Who Is Who?
"'Deaf, but deaf.''"
Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945)
Points
for Reflection
Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945)
- Why might the opening shot, a slow and very long pan, extend across so much of the city before zooming in on the bottle outside Don’s window?
- Do Wick’s reminders about “what you’ve been through” constitute a kindness, from Don’s p.o.v., or a burden?
- How patient does Wick appear at the film’s opening?
- Why does Don wish to avoid the country club, the symphony, and other public places? Is his reasoning justified?
- Why does Helen twice ask Don to “bend down”? As a later shot makes clear, he doesn’t need to bend down for her to accomplish what she’s requesting, so why might she ask?
- Is Helen’s willingness to stand by Don mark her as, in a sense, mentally ill, as Wick suggests in passing (21:24)?
- Why doesn’t Don buy quality whiskey?
- What has Don bartered in the past to get alcohol?
- What does Don briefly attempt to do to stave off his addiction?
- Does Don understand himself and his addiction relatively well?
- Does Don’s addiction affect his moral sensibility?
- Does alcohol successfully boost Don’s creativity?
- Why does Gloria hang out with a variety of older men?
- Does the film as a whole suggest that Don’s addiction is, as Helen suggests, a problem akin to his having “something wrong with his heart or his lungs” (19:45), or is alcoholism configured as a product of choice, as Wick maintains (20:05)?
- Is Nat a good friend to Don?
- What role does Don’s alcohol obsession play in the early days of his relationship with Helen?
- Does Wick’s behavior towards his brother’s difficulties, three years in the past, map neatly onto his current attitude towards Don’s addiction, or has something changed in the interim?
- Does Don consider alcohol an aid to creativity?
- Don describes himself as divided in half--into two separate facets of himself. Does this internal division mirror that found in Dr. Jekyll’s psyche?
- This film targets alcoholism; does its critique encompass nicotine addiction too?
- Has addiction become a key facet of Don’s identity, in either his own mind or that of others?
- The bathroom assistant is a man of color. Does the film use his appearance to provide a commentary on race?
- As Don walks slowly through New York City—a scene interspersed with closeups (which employ back projection for the background)—what does his (and our) gaze take in? Why does Wilder include these particular locations?
- What does the agreement between pawnshop owners suggest about interfaith dialogue?
- Are we suppose to concur with Gloria and the landlady that Don is unusually attractive?
- Do we know enough about Gloria to explain why she likes Don so much?
- What commentary does the film obliquely provide about Prohibition, which lasted 1920-33?
- Does Nurse “Bim” appear to believe everything he’s saying to Don, or might he have a covert strategy?
- Where does Don stand while waiting for a liquor store to open on Sunday/Monday?
- Does Don hallucinate the scenario with the mouse, or does this actually happen?
- When Helen shows up on Don’s doorstep, following their tense exchange in the rain, how does Don behave?
- Is the ending a hopeful one?
The Lost Weekend (1945)
screenshot
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
