Something a bit different today. Feeling weak after 6 days off the booze – then how about a Sunday afternoon film about the perils of drink…
The Lost Weekend is an Oscar winning film starring Ray Milland who plays a recovering alcoholic who slips off the wagon. Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Charles R Jackson, the film was directed by Billy Wilder. He says that he was drawn to the story after working with Raymond Chandler on the screenplay for Double Indemnity. Chandler was a recovering alcoholic at the time, and the stress and tumultuous relationship with Wilder during the collaboration caused him to go back to drinking. Wilder reputedly made the film, in part, to try to explain Chandler to himself.
The Lost Weekend is a noir masterpiece with an outstanding performance by Ray Milland who won best actor for his role as Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer who hits rock bottom on a four-day bender in New York. From its great opening shot of the whisky bottle hanging outside Birnam’s window to the hallucination scene later in the film, The Lost Weekend is uncompromising in its depiction of the lies, self-deception and degradation of alcoholism and its confrontation of the fact that the only solution is abstinence.
Cheers Dryathletes! As I type I’m sipping a lime soda rather than the afternoon speciality beer that Geoff and I normally share while making the Sunday dinner! Remember you can sponsor me by clicking HERE
To get a flavour of The Lost Weekend take a look at the official trailer below.
