The Lost Weekend

Homer Simpson once said “To alcohol, the cause and solution to all of life’s problems.” Addiction. It is a vicious cycle of highs and lows that Wilder brings to life in “The Lost Weekend.” Described throughout the film by many characters including the main addict, Don Birnam, as a state of mind that has no beginning and no end. When seated at the bar Don speaks of this cyclical state of mind in terms of his “little vicious circle” left behind by a shot glass filled to the brim with his favorite drink, straight rye. It is the perfect geometrical figure… no end and no beginning. If you look closely you can see how Wilder uses this endless pattern throughout the film. Take the scene when Mr. Birnam tries to pawn his typewriter. All the loan/pawn stores are closed, strangely gated off like he is trapped in a cell. As he stumbles across town, Wilder flashes pic after pic of a circular clock. As Don passes by Gloria’s place, a call girl from his favorite bar, you notice in the background a cylindrical spiral pattern tube often scene out side of barber shops. As it rotates it gives off an illusion of an endless spiral with no end and no beginning. Next time I see the film I will be sure to note whether the spiral is rotating up or down. I would imagine it is in downward motion to reflect how Mr. Birnam at the time is in a trough of one of his massive mood swings. Even Don’s hallucination of a bat is flying in a circle around the room. Most importantly though, the circle motif is played upon when Don is about to commit suicide. With the revolver in the sink, Helen St. James (his companion) sees the reflection of the gun in a circular mirror. It is then, when she sees the cause of his death depicted in that “vicious circle”, that Helen realizes the extent of Don’s addiction. Wilder is trying to show us when the human mind becomes trapped in this continuous cycle of addiction, time has no meaning, people have no meaning, life has no meaning because there is no end; therefore there is no beginning.

Love the black and white.
Samuel Sandoval