Writer’s block in The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Fotocinema.2019.v0i18.5527Keywords:
Writing, writer’s block, Billy Wilder, The Lost WeekendAbstract
The adaptation of Charles R. Jackson’s novel The Lost Weekend posed a first problem to the writers Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett: they could not explain the alcoholism of the protagonist from his homosexuality. They decided, therefore, to develop another theme, that of the writer's block. The responsibility of the writer on his words is raised in the film through the story of his “lost weekend”, in which his vision of the world will be nuanced from different types of writing, ranging from that one formed by simple indexes to the most complex symbolic writing. The end of the film does not only point to the redemption of the alcoholic, but to the learning of the ultimate meaning of writing, always according to the dominant mentality in classical Hollywood: the belief that writing only makes sense when its message goes beyond mere literature, urging readers / viewers to react in a certain way.
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