The Apartment (1960)
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
Sadly Over-hyped
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Intelligently written and beautifully shot; The Apartment follows a gullible pushover C.C. getting taken advantage of for his apartment which is located in a prime nightlife side of town. He keeps his head down and his mouth shut , fore he seeks promotions with his apartment hustle. Eventually the head boss catches wind of his scheme - and promotes C.C. to the top position , in exchange to use the apartment to screw the woman C.C. secretly loves at his job.Great framing , all wide shots no close-ups. Excellent use of supporting/background characters (the doc, the neighbors, some lower-level employees, head boss mistress secretary, biker brother-in-law) . Overall great experience of how cinema once was8.5/10 - It's aged but it aged well
My local cinema does "Secret Movie Night" once a month, you just show up and watch a "classic" of their choosing, you just don't know what it is until it starts.One of the reasons that I enjoy this is that I end up viewing films that I might not, otherwise, choose to watch. Case in point is the selection for May - the 1960 Oscar winner for Best Picture, THE APARTMENT - a "love story" with some comedy and some dark dramatic moments and themes. A very tricky combination of items that are bundled together, brilliantly, by a master of the craft.THE APARTMENT tells the story of nebbish office worker C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon in an Oscar nominated performance, more on that later) who is talked into lending his apartment to higher-ups in his company so they can carry out extra-marital affairs. When one of the affairs goes wrong, Baxter is forced to "clean up the mess".Written and Directed by the GREAT Billy WIlder (SOME LIKE IT HOT, SUNSET BOULEVARD), The Apartment is more than a love story, more than a look into the vacuous lives of those anonymous office workers, it is a look into the lives of those who are victims of abuse of power. Wilder, rightfully so, won the Oscar for Best Director and Best Screenplay for this film. The Apartment is strongly written and directed not flinching at the deep subject matter while also balancing things out with moments of comedy and joy, turning what could have been a dour, dark subject into a more joyous exploration of true humanity and love rising through the corruption and abuse of power heaped upon them.In the lead role of CC Baxter, Lemmon is perfectly cast. Starting as a pure comedic character who is set upon by a world too strong for him, his character slowly turns sharper, deeper, more serious and more real as the film progresses. Lemmon was nominated for the Oscar for his performance - and rightfully so. I had to look up who beat him out for the statue and found out it was Burt Lancaster's powerhouse performance in ELMER GANTRY, so I can't really argue about this (but I digress).Matching Lemmon beat for beat is Shirley MacLaine, the wronged girl who's "issues" (I'm not going to spoil what happens, if you haven't seen this) are at the heart of this film - and at the heart of Lemmon's character. MacLaine is charming and tragic in this role and she, too, was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Actress losing to Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8). Rounding out the cast was a pre-MY 3 SONS Fred MacMurray (as the Exec who abuses both Lemmon's and MacLaine's characters). He was terrific as this cad, and thought for sure that he would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but that honor went to Jack Kruschen as Lemmon's neighbor in the apartment building where they both lived. I am fine with that but preferred MacMurray's performance. Also showing up are such great character actors as Ray Walston (MY FAVORITE MARTIAN), David Lewis (GENERAL HOSPITAL), Willard Waterman (THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE) and David White (Larry Tate in BEWITCHED) as other Execs using The Apartment for their purposes.This is a terrific motion picture and if you haven't seen it (or if you haven't seen it in quite sometime), I highly recommend you check it out (it is shown on the Turner Classic Movie channel on a fairly regular basis). It certainly shows a slice of life during the MAD MEN days that just doesn't exist anymore - and also presents a type of film, and a type of filmmaker, that just doesn't exist today.Letter Grade: A+10 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
I will not talk about the acting and the other things that every film stand on but i will talk "screen writing". For me the most beautiful thing on Billy's movies is the story.It was easy to understand. the dialogues were too beautiful and well written. The sequence of events was more than good so there was no boredom during the movie. At the end i would like to say that Billy all his movies are well written and too joyful.
A man low on the corporate totem pole has an apartment. Men higher up on the ladder make an arrangement with him: they'll "borrow" his apartment for their extra-marital affairs, and he'll get in good with the big boys. Yes, the premise is enormously dated. Feminists today will not like this movie.The man with The Apartment has a crush, albeit an awkward, un-suave crush, on the girl who runs the elevator in the company building. Unfortunately for him, the cute elevator girl is involved with one of the "renters" of his apartment. The plot sounds pretty dramatic, and it actually is. This classic romance has gained a reputation over the decades to be a charming romantic comedy, but even though it's a Billy Wilder movie with Jack Lemmon as the star, it's not really a laugh-out-loud comedy. That being said, my favorite part of the movie is when Jack Lemmon strains his pasta through a tennis racket and sings the meatball song. It's not a scene to guffaw over, but it's charming and heartwarming, just like the rest of the film.This is a classic romance with an iconic ending, so if you're not a feminist, you'll definitely want to see this one. And if you're looking for a modern reboot, be sure to watch Loser with Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear!