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That's because I just noticed this yesterday on a rewatch of the film and added it. Not only that, but as Don's outer world becomes darker as the movie progresses, the slash of light on his door becomes brighter. 🤔

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Well, not THE matte shot, but a certain type of matte shot that gave more of a 3-D effect. Some sloppy wording on my part. 😬

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Yes, you are correct- Seitz invented a certain type of 3-D matte shot, not "the" matte shot in general. That was an over-simplification because of character limit, but I should have been more precise. 🫢

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Holy (circular) cannoli! I think you found them all and then some!

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Thanks so much for watching with us! #TheNoirCollective

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Aww, thanks for being there with your always wonderful enthusiasm! 😊 🙏❤️

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Yes, lots of these kinds of shots, especially later when he gets to the hospital ward. In those scenes it is done more with lighting, as the imagery becomes more abstract to reflect Don's shaky state-of-mind. #TheNoirCollective

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I've never heard "clattered", but I like it! And I've always thought of "pissed" is more of an English/Aussie term, although it would've worked nicely with my alliteration!

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Oh, absolutely! Just perhaps not a big challenge for a cameraman of Seitz's caliber. And I will say that the good doctor is no Nancy Drew, but then, I have a slight Bonita obsession... 😁

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Thanks for being there! (And am I Jack or Dennis?) #TheNoirCollective

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Gotta have on on every checklist! 😆

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Thanks for watching #TheLostWeekend with us, everyone. @tommykrasker.bsky.social and I hope you found our interminable insights... well, insightful! 😄 #TheNoirCollective

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#NoirChecklist for #TheLostWeekend: -Sap protagonist -Inexplicably loyal gal pal -Gabby bartender -Barroom floozy (in lace!) -Multiple flashbacks -Mid-film musical number -Nosy landlady -Bonkers hallucination scene -Dual identities -More rye on display than a pumpernickel bakery #TheNoirCollective

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Well folks, how many circles did you count in #TheLostWeekend? Here's a start for the #CircleChecklist; add your contributions below! #TheNoirCollective -Circular opening and closing shot -Glass water rings on the bar -Pawnshop signs with three globes...

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And the opening pan of the city repeats, but now moving in the opposite direction, completing– however tenuously– Don’s circular journey. Billy Wilder: “A film where the whole story is fully resolved doesn’t exist. It’s impossible.” #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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Crucial revealing mirror shot- Drink! Cinematography once again helps to tell the story! #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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On black and white film, color filters can produce creepy effects. #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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Seitz: “Since the character is having the DTs…I lit it just as harsh as possible…We did most of that first effect on Milland’s face with makeup and an orange-yellow filter which really made him look God-awful. So that gave us something to shoot toward for the rest of the film.” #TheNoirCollective

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Seitz loved to put objects in foreground not only to help tell the story, but also to direct audience perspective with focus and contrast. The turned-over lamp seen when Don enters his apartment recalls his desperation, just like the bottles are a symbol of the escape within. #TheNoirCollective

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Byron Haskins: “Fred Gage, lab superintendent at Metro, used to stand anxiously over the developing tanks at night, praying there was something on Seitz's film because he was a very low-key light man. Fred would say: 'Oh, God... be something!'… and eventually it'd show an image.” #TheNoirCollective

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Long before Gordon Willis was dubbed “The Prince of Darkness” for his low-key work on The Godfather, Seitz was using absolutely minimal light. Wilder: “He was very gutsy…He went to the limits of what could be done.” And Seitz knew just how far to push those limits for effect. #TheNoirCollective

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The radical camera angles and crazy-quilt shadows at multiple conflicting angles in the hospital scene put the viewer into Don’s confused, alcoholic-withdrawal state-of-mind; cinematography supporting character development! #TheLostWeekend #TheNoirCollective

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If you caught my pre-show, you would know when John Seitz literally invented the lighting style seen in this shot. (There’ll be a quiz later...) #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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Note the bright illumination solely on Don’s door; his apartment is his refuge, the only place he feels safe, and he is heading out into the dark world once more, to shame and degradation… Cinematography helps to tell the story... #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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John F. Seitz on the complicated extreme close-up "eye" shot: “I was right over him. We had a special effect lens for that. I said, ‘Ray, don’t breathe, don’t breathe!’ I had just a little light. And we had a guy to change the focus as we went back on the dolly” #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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Seitz was trained in the silents (see my pre-show), an era dependent on insert shots. Wilder wasn't from the silent era, but his mentor Lubitsch was. And Wilder found the perfect partner for his modern heightened realism in the star of silent cinematography, John F. Seitz. #TheNoirCollective (2/2)

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Wilder liked to say that “the insert shot was the thing”– a silent close-up, usually of an inanimate object of importance, that helps tell the story quickly and visually, like a news headline. #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend (1/2)

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It’s no coincidence that the main characters in three out of Wilder’s four major noirs are writers or reporters. Wilder started out as a reporter, which gave him a knack for creating visual motifs quickly and vividly, as reporters must do in news writing. #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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Don’s a little tight? Helen, honey–my shorts are a little tight after Thanksgiving dinner. Yer man is blotto, stewed, sloshed, schnockered, plowed, plastered, polluted, potted, hammered, three-sheets-to-the-wind, ripped, wrecked, wasted, tanked, totaled, and sh!t-faced drunk! #TheNoirCollective

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Like his fellow deep-focus master Gregg Toland, John Seitz’s keen knowledge of film lab processes and film stocks allowed him to compose shots like this one from a phone booth, that holds focus all the way across the hotel lobby. #TheNoirCollective #TheLostWeekend

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#TheLostWeekend is probably the Wilder/Seitz collaboration that is closest to film noir’s roots in German Expressionism, as evidenced by the various hallucination sequences, done by veteran special effects man Gordon Jennings. #TheNoirCollective

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Seitz’s genius was refining the techniques of classic art into the new medium of film, inventing what we think of as the “modern” style of cinematography: modeled faces, bright backgrounds for depth, and eventually the deep mid-frame shadows of film noir chiaroscuro. #TheNoirCollective

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