← Back to Reviews
in
73. The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Lost Weekend is still one of the only two films that won both the highest award in Cannes and the Academy Award for best film (the other one is Marty). That actually says a lot about this great picture, as it is obviously experimental and extremely audacious for its time (Cannes), but still has that vintage class and classic feeling (Oscars) thanks to Wilder's tasteful directing and Ray Milland's brilliant performance (one of my personal favorites of all time).
To this day, this is still considered one of the best films of all time about severe alcoholism and I completely agree! It hasn't dated a bit and is still very relevant today. I'm a pretty 'consuming' alcohol drinker myself (although I wouldn't call myself an alcoholic as I don't need it and can stop drinking it for more than a month without having any real problems) and very much enjoy the student life, which is of course full of alcoholic adventures, but I've also experienced and seen some of its darker sides already. It makes you do stuff you don't really want to do and makes you extremely egocentric after a while. This film portrays that brilliantly and in a very insightful way and it shows why it's therefore an extremely dangerous drug to become addicted to.
I also just LOVE the title of this film. I mean, "The Lost Weekend", how freaking cool and poetic does that sound, right? I actually use it in real life. I love it just as much as the movie. A timeless classic.
-------------------------------
The Lost Weekend is still one of the only two films that won both the highest award in Cannes and the Academy Award for best film (the other one is Marty). That actually says a lot about this great picture, as it is obviously experimental and extremely audacious for its time (Cannes), but still has that vintage class and classic feeling (Oscars) thanks to Wilder's tasteful directing and Ray Milland's brilliant performance (one of my personal favorites of all time).
To this day, this is still considered one of the best films of all time about severe alcoholism and I completely agree! It hasn't dated a bit and is still very relevant today. I'm a pretty 'consuming' alcohol drinker myself (although I wouldn't call myself an alcoholic as I don't need it and can stop drinking it for more than a month without having any real problems) and very much enjoy the student life, which is of course full of alcoholic adventures, but I've also experienced and seen some of its darker sides already. It makes you do stuff you don't really want to do and makes you extremely egocentric after a while. This film portrays that brilliantly and in a very insightful way and it shows why it's therefore an extremely dangerous drug to become addicted to.
I also just LOVE the title of this film. I mean, "The Lost Weekend", how freaking cool and poetic does that sound, right? I actually use it in real life. I love it just as much as the movie. A timeless classic.
-------------------------------