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Overview

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The Lost Weekend, 1945

Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Written by: Charles Brackett

Language: English

Country: USA

Runtime: 101 min

MPAA Rating:

Rating:8.1

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Profile of The Lost Weekend

The Lost Weekend can be described as bleak, gloomy, and captivating. The plot revolves around alcohol abuse, themes of life is a bitch, and themes of mind and soul. The main genre is drama. In approach, The Lost Weekend is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. It is located in New York. The Lost Weekend takes place in the 20th century. Visually, it is black and white. It is based on a book. The Lost Weekend has received attention for being a Cannes festival winner, a Golden Globe winner, and a classic. Note that it involves drugs/alcohol.

Summary of The Lost Weekend

Ray Milland stars as alcoholic writer Don Birnam in Billy Wilder's first unabashedly dramatic film, and one of the first to deal in such painstaking detail with the disease of alcoholism. Don shares an apartment in New York City in the 1940s with his brother Wick (Phillip Terry) who has his hands full trying to deal with his brother's drinking problem. One night, Don encourages his brother to take his girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) to hear some music only so that he can be out from under their watchful eyes. Taking the money left for the maid, he goes out to buy some liquor, stashing one bottle in the chandelier. When he goes to the bar the next day, Nat (Howard Da Silva), the owner berates him for treating his girlfriend badly and warns him that he's on a path toward death. Don returns to the apartment to try to work on his novel "The Bottle," but consumed by self-doubt, goes to another bar, and steals a woman's purse to buy a drink. As the weekend wears on, his spiral downward continues apace. Although dated in some respects, the film's unadorned portrait of the relentless torture that is alcoholism still packs a powerful punch thanks to Wilder's sharp script, the deep-focus camerawork of John Seitz, and a career performance by Ray Milland.

Details

Language:	English
Country:	USA
Release date:	16 November 1945
Runtime:	101 min
Awards:	Cannes,Academy Awards

Awards

Ray Milland for Best Actor at the 1946 Cannes

Ray Milland for Best Actor at the 1945 Academy Awards

Billy Wilder for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1945 Academy Awards

Charles Brackett for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1945 Academy Awards

Billy Wilder for Best Director at the 1945 Academy Awards

Awarded Best Picture at the 1945 Academy Awards

Cast and Crew See all

Ray Milland

as Don Birnam

Jane Wyman

as Helen St. James

Photos See all

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Users Reviews See all

Wow, for 1945 a very hard and nearly unromantic look at alcoholism especially for the day. The movie is the story of a single day of an alcoholic, with flashbacks of the previous years and how it devours the soul of a person. Ray Milland is simply... Read and rate it

30.March.2009
|
by: Parker in MN
Parker in MN rated this movie8/10Great

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