"The Lost Weekend" 1945: Reviewed

Talk about perfection.

Have you ever finally gotten around to watching a movie and, after it’s over, realized what an idiot you were for not watching it sooner?  That’s how I feel after watching The Lost Weekend.  I haven’t seen a movie this wonderful since Portrait of Jennie way back in July.

For those of you who have never heard of this movie or who might have but are clueless as to what it’s about, The Lost Weekend showcases an alcoholic’s troubles over the weekend.  Of course, that ten word description hardly does the picture justice.  Directed by the wonderful Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland in the title role, this is not a picture you want to think twice about watching.

Milland, who earned an Oscar for his performance, plays a man by the name of Don Birnam.  Birnam just so happens to be a writer, as well as an alcoholic.  Throughout the movie Don struggles with his alcoholism and his failures in life.  Being a “writer” (if that’s what I can call it) myself, it’s interesting to see how he struggles with the fact that he can never write more than is hardly anything.  Experiencing through his storytelling how his writer’s block and harsh self-criticism drive him to excessively drink really gets to you.  How can a man who has so much potential—he points this out himself when he says he was declared a genius at age nineteen and has had his writings compared to that of Hemingway—let himself slip away so much?

Never having ever been around someone drunk, I’ve never experienced the side effects of too much alcohol.  But the way the movie is written out and shot gives quite the insight.  There’s not just the silly walking around and slurred remarks.  You see the horrible things the alcohol drives Don to do—how it makes him crazy with cravings for just one more glass.  How he’ll pawn anything, swipe anything, do anything just to get a little more cash to pay for the next round of drinks.  The Lost Weekend is about a drunken man, but it’s not a movie that uses drinking to create comedic relief.

In fact, after watching this movie it’s okay to feel slightly offended when movies do do that because it’s not something to laugh at.  Too much drinking can be a serious problem.  I know you’ve all probably heard that at least once in your lifetime from someone—whether that be a parent, police officer, whatever.  But it almost becomes real when you see the hallucinations Don’s intoxicated brain conjures up and you see him pushing away everyone else all because of a bottle of rye.

It seems so many times Don tries to quit but fails.  He keeps resorting back to alcohol.

“Well, the first thing I wrote, that didn't quite come off. And the second I dropped — the public wasn't ready for that. I started a third and a fourth. Only by then, somebody began to look over my shoulder and whisper in a thin, clear voice like the E string on a violin. "Don Birnam," he whispered, "It's not good enough, not that way. How about a couple of drinks just to set it on its feet, huh?”

It drives at him, nags at him, drives him insane.  At one point he says he’s tried to end it all once with a gun and a couple of bullets.  Yet that voice in his head “always wants us to have a drink first.”  And so starts the next round of drink after drink, drunken night after drunken night.  He has a problem, he knows the problem, yet he’s near helpless when it comes to resolving it.

By the end of the film, your brain should be fried, as well as your emotions.  This movie just takes on a ride and never ceases to amaze you.  From the acting to the dialogue to the directing and cinematography, this movie is terrific in every aspect.  It deserves every award it received, as well as any it might one day in the future.

Review Out!

~Bailey

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The Best Lady Ever and She Doesn't Have Any Good Quotes

Inspired by Nat's post who was inspired by Marcela's post, I am happy to announce that it is...PICTURE TIME.
Rosemary Clooney is my role model.  Yes, I write English speeches and papers on her.  Yes, I have trouble cutting out information and staying within the given time frame/number of pages.  But she was truly an amazing and strong person.  One of the number one things I love about her is her smile and her laugh.  Half the time words cannot express how much I admire her.  So, here are some of my favorite Rosie pictures:

Her smile is just always so bright.

The fact that she's with dogs should be enough.

This I "received" as a "gift" from Nat last year in the birthday collage she made me.

Her laugh.  She lights up.

One of the few colored photos I have of her.  So pretty.

This one's one of my all-time favorites.

Her smile again.  It never looks forced or fake to me.

With Jim-Jim.

Starting out with dear ole Tony Pastor.

This is a close second for favorite Rosie pictures.

I feel like this picture shows her true, other side, her more depressed side.

What I would give to have been in that crowd...

Again with the laughing and the smiling!

Two of my favorite things: Rosie and pools.

First: Admit it.  This lighting is so cool.

So young and with Frankie Sinatra!

With daughter Maria.  She looks like such a caring mother.

With sister Betty!

The entire Ferrer gang: Rosie, Jose, Miguel, Maria, Gabriel, Monista, and Rafael (probably not in that order.)

And there's that smile again.

If you ever feel like getting your ear talked off, ask me about Rosie.  I would give you a quote here, but I'd have to look through This For Remembrance if I wanted to find a decent one.  Instead, I shall turn off my sad Band of Horses song, take out my contacts, brush my teeth, and head to bed.  I shall leave you with a Rosie song!

Don't you just love how she smiles when she sings and you can hear said smile in her voice?  If not, listen to this then Come On-a My House.  You can totally tell she's not happy to be singing that song; she sounds so angry when she's singing.

Yes, I'm going, I'm going!
~B.
And someone help me remember that I still need to write a letter to dear Rosie before next Friday!

Save the Classics!

Today I was scrolling through Tumblr, wasting time as usual, when a very important matter popped up: that of which films to add to the National Film Registry to safely preserve.  I've seen clips of Ginger Rogers talking about how many films have been lost and the necessary steps should be taken to ensure that the classics always live on.  I agree and feel strongly about this.  That's why I payed special attention to the following post:
JUST PUT YOUR LIPS TOGETHER AND BLOW: hornbecks: 2012 National Film Registry Nominations Closing...

2012 National Film Registry Nominations Closing Soon

Attention old Hollywood bloggers and film lovers of all stripes—

The Library of Congress is accepting nominations for the National Film Registry until September 28, 2012. Every year, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, in collaboration with film experts and the National Film Preservation Board, selects up to 25 films for inclusion in the Registry, which will ensure that the movies will live on in a government archive, maintained by a team committed to ensuring that movies deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” live on.

You can submit up to fifty nominations to the Library staff by sending an email to dross@loc.gov or by mail at:

National Film Registry
Library of Congress
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
19053 Mt. Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701
Attn: Donna Ross

Include the title and year of release for each of the films you would like to nominate, and be sure to number the list.

You may vote for any movie made in or before 2002, but it’s the oldest fims that are in the most danger. Here is a list of classics that have not yet been archived. These include

• Gilda
• The Sheik
• A Day at the Races
• Girl Shy
• The Mummy (1932)
• To Have and Have Not
• Design for Living
• Inherit the Wind
• The Gay Divorcee
• Steamboat Bill, Jr.
• You Can’t Take It with You
• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
• Pride of the Yankees
• Random Harvest
• Strangers on a Train
• The Postman Always Rings Twice
• The Razor’s Edge
• Rebecca

as well as iconic animated films like Cinderella, Dumbo, Rabbit of Sevilleand Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century. These movies will, eventually, crumble to ash if serious action is not taken now.

If you want to advocate for these movies, you have to vote. Make sure to send in your nominations by the deadline, and then you’ll know that youstood for a film, even if you stand alone. You’ll have voiced the dire necessity of preserving our history, our heritage, the work of the people we love—and that’s what really matters.

There are tons of movies on this list, ranging from 1890-2002.  I wrote down 8 pages worth of movies I intend to send in an email about.  Movies such as the above, as well as After the Thin Man, Mary Poppins, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grease, Dirty Dancing, Titanic (97), Little Women, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Breakfast Club, Since You Went Away, The Princess Bride, Arsenic and Old Lace, Auntie Mame, The Blob, and tons of others made up the entire list.  It's extremely depressing to me to think that all of these great movies could essentially become destroyed if the proper precautions are not taken.  I know only 50 movies are to be sent in, and I know that I wrote down over 50.  However, I intend to send in as many emails from different addresses as I can to ensure that people in the future can still enjoy what we do today.  These films are classics for a reason, and they need to be preserved.  

So I ask that you please take 30 minutes or so to read the list and send in your votes because our films won't  last forever and it's up to us to make sure that they do.

*REMEBER: You MUST send in your emails by SEPTMEBER 28TH, 2012.

Thanks guys.

The "To-Do" List

Dun dun dun.

(This is me writing my list.)

No, really, lists are good for everyone.  A habit I picked up form The Princess Diaries.  <3

• finish Insurgent
• Actually write my admired person speech out about Rosie.  I may know way too much information to be considered a normal amount, but that does NOT mean I can get up in front of everyone and make sense.
• study for my camera test tomorrow
• change the layout of my Tumblr page (Though I am NOT happy with it...  >:/)
• add tags to all my posts on this blog
• organize my picture folders some more
• completely update my CH Movies Seen slideshow
• finish watching No Man of Her Own
• finish watching Parnell because I just remembered today that I never did
• get some actual, good sleep
• CLEAN.  MY.  PIGSTY.  room.
• sort my clothes and get rid of the old ones
• order some new CH movies/CDs/autobios
• charge my iPod
• make an attempt to keep my bed made (though there's almost absolutely no point because I'm one of THOSE sleepers.  You know: the kind that twist, toss, and turn in their sleep and end up kicking their sheet to the end of the bed and throwing their Harry Potter squishy doll on the floor and completely turn my bed spread around and yeah...)
• organize my school binder
• PRACTICE MY CLARINET
• organize my bookshelf
• write.  and just write.  on actual paper.
• clear off my desk
• cross off the days on my calendar, which is on said desk, covered with papers and such
• throw out all these gift cards that probably only have 30 cents left on them
• GET TO SELLING THOSE UGLY OLD TWILIGHT THINGS.  That obsession is LONG over, B.
• tape up some things and take down others (from the walls)
• answer Ashley's Tumblr messages
• clean up this "mess" I've been leaving behind over behind the scenes at Film-Classics.  (Don't tell anyone, but all the ILL episodes I've unlocked have yet to be relocked.  But not for long!  (I hope.))  (And I got the Films section clean up, too!  :D)
• write my letter to Rosie for Nat's latest blog-a-thon
• get a life

Awful long list...better get started.

~Off to write a stuffy essay that won't help me much, then study for a test that hopefully will be easy to pass.

Oh.  And make tomorrow's lunch.

P.S.  We had our first history test last week and there was a question on there whose answer is quite honestly obvious: True or False: Queen Elizabeth I divorced her 3rd husband. 

Quite obviously false.  My reasoning for it being so quitely obvious?  SHE WAS THE VIRGIN QUEEN.  SHE NEVER MARRIED.  

Why does no one seem to know this but ME?!  (And my 6th grade brother.  But he doesn't count.)  Not even my dad, my history buff father, knew that.  Who else did they think VIRGINia was named after, if not for the VIRGIN QUEEN?!

GAH.  THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END.

"How To Avoid Sleep" by Bailey

Yes.  It's 10:50 on a Sunday night and I have school at 8 tomorrow morning.  Which requires getting up at no later than 6:45 to shower.  We can see how well I am at putting off certain things I really need (SLEEEEP).
Last week (actually, exactly 9 days ago), I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth.  If you've never read this book or the series at all, get out of here.

Okay, now come back.

Really, you're very lucky because I have been constantly attacked by FEELS (feelings, for those of you who do not kill countless brain cells on Tumblr) these past days.  I read Divergent in 7 hours last Friday and I now have about 100 pages left of Insurgent.  Wow.  I.  CAN'T.  TAKE.  IT.  I never thought anyone could be as cute as Lucy and Ricky/Lucy and Desi.  And then I found Nick and Nora Charles and they almost were.  And then there's Juliet and Shawn/Maggie and James.  Do you know how many FEELS that is?  On top of it all, I now have Fourtris (the main ship for the Divergent trilogy) to cut my heart in half.  And Insurgent is NOT.  HELPING.
In other news, reading Veronica Roth's blog is "inspiring" me to write.  So instead of paying attention in Algebra like I should tomorrow, I will write.  Because that's what I do.  Because that's how that little bump on my right ring finger came about.  That's right.  While normal people (or maybe that's just Jo March) have ink or lead or something on their hands, I have a bump.  No, it's not a wart.  I don't get warts.  I've had this thing for YEARS.  See, when I write, I hold my utensil with my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and rest it on the side of my ring finger.  Now maybe a normal person would not have a problem with this.  But I write fast and I write hard.  The utensil pushes up against my ring finger, thus creating my little writing bump.
And that is my main writer's trademark.
Plus, has anyone ever (at least slightly) studied handwriting analysis?  I find it so fascinating.  I always like looking at my handwriting and how I form letters and words.

Cool picture of the day:

(Taken from judyforever)

~B.
(P.S.  And, yes.  I am now trying out the first initial sign off thing.  I need a change in my name life.  You can't really get many nicknames from Bailey, and, though I've recently been contemplating Bai, that name has long been strictly reserved to cousins and other family members.  And even then I hardly ever liked it.)

And this is exactly what I'm talking about...

Wow, time flies.  Yupp, this is exactly how every website/blog/whatever that I've created/worked on/whatever became neglected.  It's been nearly 3 weeks: shame on me.  School started Wednesday the 15th, so between that, swimming, homework, Tumblr, Psych, and other things I have neglected something very important.

Onward ho!

Last night I finally finished one of the books I highlighted three weeks ago, Alicia: My Story.  Can we all just take a moment to appreciate people like Alicia Appleman-Jurman?  If you read the post, you might recall that Alicia is a Polish Jew.  The book is about 433 pages long and covers 8 years.  The whole story is so heartbreaking; she goes through so much.  Living through the pain that both Alicia and her mother live through is terrible.  At one point her mother, knowing she is going to die anyway, throws herself in front of the bullet meant to kill Alicia.  This was maybe the saddest part of the book for me.  Sitting in Algebra 2, I had to take a deep breath and quickly close the book before my tears started to fall.  After the war is completely over and Alicia is allowed to return to Buczacz, her hometown, she still does so much more for so many people.  Remember, Ala is only 14 or 15 when the war ends.  She goes on to run an orphanage consisting of roughly 24 children who survived the concentration camps, work for the Brecha, learn 2 more languages, find at least 3 surviving extended family members, and travel to Eretz Israel (Palestine) only to be captured by the British and be imprisoned for 8 months.  You could really say the war doesn't end for Ala until 1947.  But this is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.  It's really capturing.

Lately, I've really gotten into (okay, maybe really is an understatement) a show called Psych on USA Network.  Now, I'm not one for modern TV shows or movies or TV in general.  But this is one awesome show.  It's full of culture and I guess that's one of the reasons I respect it.  It's packed full of references mostly to movies from the 1980's.  While not my favorite decade, I still like watching movies from then.  Besides that, you do get the very, very occasional CH reference (Ginger Rogers, Phantom of the Opera 1940's, etc.), and some modern references to awesome book series (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson).  Plus, the random breaking out into song sometimes seen in the show (but mostly in the bloopers.)  While I love the whole cast (have you ever seen a modern-day couple as cute as Maggie Lawson and James Roday?!), I really respect and envy Corbin Bernsen.  That name probably doesn't ring a bell: why do I like him so much?  Well it's really the fact that he was in the movie Radioland Murders, something I really want to see.  Sure, the movie looks pretty good.  But my dear Rosie (Rosemary Clooney) is in the movie, according to her Wikipedia filmography list.  Now, whether she really was in it or her voice/a clip of her was used from the CH days I'm not sure.  But the fact that he was in a movie that I associate with Rosemary Clooney just makes me all happy and warm inside.  If I ever meet or write to him, my first question will be about Radioland Murders.

Schpeal over; have a picture!

...Or two.  :D
Top: Rosie, who seems fakely surprised with her book
Bottom: Jaggie, or James Roday and Maggie Lawson

~Bailey

Vacation Books

Even though I have been home from vacation for nearly a week now, I figured I'd still share with ya'll my book schedule over the course of our 13-day trip.  We went from Ohio to Washington, D.C., to Pennsylvania and back home to our boring state.  We stopped at my grandparents on the way out and, my Papa being really in to History (gee, I wonder where my dad and I get it?) and having lived through all my favorite decades, I always enjoy looking through the books they have available at their home.  I grabbed a book that looked interesting (and familiar) mainly because I couldn't find the two books I swear I'd grabbed before leaving.  While in D.C., I bought four more books.  I'm set for a few more weeks yet.
Before vacation, the last book I'd finished was Shirley Temple's autobiography and I was having a hard time finding something that matched the awesome of this book.  So I grabbed a book that's been on my shelf for quite some time now and...what I've read is okay.  So far.  (I'm not very far in.)  Here are the books I brought along on vacation:

• Around the World in Eighty Days
• Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the 99 Steps
• The Great Escape
• Wreck this Journal
• Rutka's Notebook
• Edith's Story
• Alicia: My Story

The first is that book that's been on my shelf for ages (or so it seems).  I'm really only about 10 or 20 pages in.  To be honest, I'm reading it just because I know there's a movie out there, and I really prefer to read the books first.
The second: don't laugh.  I like my Nancy Drew and I borrowed a handful from my grandma a few years ago and I've only ever read a few.  I wanted a good mystery, especially since I'd been accustomed to seeing a few episodes of Psych every day.  I've yet to start this one...
The Great Escape is the book I picked up from my granny and papa's.  Yes, I grabbed it because I recognized the title.  On top of that, it's a book about WWII and Lord knows I read so little on the actual war portion.  Again, I'm only a few pages in; I'm not big on war/fighting books.  Of course, this (for those who have not seen the Steve McQueen movie, like me) is more about a bunch of men and their any attempted escapes from Nazi POW camps.  The whole concept sounds cool.  I just have to get myself into it.
Wreck this Journal is a fun book I bought from the International Spy Museum in D.C..  If you haven't already, head on over there.  Talk about the coolest museum EVER.  I bought it because my friend, Ari, has the same book but in German.  (She was one of our foreign exchange students last year.)  Seeing her destroy a book looked really fun and a great way to relieve stress.  So there goes ten bucks.
These last three are the fact that I have no control over myself when I see books about the Holocaust.  I spent at least $30 and that was with lowered prices, thank GOD.
I learned about Rutka Laskier around May last year when I was fixing up my English 1 final project.  I was on a mini-quest to find her book, Rutka's Notebook, for a couple of weeks.  It donned on me that the Holocaust Museum in D.C. had to have it.  And that just happened to be the number one thing I wanted to see in D.C..  It took me three different locations in the museum to find this book.  I have to say: I was a bit disappointed in how the book turned out.  Rutka is coined "The Polish Anne Frank."  I don't know about the rest of you, but when I think of that I think of the style of writing; Anne Frank was a very mature writer.  Rutka?  Not so much.  Currently I'm at a loss as to why she is even called that, unless they are talking about the fact that she was most wrongfully murdered at such a young age.  The whole book is set up somewhat strangely as well.  Her diary (kept when she was in a Polish ghetto) is only about 60 pages long, so the other 50 pages are filled with background information on ghettos, Rutka's half-sister's finding of Rutka and her quest to find more about her, and some other information.  In the back there is a bibliography of Holocaust recounts.  A couple sound really good.
I read Edith's Story next.  (Yes, I'm reading these three by size.)  This one was much better.  Unlike Rutka, Edith (spoiler!) survives the war.  She and her brother, Jules, decide to go into hiding in order to avoid being transported.  Her other brother, Guus, had been sent off to live in America earlier in the book.  Before Guus was sent off to America, Edith lived with her brothers Guus and Jules, her father, her mother, and her maternal grandmother, Oma.  Only Edith and Guus survived the war.  It's really such a great, touching story. You truly suffer and feel for Edith.
Lastly, my favorite of the three: Alicia: My Story.  This story is so...fabulous.  Alicia is Polish, like Rutka.  However, what Alicia and her family go through is horrible.  While Rutka's family was all kept together in their first ghetto, Alicia's was not.  The opening paragraph to the book tells you everyone's fate right off the bat:
First they killed my brother Moshe...
Then they killed my father...
Then they killed my brother Bunio...
Then they killed my brother Zachary...
Then they killed my last brother, Herzl.
Only my mother and I were left.
The book is so engrossing.  I'm halfway through.  In 1944, everyone finally believes that Poland has been liberated and the war is over for them.  The exiled Jews had slowly started to trickle back in and BAM.  The Germans come back.  Freedom was so close, not only for Alicia, but also for the reader.  To have that freedom ripped away, no matter if you lived it or are reading it, was horrible.  Alicia is but thirteen and she'd already escaped death so many times and helped so many people.  This is, by far, one of the best Holocaust books I have read.  Personally, I would refer to Alicia as the Polish Anne Frank, not Rutka.

So with school starting in just nine days, I've got a book or two to keep me busy (if my hectic schedule doesn't take care of that.)  Hopefully I won't burst into tears while I'm reading instead of paying attention in Chemistry...