The first step to the wine merchant The husband meets in the street some friends who invite him to go and have a drink in a café.

The five scenes are each composed of one single wide shot taken by a static camera in front of theatre-like sets.

[2] Les victimes de l'alcoolisme is the first known cinematic adaptation of a novel by Emile Zola.

The book on which it is based, L'Assommoir, would be the subject of a further three French cinematographic adaptations before the outbreak of World War I, L'Assommoir in 1909, Les Victimes de l'alcool (English: In the Grip of Alcohol/Victims of Alcoholism) in 1911 and Le Poison de l'humanité (English: An Accursed Inheritance) in 1912.

"Described by French film historian Georges Sadoul as a pantomime the Zola/Zecca narrative of the decline of a working class family due to the effects of chronic alcoholism and encroaching poverty has remained one of the most popular of all the naturalist texts to be adapted into film.

Dwight Vick notes that "Les victimes de l'alcoolisme was the first attempt by the newly formed Pathé Company to exploit the burgeoning demand for anti-alcohol and anti-absinthe propaganda.

"[5] Pathé itself emphasised this objective in its presentation of the film, which referred to the success of History of a Crime in 1901: "Encouraged by this first success, we are now presenting to our customers a play that is even more dramatic than the previous one, more interesting and above all much more moral, because it touches on a social plague that is becoming more and more pervasive by the day, we have named Alcoholism (...) we are convinced that by publishing this scene we will help the many anti-alcoholic and temperance societies who think, like us, that in order to fight this evil that is decimating humanity, example prevails over all laws.