PR agent and social drinker Jack Lemmon meets secretary and teetotaler Lee Remick. They marry and soon she's a drinker too, their alcoholism eventually spinning out of control. The film is, again, in gorgeous black and white, directed by Blake Edwards and also starring Jack Klugman as an AA councelor.
It's a very good film. Not every scene rings completely true, it's a bit too Hollywood at times, but far less moralizing than what I had expected. Lee Remick is of course cute as a button, so to see her in her alcoholic state, clutching a bottle, is even more tragic. It seems quite realistic in the way Lemmon gets sober and joins the AA, but is dragged down again by Remick's dependency, and finally has to leave her to save himself and their daughter. When it becomes clear that there will be no happy ending it's very moving, even more so since it's an old Hollywood film and happy endings pretty much are the rule. The final image sums up the film by being both slightly corny and heartbreaking.
Days Of Wine And Roses is a wonderful movie, in many ways, especially in terms of acting, I still remember the scene of delirium tremens... but as you well said towards the end becomes very moralistic. Anyway, this movie is one of the best films about drunks. And again, I recommend you see the best of all, "The Lost Weekend" by Billy Wilder.
ReplyDeleteA classic of classics, with a remarkable script, full of great dialogue and good performances. As I said before, the best movie about Bukowski without
Bukowski.
Delirum Tremens scene; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gav3R730RU
best, LuchO
I don't find the film that moralistic. I haven't seen Lost Weekend yet, but doesn't it end with the guy just deciding to stop drinking and then everything is fine? The ending of Days seems more realistic.
ReplyDeleteI don´t know which is more realistic, but for me Lost Weekend touches many more topics, such as insanity, locking up the literary creation itself. It has more to do with the emptiness of man and his correspondence with art and alcohol, with reluctance. Days of Wine and Roses is about the consequences of a life of alcohol, and that to me is much more moralistic. the fact that the woman end badly and not the man is clearly a move by the writer for a spin to the matter, and it works pretty well. Anyway is a great movie. did not want to ruin the end of the lost weekend, but if it ends well, not in a moralistic sense, but involves many other issues, is ending a much more hopeful, perhaps, above all inspiring. one of the talks the girl tells Don: "Drink it. I want you to drink it. I'll get you some more. I'll get you all you want... It's just that I'd rather have you drunk than dead..." and after that the ending is perfect.
ReplyDeletePD: the scene that I send you is one of the emblematic, but the film is much more "landed"