The apartment

July 11, 2010The Apartment (1960) *****Directed by Billy WilderMy tweet:The Apartment (1960)- (second viewing) One of the great movies about loneliness ever made. ***** out of 5Other thoughts:Someone recently called me a giver. I can understand why considering the context in which she said it. A couple of weeks ago, I took a web page design course with a bunch of teaching colleagues of mine. I was the youngest person in the class by about ten years, and though I'd never used Dreamweaver, I had done some web page stuff with this blog, so the world wasn't completely new to me like it was to pretty much everyone else in the class. The teacher, who is another colleague, usually teaches this course to high school stu! dents who live their lives with technology. The class full of adults that I was in needed a lot of time to master the concepts, and they needed to ask a lot of questions. Not to brag, but I was always the first to finish, and rather than sit there and watch time pass, I was more than willing to go around and help out others who asked. By the end of the week-long class, I was spending hours helping out other people...so much so that I was one of the last to actually complete my final task. Another colleague who was getting the concepts pretty fast kept her mouth shut about the fact that she was finished, thereby alleviating her from having to help out other people. When I asked her if she was finished and why she didn't help me out with other people, she said that I, unlike her, am a giver.I'll concede that I perhaps got taken advantage of in the course because of my niceness, but I can confidently say that I'm nowhere near the pushover of C.C. Baxter, played by Jack Lemmon,! in Billy Wilder's Best Picture Oscar winner from 1960, The Ap! artment. Here's a man who lets married men use his apartment at night in order to have somewhere to go with their mistresses. Baxter vacates the premises during these ordeals, which often requires that he stick around at his work until ridiculously late hours waiting to call his apartment his own once again. Baxter's a push over, and he rationalizes everything by convincing himself that these favors will be good for his career. In reality, though, Baxter doesn't have the guts to stand up for himself and say no.Eventually, he does get a promotion with the help of Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), a married executive, in exchange for Sheldrake's use of the apartment with an elevator girl named Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Baxter has taken a liking to Fran as well, but when he learns of her fling with Sheldrake, he ends up heartbroken. Ultimately, Sheldrake, Fran and Baxter's lives all cross paths when Sheldrake breaks up with Fran at Baxter's apartment, which causes Fran to attempt ! suicide. Baxter then must nurse Fran back to health.Here's Baxter in a situation with a girl he likes who's passed out in his bed. Clearly, Baxter could do a lot of pretty awful things to her, but his decency shines forth as he truly begins to fall for this sad, naive young woman. It's through virtue that Baxter learns to grow a backbone, though it might all be for nothing when Sheldrake gets caught by his wife and turns to Fran for companionship.Yet, The Apartment isn't just about Baxter becoming his own man; it's also about Fran coming to learn that she's better than simply being someone a married man can go to when he's bored at home with his wife. This is one of the great character studies of all time, and it's striking how much this film is aware of the sex life of adults. There's no sex in the film, but everyone in the movie except Baxter is clearly having sex, and they all rationalize their actions so they don't have to think about the people they're hurting when the! y treat other people simply as objects for their pleasure.Dece! nt, inse cure individuals get hurt when people succeed in manipulating them for their own personal benefit. Baxter and Fran are the ones who are taken advantage of, and thankfully they find each other due to tragic circumstances. Many think of The Apartment as a light, pleasant film, but like many of Wilder's films, it's very dark considering that Fran absolutely would be dead had it not been for Baxter. Also, Baxter would probably be perpetually alone living in ever increasing self-loathing had it not been for Fran.Baxter and Fran are both profoundly imperfect, but they're also eminently likable. Few characters in film history merit the audience rooting for their happiness more than the two of them. This is due to two important factors. First, the performances of Lemmon and MacLaine are so fantastic that the two ought to be given a great deal of credit. Baxter specifically could have been played as a moping nitwit, but Lemmon goes in a completely different direction with a performan! ce that's full of energy and his signature physicality. His is a theatrical performance, yet Lemmon rarely goes over the top.Second, though we might not want to admit it, it's easy to see ourselves in the insecurities of Baxter and Fran. They represent those parts of ourselves and our relationships that we wish could be different. It's a tough world we live in, and these are difficult lives we lead. Both are themes all too present in Wilder's work. We know all too well the fears and disappointments of these two protagonists.The Apartment is one of the more astute dark comedies ever made. It's so tender, joyful and devastating at the same time. There's no happily ever after for Baxter and Fran. That would be too simple for such emotionally troubled individuals. The best we can hope for is that the rest of the day they spend together playing gin will be free of the turmoils that have plagued them throughout the film.
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