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9.4/10
FilmFascination Rating
I had seen some Billy Wilder movies before ‘The Apartment’. So I had some expectations before starting the movie and I have to say, I am not disappointed.
Lemmon plays an insurance clerk, C.C Baxter, who works in this busy corporate office consisting of hundreds of employees, sitting so close to each other on the office table that it is even suffocating to watch it. Baxter is a lonely guy who somehow has been bullied into lending his apartment to the executives of his company to carry out illicit affairs just before they catch the train to meet their wife. His neighbour, Dr. Dreyfuss hears all the love-making sounds and thinks that Baxter is a ladies’ man. The irony is that Baxter is in fact waiting on the sidewalk of his apartment, staring at his apartment window, for his executives to complete their activities.
Wilder and Diamond based the film partially on a Hollywood scandal in which high-powered agent Jennings Land was shot by producer Walter Wanger for having an affair with his wife, actress Joan Bennet. During the affair, Lang used a low-level employee’s apartment. And why is Baxter tolerating all this? It is obvious – to climb the corporate ladder as quickly as possible.
Baxter is a bachelor and apparently, does not have a family. He has a crush though on one of the elevator girls, Miss Kubelik. And he is slowly shyly falling in love with the pretty and smart girl. Even when he pulls off the guts to ask her for a movie, she keeps him waiting outside the theatre because she meets up with one of her former lovers, who turns out to be the married Mr. Sheldrake, one of the directors at Baxter’s office. In a way, it is a cynical view of self-deception and the cruelty involved in one-sided love. There is nothing too much outstanding in the plot, in fact, it is quite simple.
But Baxter here is an interesting character. Sometimes you get why he is doing what he is doing and sometimes you don’t. The times when you don’t – is because you think, it is just a movie, isn’t it? Things would have been simple if he would just tell what he wants. But the thing is Wilder isn’t trying to create some fairy tale here. He is in fact creating a very ordinary man with an ordinary yet interesting life. Once you get that, you will understand why things are the way they are.
The jabbering he does just to hide his pain, the chatter just to handle the situation quickly. That is what a man would have done in real life. That is the reason why Baxter and Miss Kubelik take so long to make the romantic leap. The characters in the movie aren’t delusional. They are in fact realists who have responsibilities just like us. It is this grounded reality of the movie that makes it so special. The fact that there is no special romantic kiss, in the end, is evidence of this fact. But again, I couldn’t have asked for a better ending. The movie is also lifted considerably by the performances. May it be the cuteness of Fran Kubelik that is aced by Shirley MacLaine, Lemmon’s finesse in playing C.C. Baxter, or the warmth shown by the Dreyfuss couple.
The black and white picture may have dipped the jolliness that goes in with the office parties or the cheerfulness in the bars and restaurants when the holidays are nearby. But the details in the movie for getting that giggle from the viewers are excellent. I remember the scene where Baxter down with cold speaks of not spilling the secret and spilling his nasal drops like a fountain at the very moment. This scene was in fact improvised by Lemmon. The repetition of the “-wise” dialogues or the way both the lead characters show the number 3 by four fingers are just some of the things that make you remember the movie.
There are movies that try so hard with all the cinematography and CGI. They get all fancy and as flashy as it gets. Then there are movies like this one- pure cinema, just natural. They do ordinary things in such an extraordinary way and grab a place in our hearts.
Favourite Quotes
C.C. Baxter: That’s the way it crumbles… cookie-wise.
C.C. Baxter: Miss Kubelik, one doesn’t get to be a second administrative assistant around here unless he’s a pretty good judge of character, and as far as I’m concerned you’re tops. I mean, decency-wise and otherwise-wise.
Margie MacDougall: Where will we go, my place or yours?
C.C. Baxter: [pauses to look at his watch] Might as well go to mine. Everybody else does.
C.C. Baxter: You hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you.
Fran Kubelik: Shut up and deal…
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