Handsome, up-and-coming writer Don Birnam is being taken away for the weekend, but at the last minute, manages to dodge his attentive girlfriend and long-suffering brother. The people who care about him out of the way, The Lost Weekend belongs to Don's true love: alcohol.
With a screenplay adapted from Charles R. Jackson's semi-autobiographical novel and Billy Wilder directing, The Lost Weekend became a smash hit, despite its formerly taboo subject - and it has stood the test of time remarkably well.
The success is in large part due to the film's uncompromising take on an alcoholic's behaviour. Brilliantly portrayed by Ray Milland in an Oscar-winning performance, Don is a man broken by his desire for liquor and willing to go to any lengths for a drink - yet his descent into cunning manipulation, petty thievery and thuggery never becomes silly or mawkish, and the use of stylised monologues and flashbacks to allow the audience access to his thoughts is clever, without being melodramatic.
Barely striking a false note, (the exception perhaps being the film's slightly suspect but understandable conclusion,) The Lost Weekend was something quite different for Wilder, but as the Best Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture Oscars attested, it was exceedingly well done.
For crazed, comedic, and darkly melancholic take on addiction, look no further than cult 80's film Withnail & I. Withnail and his roommate are actors struggling for recognition, living in a scuzzy flat and abusing any substance that comes their way. Featuring an utterly electrifying performance from Richard E. Grant as the self-destructive Withnail.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Monday, 6 January 2014
Ordinary People
A must-watch due to its pedigree as the
winner of Best
Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor at the 1981
Academy Awards, I hadn't actually any idea what Ordinary People
was about until reading the synopsis on the case. It was with a slight
sense of dread I wondered what I was letting myself in for, but I was
rewarded with something subtly remarkable.
Robert Redford's directorial debut is a quiet drama, packed with explosive moments. Pacing slowly through the opening, Ordinary People allows the audience to piece together its subject matter one strained conversation or nightmare flashback at a time, until it's apparent we're exploring a changed family dynamic after a tragic death.
Naturally, it's emotional, but the authentic tone and sensitive handling avoids melodrama or sentimentality. The characters truly are ordinary, next door types, (albeit in a very nice neighbourhood!) with real worries and problems, ripped apart by their differing ways of dealing with their grief.
Delving into the ways they handle their feelings and examining guilt, avoidance, over-compensation, openness and deflection, Ordinary People takes place in a time when it wasn't "nice" to talk about your problems, and brings to the fore the need for communication, even when it's hard to talk. A brilliant take on grief and depression.
If Ordinary People looks at grief and communication amongst teens and adults, sweetly nostalgic Stand By Me does the same for children. Again, it's the loss of an older brother overshadowing the story, but in this case, it's twelve-year-old Gordie's friends who pull him through.
Robert Redford's directorial debut is a quiet drama, packed with explosive moments. Pacing slowly through the opening, Ordinary People allows the audience to piece together its subject matter one strained conversation or nightmare flashback at a time, until it's apparent we're exploring a changed family dynamic after a tragic death.
Naturally, it's emotional, but the authentic tone and sensitive handling avoids melodrama or sentimentality. The characters truly are ordinary, next door types, (albeit in a very nice neighbourhood!) with real worries and problems, ripped apart by their differing ways of dealing with their grief.
Delving into the ways they handle their feelings and examining guilt, avoidance, over-compensation, openness and deflection, Ordinary People takes place in a time when it wasn't "nice" to talk about your problems, and brings to the fore the need for communication, even when it's hard to talk. A brilliant take on grief and depression.
If Ordinary People looks at grief and communication amongst teens and adults, sweetly nostalgic Stand By Me does the same for children. Again, it's the loss of an older brother overshadowing the story, but in this case, it's twelve-year-old Gordie's friends who pull him through.
Saturday, 4 January 2014
To Sir, With Love
Set at a tough high school in London's East End, at the tail end of the swinging sixties, To Sir, With Love is tagged as heavy-hitting social drama. It stars Sidney Poitier as a out of work engineer who takes a temporary teaching post to tide himself over, and singer Lulu, as one of the class, performs a soaring theme song of adolescent angst and gratitude.
I was amused to find the film much less dramatic than I had expected. That's not to say it doesn't address tough issues - it does, and they are still current, the characters negotiating violence, racism, sex, poverty, and death, as well as the difficulty of being taken seriously by adults. The issues of growing up, then, haven't changed much since 1967 - but the behaviour presented as so shocking is sweetly dated - the dreadful teens seemed to me almost sweet by today's standards!
However, this is a film with great heart, and Poitier's teacher-turned-advisor gaining the respect of his class, giving wayward youths lashing out against their own helplessness a sense of personal responsibilty, and even provoking change in a fairly reactionary community, is a lovely thing to watch.
A good teacher - student relationship can be hugely important in a teenager's life. That relationship in Half Nelson begins when a troubled student discovers her charismatic young teacher struggles with a drug addiction. A deft blend of social commentary, sensitive performances and hopeful spirit.
I was amused to find the film much less dramatic than I had expected. That's not to say it doesn't address tough issues - it does, and they are still current, the characters negotiating violence, racism, sex, poverty, and death, as well as the difficulty of being taken seriously by adults. The issues of growing up, then, haven't changed much since 1967 - but the behaviour presented as so shocking is sweetly dated - the dreadful teens seemed to me almost sweet by today's standards!
However, this is a film with great heart, and Poitier's teacher-turned-advisor gaining the respect of his class, giving wayward youths lashing out against their own helplessness a sense of personal responsibilty, and even provoking change in a fairly reactionary community, is a lovely thing to watch.
A good teacher - student relationship can be hugely important in a teenager's life. That relationship in Half Nelson begins when a troubled student discovers her charismatic young teacher struggles with a drug addiction. A deft blend of social commentary, sensitive performances and hopeful spirit.
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