Fri January 30, 2015
The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder; US, 1945)
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at PFA Theater
(see times)
Winner of four Academy Awards!
The Lost Weekend is probably the forties’ most famous problem picture, and today loses little of its original power. Ray Milland’s Don Birnam is a failed writer, an anxiety-prone weakling who uses alcohol as an escape. A number of short, episodic scenes mount gradually in intensity until the two climactic passages, which occur respectively in an alcoholic ward and at Birnam’s apartment during a fit of delirium tremens. Other sequences convey Birnam’s agony even better: his attempt to pawn his typewriter on Third Avenue on Yom Kippur; and, in particular, the scene in Harry and Joe’s Bar, played and directed with exemplary delicacy and finesse, in which Birnam robs a girl’s handbag, and is thrown out protesting ‘I’m not a thief!’ Wilder has seldom used his camera more daringly. Telephones, overturned lampshades and, of course, bottles loom menacingly in the foreground of the compositions, while John F. Seitz’s New York exteriors capture in drab grays and blacks a city stripped of glamour and allure. Holding it all together is Milland’s admirable performance, conveying the character’s softness, his voluptuous surrender to indulgence, to perfection. —Charles Higham, Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties
• Written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, from the novel by Charles R. Jackson. Photographed by John F. Seitz. With Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Howard da Silva. (101 mins, B&W, 35mm, From NBC Universal Distribution)
show less
The Lost Weekend is probably the forties’ most famous problem picture, and today loses little of its original power. Ray Milland’s Don Birnam is a failed writer, an anxiety-prone weakling who uses alcohol as an escape. A number of short, episodic scenes mount gradually in intensity until the two climactic passages, which occur respectively in an alcoholic ward and at Birnam’s apartment during a fit of delirium tremens. Other sequences convey Birnam’s agony even better: his attempt to pawn his typewriter on Third Avenue on Yom Kippur; and, in particular, the scene in Harry and Joe’s Bar, played and directed with exemplary delicacy and finesse, in which Birnam robs a girl’s handbag, and is thrown out protesting ‘I’m not a thief!’ Wilder has seldom used his camera more daringly. Telephones, overturned lampshades and, of course, bottles loom menacingly in the foreground of the compositions, while John F. Seitz’s New York exteriors capture in drab grays and blacks a city stripped of glamour and allure. Holding it all together is Milland’s admirable performance, conveying the character’s softness, his voluptuous surrender to indulgence, to perfection. —Charles Higham, Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties
• Written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, from the novel by Charles R. Jackson. Photographed by John F. Seitz. With Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Howard da Silva. (101 mins, B&W, 35mm, From NBC Universal Distribution)
Winner of four Academy Awards!
The Lost Weekend is probably the forties’ most famous problem picture, and today loses little of its original power. Ray Milland’s Don Birnam is a failed writer, an anxiety-prone weakling who uses alcohol as an escape. A number of short, episodic scenes mount gradually in intensity until the two climactic passages, which occur respectively in an alcoholic ward and at Birnam’s apartment during a fit of delirium tremens. Other sequences convey Birnam’s agony even better: his attempt to pawn his typewriter on Third Avenue on Yom Kippur; and, in particular, the scene in Harry and Joe’s Bar, played and directed with exemplary delicacy and finesse, in which Birnam robs a girl’s handbag, and is thrown out protesting ‘I’m not a thief!’ Wilder has seldom used his camera more daringly. Telephones, overturned lampshades and, of course, bottles loom menacingly in the foreground of the compositions, while John F. Seitz’s New York exteriors capture in drab grays and blacks a city stripped of glamour and allure. Holding it all together is Milland’s admirable performance, conveying the character’s softness, his voluptuous surrender to indulgence, to perfection. —Charles Higham, Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties
• Written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, from the novel by Charles R. Jackson. Photographed by John F. Seitz. With Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Howard da Silva. (101 mins, B&W, 35mm, From NBC Universal Distribution)
read more
The Lost Weekend is probably the forties’ most famous problem picture, and today loses little of its original power. Ray Milland’s Don Birnam is a failed writer, an anxiety-prone weakling who uses alcohol as an escape. A number of short, episodic scenes mount gradually in intensity until the two climactic passages, which occur respectively in an alcoholic ward and at Birnam’s apartment during a fit of delirium tremens. Other sequences convey Birnam’s agony even better: his attempt to pawn his typewriter on Third Avenue on Yom Kippur; and, in particular, the scene in Harry and Joe’s Bar, played and directed with exemplary delicacy and finesse, in which Birnam robs a girl’s handbag, and is thrown out protesting ‘I’m not a thief!’ Wilder has seldom used his camera more daringly. Telephones, overturned lampshades and, of course, bottles loom menacingly in the foreground of the compositions, while John F. Seitz’s New York exteriors capture in drab grays and blacks a city stripped of glamour and allure. Holding it all together is Milland’s admirable performance, conveying the character’s softness, his voluptuous surrender to indulgence, to perfection. —Charles Higham, Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties
• Written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, from the novel by Charles R. Jackson. Photographed by John F. Seitz. With Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Howard da Silva. (101 mins, B&W, 35mm, From NBC Universal Distribution)
show less
Date/Times:
PFA Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
The Best Events
Every Week in Your Inbox
From Our Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
Great suggestion! We'll be in touch.
Event reviewed successfully.