The Apartment
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Movie Reviews of The Apartment
Movie Review: "Why do people have to love people anyway?"
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen thousands of films, but have managed to miss some of the great ones. This was the case with "The Apartment" until recently. It won the 1960 Best Picture Oscar, and the reasons are evident even 45 years later.
Jack Lemmon stars as C.C. Baxter, recently arrived in NYC from Cincinnati, a faceless insurance company drone trying to make his mark. He's got a hook; he loans his apartment to his superiors and their mistresses. This leads to some very funny moments as he often regrets allowing himself to be used like this, and has good reason to look down his nose at these middle-aged adolescents and their Clintonesque hijinx.
Fred MacMurray costars as the head of personnel, who's become aware of Baxter thanks to the recommendations of promotion given him by said middle-aged adolescents. He smells a rat, and calls Baxter on the carpet for a very enlightening and confidential conversation. There's more than one rat, and more than a few middle-aged adolescents here, including those who won't spell it out.
Shirley MacLaine costars as Fran, a pretty, young elevator operator with no apparent social life. The guys are all intrigued, especially Mr. Baxter. But "no apparent social life" does not equal "NO social life." And thereby hangs the tale.
Writer/producer/director Billy Wilder had been successful in Hollywood for over two decades before this 1960 hit, having come to the US from Berlin when Hitler came to power in the early '30s when many European Jews wisely fled for freer pastures. He's at his very best here, with the laughs in the early part of the film being delivered with a jaded but not totally jaundiced eye, and the drama and true romance later in the film being delivered first with a few literal hard slaps in the face but then with a light but never schmaltzy hand.
The film is over two hours, and not a wasted moment. Every performance seems totally natural. It's also a joy to see so many antique appliances functioning as they were created to; the ancient stoves and ovens, the record player, the '50s TV set, the telepones with dials instead of push buttons, the elevator operators and even their ground floor coordinator! It isn't self-conscious or self-congratulatory about any of these things or the characters who use them, either, so in 2005 it plays more like a period piece and not an outdated relic.
"The Apartment" has my highest recommendation for anyone who hasn't seen it. You owe it to yourself to see this classic, although the American Film Institute really slights it by ranking it only #93 on their top 100 American films of all time. ("Giant" outranks this? Puh-leeze.....)
Movie Review: "In the midnight of the soul...."
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first saw this film in 1960, I missed almost all of its darker themes and their serious implications. By then, Billy Wilder had written and directed a number of other films in which he also explores such themes. For example, The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), and Love in the Afternoon (1957). I had already seen them and only years later fully appreciated their significance as well as The Apartment's in terms of Wilder's use of social satire. I am reminded of the fact that the original meaning of sarcasm is "ripping of flesh." Over the years, I have seen The Apartment again several times and am now convinced that -- despite its comic moments -- it offers one of Wilder's most cynical commentaries on human nature. J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) uses and abuses Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) to satisfy his lust; moreover, he exploits the naked ambition of C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemon) so that he (Sheldrake) and other senior-level executives can use Baxter's small apartment for their sexual dalliances. Baxter exchanges his "cooperation" and "discretion" for a series of corporate promotions. He is also attracted to Kubelik (obviously the film's most sympathetic character) and only much later realizes the nature and extent of Sheldrake's callous exploitation of her vulnerabilities. His "deal with the devil" upsets him only when he becomes aware of its human implications (i.e. Kubelik) and its impact on his own self-respect. Baxter's process of enlightenment is comparable with that of another character played by Lemon, Joe Clay, in Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Of special interest to me is Wilder's use of the Dr. Dreyfuss character (Jack Kruschen). He functions somewhat as a Greek chorus as the narrative progresses, sharing his opinions, but also becomes actively involved when his professional assistance is needed. I was also intrigued by MacMurray's performance in a role unlike almost all of the others he has played in films and television programs. Perhaps only a director with Wilder's talents could elicit such a performance. He received and deserved Academy Awards for direction and for co-authorship (with I.A.L. Diamond) for best original screenplay. The Apartment was selected for an Academy Award as best film, also well-deserved. Although the corporate machinations it examines may now seem dated, Wilder's guarded affirmation of human decency does not.
Movie Review: Superb acting and story!
Summary: 5 Stars
In "The Apartment", Jack Lemmon gets to showcase and stretch his acting ability like in no other movie, and that's why it's my favorite Lemmon flick. Being a mixture of comedy and drama, we get to see Lemmon's raw talent and the ease at which he is able to accommodate the requirements of a given scene.The 60's N.Y city setting is the perfect backdrop for Lemmon's attempt to climb up the ladder of success, by allowing his "higher-up" co-workers at the insurance company where they work access to his apartment for their various trysts and affairs. While the whole thing started as more or less an accident, Lemmon ("C.C. Baxter") puts up with the many inconveniences of the arrangement because he quickly sees the value ("business-wise", that is) of his beneficent behavior. And it seems to pay off when he finally receives a promotion, only to discover that his new boss ("Mr. Sheldrake", played by Fred MacMurray) also wants in on the apartment "action". The plot then thickens when Lemmon begins to fall for an elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) who happens to be the girl that Sheldrake is having an affair with.....
The storyline moves quickly so there is never a boring moment and the viewer easily becomes sympathetic to Baxter, who ultimately must make the "career vs. integrity" decision. As the movie continues, the funny lines and scenes (and they are top-notch) diminish somewhat and the more poignant moments surface - Lemmon is equally at home in both worlds. MacMurray as "the villain" works surprisingly well, and although I am not a Shirley MacLaine fan, she is excellent in this movie.
The DVD quality is very good and far surpasses my old VHS copy, plus it's in wide screen format.
Directed by Billy Wilder. The black and white works exceptionally well, creating an ironic sense of isolation and despair in the ever-bustling and often humorous world of unstoppable human.....progress? Not only my favorite Lemmon movie, but one of my favorite movies period, and one I watch 2 or 3 times each year. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Sad and almost true...
Summary: 5 Stars
This film was so close to being awesome and yet I didn't quite like the ending as much as I could have. What I don''t like about this film is how films are so insistent on giving us a happy ending regardless of how much reality has to be suspended. For the entire film the main character is taken advantage of, used, stood up and beaten down time and time again. And yet at the end of the movie, somehow his love interest sees the error of her ways and comes running back to him. I completely disapprove of that. If this were real life, after she had drained every drop of anything good she could possibly get from him, she would come back and steal his kidney(s) and then run off with his boss to live unhappily for the rest of her life and wonder why she is so unhappy. That is what would happen if this were real life.
That being said, I did like this movie. A lot.
Jack Lemmon is a likeable character named Baxter; he loans his apartment out to people in his office so that they can pursue their romantic intentions away from the prying eyes of their wives. This of course leads to complications when he loans the apartment out to the director of his company Mr. Sheldrake (Fred McMurray) and his mistress (what Baxter does not realize is that Mr. Sheldrake's mistress is in fact his own love interest Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine)).
The characters in this film are very real. Miss Kubelik is a woman who has been taken advantage of by Mr. Sheldrake many times before, and yet she keeps making the same mistake over and over. Mr. Sheldrake is a conniving man who cheats on his wife, has so many mistresses that he can't even keep them straight, and gives his lady friend a $100 bill for her Christmas present; yet he is the man who is the director of the company. Then there is Baxter who falls in love with a girl that stands him up and treats him, by all accounts, very poorly; yet he can't help but fall in love with her. These are all themes that rings as true today as I am sure they did back in 1960.
Movie Review: Too marvelous for words
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Apartment" is the model of the kind of movie they don't make anymore, not even Cameron Crowe, who took his inspiration for the excellent "Jerry Maguire" from this movie. Brimming with incredible (and incredibly real) dialogue, unobtrusive but picture-perfect direction, and outstanding performances, "The Apartment" defined the sophisticated-urban-romantic-comedy genre that later gave birth to such classic creations as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Sex and the City". There were funny stories about living in the big city before but they were never so well told, never so packed with humanity, and never so out-and-out FUNNY. Billy Wilder may be known for his acid-tongued humor about people stabbing each other in the back, but what makes "The Apartment" great is not its vitriol but the humanity of its two main characters, both of whom Wilder clearly cared about very much. I've never seen the ending as a cop-out, as many critics who relish Wilder's notoriously black humor have called it. This is a love story, folks; if you want a story that ends badly with two people who can't stand each other, look at real life. That's why we started writing stories in the first place, because life never goes where it would if we were in charge.
On a personal note, I'd just like to add that this movie actually saved my life. Many years ago a woman I loved left me one week before Christmas, taking all the furniture with her, leaving me only a chair, the TV and VCR, and a bare Christmas tree. Rather than kill myself like I wanted to, I watched "The Apartment" over and over, and seeing the similarly lonely C.C. Baxter gradually work things out gave me hope until I could do it for myself. I recommend this movie not just because it's a great movie, put together by artists at the top of their game, but because there is a spark of Life in it that survives, 45 years later, untouched and unfaded.