is one that will go on and on, ending only in death or madness.

Still, this is Wilder's most overrated film, as dated in dialogue, assumptions and wearisome drunk hero as a Eugene O'Neill play; while the visual 'daring' now looks frequently risible. For a genuinely moving portrayal of a drunk, catch Melville's 'Deux Hommes Dans Manhatten'.

Rating:
Summary: Almosy 60 years later, still a strong and powerful film
Review: A searing, powerful and no-holds barred depiction of the horrors of alcoholism, condensed into the events covering a long. four-day weekend. Almost sixty years after this film was made, it's message is clear and moving... When the film begins the main character is well into the alcoholic illness, and there is no hiding his predicament, nor his attempts to hide his illness from those around him. The film then explodes into all the various aspects of alcoholism, showing L.W's clearly defined dependeance on liquor... his self hatred and disgust of his weakness... showing the total degeneration and final degredation of a once, ambitious and talented individual to a "bum" om the streets and reduced to stealing in order to gain a drink. The ward scenes in a city hospital are particularly harrowing as is also the creation of the final descent into near madness with his own peculair brand of the D.T's.
A film made in a gritting realistic manner, and directed by Billy Wilder in a no-nonsense, " straight at you ", style. The acting is superb, with Ray Milland making a major change in previous role types, to tackle the seriousness, drabness and despair of this person. And to me, that is the main strength of this film. It is written, acted and directed sympathetically, avoiding all inclinations to sensationalism, or exploitation. Ray Milland won a Best Actor Oscar for his role, and arguably never equalled that standard in later films. Not only concentrating on the central themse and its character, the film also shows the "ripples" ... the effect that the main character's actions and attitudes have on others. His girlfriend, sesnitively played by Jane Wyman is almost driven to abandoning him... a bartender constanty jeers, berates and mocks him.. a male nurse offers no noticeable help or advice; just quotes statistics and almost offers no hope for L.W. And in one jarring restaurant scene where L.W. has succumbed to stealing a woman's purse in order to gain money to pay for his meal; is caught out, thrown out of the restaurant as the patrons all stand and sing: "Somebody Stole My Purse".. to the tune of " Somebody Stole My Gal".
This DVD, I found, offers a good transfer, with sharp contrasts and a clear picture. The film now looks like new, although there is no ,mention of restoration anywhere. Good film to have in any collection, especially for the Oscar winning performance of Ray Milland. If you enjoy great film-making combined with a serious well-intentioned story, this is a film for you.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost Weekend
Review: Alcoholism has been seen on movies for a very long time. Many people just haven't realized it because it was never something to care much for. Drinking was often the stuff of comedy. This was because most of what we saw about it was the effects while someone was drunk and making fools of themselves. In 1945, director Billy Wilder made a film called "The Lost Weekend", that dealt with the subject in a different light. The movie was not expected to be a hit, having been a controversial project and being poorly received by preview audiences. But it turned out to be a surprise hit with critics and won academy awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. Here are some reasons as to why this movie is great, along with some of its cons.

"You know, the circle is the perfect geometric figure. No end, no beginning." The figure of a circle is used often in the movie, primarily in the plot. The story revolves around that of a failed writer (Ray Milland, who I discuss in detail later) and his trouble with alcohol. The usage of a circular plot structure suggests that the life of a drunk is followed by one binge after another, with no start and no finish. It is also used when Don is under alcohol's spell. An example is the usage of rings from the shot glasses to show passage of time.

The lead performance: After years of acting, Milland hit it big as Don Birnam, the unsuccessful, alcoholic writer who goes on a drinking binge ("I'm not a drinker, I'm a drunk"). Milland's character is a tortured one, who claims that there are, figuratively, two of him: Don the writer and Don drunk. Milland can be melodramatic in his performance, but what do you expect from a film like this? One has to congratulate Milland for having the guts to take this role, for his character is a liar and thief who only cares about and will do anything for one more drink. It is amazing how he is able to be despicable and still allow us to sympathize with his character. Like many male leads in Wilder's films, Don Brinam is flawed in how he is weak and, though he tries not to, easily succumbs to the bottle ("The reason is me- what I am, or rather what I'm not). Though other great male performances were done in 1945, Milland was deserving of his Oscar.

Supporting Cast: Jane Wyman, as Don's girl Helen, is not as involved, in my humble opinion, as Milland is, but is still able to turn out well. The problem is that her character doesn't get to do much, except try to talk to Don when he is hungover. The supporting cast does better, starting with Wick (Phillip Terry), Don's caring and dedicated brother, who is annoyed by his drinking yet allows him to stay at his apartment ("I went over the apartment with a fine-tooth comb - the places he can figure out"). A scene-stealer is Nat (Howard da Silva), a bartender who is friendly to Don but is also irritated by his unkindness to women and his alcoholism ("One's too many and a hundred's not enough!"). There is also Gloria (Doris Dowling), a slim, attractive woman who visits Nat's place to wait for other men. (She is most likely a female escort). She uses a lot of word abbreviations, such as "ridick" for ridiculous or "natch" for naturally. My favorite appearance was by an uncredited Frank Faylen as "Bim", a [seemingly] homosexual male nurse at an alcoholic ward called "Hangover Plaza". He sets the stage for Don by telling him "...you're just a freshman. Wait'll you're a sophomore. That's when you start seeing the little animals."

Feel: The movie's black and white cinematography is shot in a way that it presents the feeling of a nightmare. This way is difficult to explain, except that this illusion is presented most effectively in black and white and would be lost in a color film. This is probably because B & W, I think, is more moody. It's also interesting how several scenes are shot through whiskey bottles or shot glasses.

Music Score: It seems odd to talk about the music, but it is important. It was the first to use a theremin, an instrument that produces a strange wailing sound. Used in the nightmare scenes, it would later be familiar with fans of '50's sci-fi films. However, the non-thermin score is also one of the few downsides. Sometimes, especially during the opening credits, it feels too upbeat, too much like a film noir.

"The Lost Weekend" is by no means a cheerful movie. It does have some great dialogue (A trademark of Wilder films), but overall it's as entertaining and upbeat as a brain tumor. In addition to being depressing, it's also melodramatic, but that's a minor problem. I rather have a movie that tries to go for realism and honesty in this subject. Also, being a nearly 60 year-old movie and a groundbreaker in this subject, it is bound to have dated in some respects.

(Major plot spoilers ahead) But wait, am I a hypocrite? After all, it can be said that the ending feels too upbeat and optimistic. Many complain about this and it does indeed seem to be like this. But is it? A person who is a heavy drinker, I think, can't stop in the blink of an eye. However, this time he has a cause and an idea for writing and that will definitely help him.

A mixed bag, no doubt. But there is more good than bad. This is one that grows with repeated viewing. Wilder was certainly a great director, one who could make you as easily affected as he could make you laugh. He will be missed very much.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking Through the Barrier
Review: Billy Wilder electrified the film world in 1944 with his brutally realistic film about lust and greed, "Double Indemnity." Just one year later he reemerged with another compelling tale from life's dark side, "The Lost Weekend." In the 1945 Oscar sweepstakes "Weekend" exceeded his preceding breakthrough film by sweeping all the major categories of Best Film, Best Actor, with British star Ray Milland delivering his role of a lifetime, Best Director for the crafty Wilder,and Best Adapted Screenplay with Wilder sharing honors with longtime partner Charles Brackett from a hard-hitting bestseller penned by Charles Jackson.

The main action surrounds a fall weekend in which presumably recovering alcoholic Milland is to accompany brother Phillip Terry to Penn Station and a presumably quiet weekend in the country. Instead he sneaks out of his New York apartment and enters a journey into the bowels of hell. The haunting musical score by Miklos Rosza depicts the urgency of the moment, resembling that of his masterwork "Spellbound." The black and white photography is intentionally gray and brooding throughout, focusing on New York's streets. Milland experiences the ultimate in desperation, spending time in the city's drunk ward, observing hallucinations in the form of a rat on his wall and vultures flying overhead, appropriate symbols of his desperation state, and failing to obtain needed alcoholic succor at a critical interval due to the closing of liquor stores due to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.

While Milland is superb in his presentation of a frightened would be novelist whose cleverness makes it more difficult than ever to keep his sought after rye whiskey away from him, a constellation of talented players assist in generating a bona fide Hollywood classic. Phillip Terry plays his loving, brooding brother with just the proper measure of anger merging with frustration. Jane Wyman is excellent as his sensitively attuned, intelligent girlfriend determined to spare him from ultimate self-destruction. Howard di Silva plays the outwardly hard-bitten, inwardly caring bartender with consummate skill. He emerges with one of the film's most memorable lines when, after pouring Milland a drink, he exclaims, "If you had enough money you'd kill yourself in a month." Doris Dowling is brilliant as a lonely prostitute living off the largesse of lonely older men who dreams of a better life and romance with Milland, who seeks to borrow money from her when his liquor and financial resources vanish.

Wilder proves in this film, as he did earlier with "Double Indemnity" and later with "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Apartment" that he was one of the cinema's reigning masters of the rugged, hard-edged side of human experience. This is a cannot miss dramatic masterpiece which never fails to find the mark.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking Through the Barrier
Review: Billy Wilder electrified the film world in 1944 with his brutally realistic film about lust and greed, "Double Indemnity." Just one year later he reemerged with another compelling tale from life's dark side, "The Lost Weekend." In the 1945 Oscar sweepstakes "Weekend" exceeded his preceding breakthrough film by sweeping all the major categories of Best Film, Best Actor, with British star Ray Milland delivering his role of a lifetime, Best Director for the crafty Wilder,and Best Adapted Screenplay with Wilder sharing honors with longtime partner Charles Brackett from a hard-hitting bestseller penned by Charles Jackson.

The main action surrounds a fall weekend in which presumably recovering alcoholic Milland is to accompany brother Phillip Terry to Penn Station and a presumably quiet weekend in the country. Instead he sneaks out of his New York apartment and enters a journey into the bowels of hell. The haunting musical score by Miklos Rosza depicts the urgency of the moment, resembling that of his masterwork "Spellbound." The black and white photography is intentionally gray and brooding throughout, focusing on New York's streets. Milland experiences the ultimate in desperation, spending time in the city's drunk ward, observing hallucinations in the form of a rat on his wall and vultures flying overhead, appropriate symbols of his desperation state, and failing to obtain needed alcoholic succor at a critical interval due to the closing of liquor stores due to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.

While Milland is superb in his presentation of a frightened would be novelist whose cleverness makes it more difficult than ever to keep his sought after rye whiskey away from him, a constellation of talented players assist in generating a bona fide Hollywood classic. Phillip Terry plays his loving, brooding brother with just the proper measure of anger merging with frustration. Jane Wyman is excellent as his sensitively attuned, intelligent girlfriend determined to spare him from ultimate self-destruction. Howard di Silva plays the outwardly hard-bitten, inwardly caring bartender with consummate skill. He emerges with one of the film's most memorable lines when, after pouring Milland a drink, he exclaims, "If you had enough money you'd kill yourself in a month." Doris Dowling is brilliant as a lonely prostitute living off the largesse of lonely older men who dreams of a better life and romance with Milland, who seeks to borrow money from her when his liquor and financial resources vanish.

Wilder proves in this film, as he did earlier with "Double Indemnity" and later with "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Apartment" that he was one of the cinema's reigning masters of the rugged, hard-edged side of human experience. This is a cannot miss dramatic masterpiece which never fails to find the mark.

Rating:
Summary: Master of realism...
Review: Billy Wilder seemed so consumed by a passion for unmasking human frailty and disrobing them of artifice and subtlety, though certainly not of style... From the indictment of ego, self-destruction, and the fickleness of popular culture seen in "Sunset Blvd.", to the baring of the human will to strive and survive seen in "Stalag 17", to the disguise-as-a-revelation-of-true-character theme of "Some Like It Hot"... Wilder consistently laid the wound of weakness open for all to see it while pointing the mocking, accusing finger at the necessary accoutrements of social convention. In "The Lost Weekend", the children of the Depression, the men and women of WW2, and the audience weaned on the Studio system were first confronted with the stark, brutal vicissitudes of a drunk, lonely novelist whose fear of writer's block is drowned under a torrent of booze. There are NO adornments here, as we hear the banshee wail of a man confronted by delirium tremens, and see that same man hurt those he loves most by loving the bottle a little more... The insecurities which feed classically-trained Ray Milland foreshadow the naturalistic, intuitive acting of Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. Moviemaking in general was not the same afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: Mine's a diet lemonade, no ice please
Review: Billy Wilder's compelling study of alcoholism and associated problems is brought to life by the sympathetic playing of Raymond Massey. A lesser actor could have made you hate the man and what he does. Instead, you feel his desperation and loneliness even if you're not a drinker yourself. One of the saddest scenes in the cinema is the realisation that this man's beloved typewriter is sitting behind the pawnbroker's glass just for a few lousy drinks. This is a very human tale of a de-humanising evil.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing Wilder classic
Review: Billy Wilder's powerful "The Lost Weekend", released 60 years ago, still resonates with profound impact in portraying the ravages of alcoholism.

Oscar winning Ray Milland is terrific playing failed writer Don Birnam a helpless and apparently hopeless alcoholic. Having abstained from the bottle for 10 days, he's planning a weekend retreat to the country with his straight laced and supportive brother Wick, played by Phillip Harris. His undeservedly doting girlfriend Helen played by Jane Wyman is encouraging him to remain sober. Despite all the support, the scheming Milland is manuevering to get out of going by spiriting his brother and girlfriend out to a concert.

He quickly ambles down to the neighborhood bar to commence an alcoholic binge which will last the entire weekend. Wilder very graphically illuminates us as to the depths that the addicted Milland stoops to procure booze. He pilfers a womans purse in a night club to play for his bar tab and gets caught. Soon running out of money, he becomes desperate and winds up in a frightening hospital alcoholic ward. He begins to suffer delirium tremors and hallucinations. He flees from the hospital but is contemplating suicide as an escape from his problems.

Billy Wilder's expert direction is an extremely unsettling window into the sordid, unflattering lifestyle of the chronic alcoholic. The scenes from the hospital ward were particularly terrifying. Milland's performance probably represented the pinnacle of his acting career. Howard da Silva, playing Nat the local barkeep and Frank Faylen, of Dobie Gillis fame, playing male nurse Bim both gave excellent performances.