Great movie. As filmed, as staged, everything is just magnificent. However, perhaps subjectively, the film has one problem: the ending. I don’t know anything about the making of the film or the author’s opinion about the film, and I’m not familiar with the criticism of this film. Maybe I made it all up for myself.
Okay, first of all, about the movie itself - it's beautiful, how it's shot, how it's staged, seemingly just a white-collar melodrama, which is beautiful in a seat in an office space. But these angles, the skill of production, and of course - a black and white film from an era when it was possible only so, but this picture is not outdated.
Now to the final. The ending of the film goes well with it, it is sent to the events that happened, the words spoken, the objects used, and most importantly sums up. However, there is a moment in the film that, in my opinion, is better suited for the role of the end of the film.
It feels like it's the same situation as Bourne Superior, who knows? The ending is even as visually separated from the film as it was in the spy action movie.
But maybe that’s just my problem, the movie is good anyway.
Sentimental, touching, beautiful, black and white tragicomedy of the great director of Hollywood classics Billy Wilder.
The guy, who is the only bachelor in the department office, rents out his apartment to colleagues so they can have fun with the girls. He's doing it to move up the career ladder. At some point, he falls hopelessly in love with the office lifter and all further events in his apartment will be associated with her, because it turns out that she also visits this nest with her lover.
Great cast! Jack Lemmon (everyone knows him from Daphne in Jazz Only Girls) was a favorite of the director.
Billy Wilder has repeatedly mentioned in interviews that he does not know a more hardworking actor.
Shirley MacLaine is so charming in this film that it is absolutely impossible not to fall in love with her.
With all the simplicity of the film, which is almost all shot in one location - a small uncomfortable apartment, in the absence of intrigue and bright events, the picture turned out to be quite deep. It touches the soul and fills the viewer with tender longing for love.
After watching this film, the viewer will think about his own relationship in love, about how sensitive he is to the one who is nearby. And this is very important, because cinema is designed not only to entertain the audience, but also to heal the soul.
The film raises several important social issues that Wilder presents with his own irony. In general, the film has a lot of light, pleasant, humor. Very accurately spelled and played all the characters, very recognizable everyday stories and situations. And the main idea is simple, but eternal – love conquers everything.
I once lived like Robinson Crusoe. One day I saw a trail on the sand, it was you.
Billy Wilder, the mastodon of Hollywood, began writing screenplays for German silent films. Subsequently, one of the milestones of his work was the tragicomedy “Apartment” (1960), the motive for the creation of which was the Hollywood scandal: the wife of the producer Wenger started an affair with the actor. They met in the apartment of his colleague, for which the actor received a bullet from a jealous husband.
Wilder, a director, screenwriter, and often a producer of his own films, immerses us in a world where marital infidelity is common, and career advancement is impossible without the provision of “special” services. But here, too, social satire leaves room for the romance of melodrama.
The main character C.C. Baxter in his laid-back absurdity and naivety is not at all like everyone else. Or is it one that is recognizable in the hundreds of faces we see on the streets in this century? Inconspicuous, but kind and helpful insurance clerk is not averse to making a career, extracurricular activities help him in this. Baxter graciously "loans" the keys to his bachelor apartment to married colleagues to meet with mistresses. “Buddy” or “buddy from work”, as he is called by those same colleagues, resembles the eternal vagabond performed by Charlie Chaplin. Here he is forced to wander through the night city and freeze, unable to refuse a sneaky guest of his apartment. And here is one at an empty cinema waiting for a girl who is not in a hurry to meet him.
The overall plans in the film emphasize the loneliness and emptiness of the hero. In addition, most events take place in the evening, in a muted light, giving the black and white film a resemblance to noir paintings. Wilder seems to pay tribute to his early works in this genre - Double Insurance (1944), Lost Weekend (1945) and others. True, the atmosphere here is not so much tense and oppressive as dreary as the everyday life of Baxter. With the same success, the lyrical musical theme conveys his dull mood. In moments of change - whether it is a promotion at work or a meeting with a beloved girl - it is replaced by cheerful solemn motives.
Perfectly got used to the image of the charming Jack Lemmon, widely known for the film “Only Girls in Jazz” (1959), where he starred together with Marilyn Monroe and his wife. No, not Tony Curtis (also in the film and no less popular actor of the last century), and with Joan Scholey. The last in the “Apartment” got the secondary role of a secretary, but Marilyn did not get the role.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine her as an elevator driver Fran, played by a young Shirley MacLaine. A brunette with a short haircut, she stands out against the background of the mass of girls with lush styling, characteristic of the time: Fran easily cut her hair, which “nervated” her.
Behind the external smile, briskness and inaccessibility of the heroine lies a longing for unfulfilled love. Broken pocket mirror - a reflection of the "broken" state of the girl and a significant object, overnight changing the idea of her in love Baxter. Moreover, it is a symbol of the bifurcation of the hero himself: behind the external "burdock" there is another Baxter - an unhappy lonely man. The scene with a mirror becomes a turning point: the hero embarks on the path of change, gradually becoming whole, feeling, alive.
Speaking about the imprint of time, Wilder masterfully conveys the spirit of the 50s through the details: the boom of commercials on TV, a record with a photo of Ella Fitzgerald, intraframe jazz music playing from a machine gun in a bar.
The work of the film crew is also striking. Who was involved as an extra in the office of the insurance company! At the tables in the foreground placed adult actors, then children dressed as adults, and even cardboard figurines controlled with strings. The size of the tables decreased as they moved away from the camera. So there was the feeling of a giant office space filled with people. In 1961, the film deservedly won 5 Oscars, including for the best work of the artist, original script and directing.
The theme of “those who take” and “those who take” naturally develops throughout the film, in order to eventually put both characters before a choice that can radically change their lives. And Jack Lemmon himself many years later will be approached by passers-by with a request to “borrow keys”.
A masterpiece from the director “Only girls in jazz”
Billy Wilder is one of the main American masters of directing. Many of his films are inscribed in the history of world cinema in golden letters. Undoubted masterpieces include his paintings “Double Insurance”, “Ninochka”, “Lost Weekend”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Camp for Prisoners of War No. 17”, “Sabrina”, “Witness for the Prosecution”, “Only Girls in Jazz”, “First Strip” and of course “Apartment”.
He shot the comedy “Apartment” immediately after the release of the well-known comedy “Only Girls In Jazz”. And between these two films, there is a similar directorial handwriting and narrative dynamics. So if you like the film with the brilliant Marilyn Monroe, you will definitely love the Apartment.
This comedy is loved in America - there it is well known and loved by the general public. At one time, "The Apartment" won five Oscars and became the best film of the year.
The main roles were played by Jack Lemmon (who played Daphne in Jazz Only Girls) and Shirley McClain (The Language of Tenderness, Steel Magnolias).
"Apartment" is the story of a typical office employee who occupies a boring position and dreams of career growth. Circumstances are such that he, in return for promises of promotion from numerous bosses, allows them to bring friends to his apartment for secret meetings.
The hero of Jack Lemmon is in love with the lifter, whose role is played by Shirley McClain. And as soon as he decides to express his sympathy to the girl, he learns that she is the mistress of his boss.
"Apartment" is a very funny, kind film. Despite the fact that it touches on the sensitive topic of sexual relations between married men and young subordinates, there is not a drop of vulgarity in this picture. And there is only sparkling humor, bright unforgettable characters and an original unpredictable plot.
In Russia, this masterpiece film was released only ten years after its release. And it's no accident. The film was a huge success all over the world, and Billy Wilder visited East Berlin with the presentation of "Apartments". He became aware that the Soviet press presented his picture as revealing the negative aspects of America and stressed that such an immoral story could only occur in the mecca of capitalism - New York. In his speech, Billy Wilder said that such a story could have happened everywhere - in Tokyo, Rome, Paris, London, but not in Moscow, since nobody in Moscow has their own apartments. Naturally, this remark was perceived negatively.
This is a long history, but still in Russia the film "Apartment" is not accepted to give credit. While around the world, this film is considered one of the best films of all time and is constantly broadcast on Christmas holidays.
"Apartment" is one of Billy Wilder's biggest hits. Wilder is a real artisan. With noirs, detectives, melodramas behind him, Wilder shot a household, cozy comedy drama, which with great success joined the ranks of his own films.
A young employee of the insurance corporation C.C. Baxter, who occupies his rank-and-file post as an extra agent, is trying to advance in his career. Learning about the availability of a vacant apartment in a young clerk, his status colleagues begin to use it for dates (and not only) with mistresses, in return promising to put in a good word about him to the chief boss. So, the trouble-free C.C. Baxter is increasingly waiting for the release of his apartment everywhere: at work, or in the yard by the park, at the nearest bar, while one of the bosses is having fun at his house. About this secret trick, learns the chief chief of Baxter, who also does not mind to master the often vacant room and deal with the elevator driver Fran. Baxter is mad at Fran for going to the apartment. But everything changes very quickly, the insurance clerk noblely reaches for the elevator driver.
Quite successfully mix comic situations with drama, interacting well. After many years, the plot is still interesting, in which beautiful mise-en-scene, everyday dialogues and funny moments are woven, all this is organically built into common events.
Fran is an elevator driver who has no luck with men. Having learned not the most pleasant things about her main boyfriend, she tries to go to extreme measures, the attempt is not made, and the girl is forced to stay with a colleague-clerk to recover, and start everything from scratch. The office clerk for his promotion and a separate area from all ordinary colleagues, is ready to give the apartment to temporary hands for fun, even preparing food with drinks, as well as to freeze, going out into the cold in pajamas and coats. C.C. Baxter is a small man who adapts to colleagues with benefit, but still straightens up in the course of events and will declare his dignity under the influence of Fran.
A wonderful duet of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. The characters interact perfectly on the screen, talking about themselves. In the background, Fred McMurray/chief boss makes them good company. Worthy directing by Billy Wilder. Life here flows from comedy to drama, in a circle: funny moments with walking from side to side with the Doctor / Fran / Baxter to wake the girl; deft handling of spaghetti on a racket, sharply sending straight to the plate; neighbors are less pleasant, going to the rescue.
Classic cinema, with an inexhaustible plot looks great now, which is also filled with smart details with an elevator, serving as a metaphor: movement on the floors of employees, i.e. and promotion, you can rise and fall in office, or stay on the same floor for a long time.
8.5 out of 10
This film is shown in the United States before the New Year, as we have “The Irony of Fate, or With Easy Steam!”. I have long wondered what this tape is. I finally got there.
The story of a little man working in the late 50s of the 20th century in a large insurance company, who miraculously rents an apartment in the city center. And his bosses use it to borrow keys to bring mistresses. Bonus guy gets nuts at work. Everything lasts until in this love nest in the New Year holidays is not a girl-lifter, in which the hero is in love.
The film touches on many topical topics: betrayal, unrequited love, lawlessness of bosses, inability to refuse, love for married men, how much we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of career growth. It was seventy years ago, it’s all there is now.
At forty, I look at this story from the height of my experience and family stories. I have not seen wives who, burdened with small children, have themselves driven out of the house the rich who provide for their husbands. Usually, the women I knew thought about their children and their well-being, and they tolerated it in silence. Same with mistresses. If the relationship with a married man exceeded a period of more than a few months, and the girls fell in love, then no one voluntarily broke up. It's always been a man. Leaving his wife, leaving his mistress. Because he was getting uncomfortable. So I look at this movie as a beautiful Christmas story.
Now there are many coaches on the Internet who talk about cheating, how to treat it, what bad people these men are and what stupid their mistresses are. I know this situation from all sides. And it's not that simple or that simple. Sometimes love happens. All the families I know, where mistresses took their husbands from their families, are the strongest. Paradox. Watching one such couple, I waited 27 years of their happy family life, when they will be struck by thunder and lightning, until their death did not separate in old age. I don't believe in heaven anymore. Karma is made up.
Just remember, when we indulge in the sins and corruption of others, we become a little like these people.
Instantly overcome the thorny path from a small clerk from open space to a mid-level manager with his own office - doesn't it sound tempting? Also thinking was C.C. "Bud" Baxter, a rank-and-file accountant at a major New York insurance company. Moreover, for good recommendations and rapid career growth, you need to do a very small service to a couple of managers and a director. The key to promotion is the key to Baxter's bachelor apartment. He pays them back for their success by lending his cozy nest for dates of married bosses with mistresses. The helpful Bud even prepares booze and cheese crackers for the temporary “owners” of his housing. Under threat of dismissal, he gives up the apartment for the boss’s affair even in the middle of the night, and runs out, putting his coat on his pajamas. The situation becomes much more complicated when the main character begins to take care of the pretty lifter Fran Kubelik (Shirley McLane), who works with him in the same firm. By the way, Fran seems to have someone already.
A metaphorical elevator in the plot of the film. This is a physical elevator, in which employees of the company move from floor to floor like cogs of the system. This career elevator is a symbolic image of promotion, and each employee can both rise and rapidly descend, and sometimes even get stuck on one “floor” for a long time. And finally, a love relationship is compared with an elevator, because it is always an emotional swing with ups and downs. For good reason, her beloved Buda works as an elevator driver, and the elevator often becomes their meeting place.
What will the hero choose: love or career? Will he find his happiness? Will he decide on the action of a real man or will he grovel before his superiors, indulging in all their whims? In the good Hollywood comedy of the early 60s, the choice is obvious, so as such there is no intrigue for sophisticated viewers. But that doesn’t mean the movie isn’t worth the attention. Quite the opposite: it is full of humor, funny scenes and well-composed dialogue. A separate pleasure is to watch the facial expressions of actors who are talented, but a little pretentious (in the best traditions of Old Hollywood) act out the emotions of their heroes.
The role of Baxter, by the way, brilliantly performed Jack Lemmon, a year before the “Apartment” (1960) played Jerry – aka Daphne – in the film “Only Girls In Jazz”. (The one who has his flaws.)
“Apartment” is a great movie to begin acquaintance with the cult director Billy Wilder, a classic of American cinema. And 5 Oscars, including for Best Picture, will definitely be another argument for you to watch this cute romantic tragicomedy.
This wonderful film has been watched at least three times: the first time in its entirety, the other two in fragmentary and accidental fashion, so I remember it very well, although I last saw it almost a year ago. The Apartment is a lyrical tragicomedy, the most dramatic of all Wilder comedies. This eminent, along with Woody Allen, American comedian preferred buffoonery and burlesque, meticulously spelled hilarious situations and sparkling dialogue over a problematic narrative. However, his comedies did not get worse, and “Only Girls in Jazz” has been considered for many years by various groups of critics the best example of the genre of all time. Among the achievements of Billy Wilder, “The Apartment” stands alone, it is a very detailed and emotionally nuanced narrative about the “little man”, breathing humanism and sympathy, imbued with attention to his personal and social life.
Wilder has never been a social critic, nor has he become one here, although the comedicism of the “little man in the metropolis,” a large firm that does not know what it does, turns into the drama of the “cog in the machine” position. Jack Lemmon is Wilder’s favorite actor, now and then goes overboard with facial expressions and plasticity, trying to look funny (such is the genre, you can’t help it), but this plays into the hands of his character and directorial plan: he looks ridiculous and pathetic, causing sympathy and at the same time shame for him and society, bringing a person to such a level of self-deprecation. The director does not criticize the world, he rather shows its incorrigibility, where some ride on others, exploit their good-naturedness and soft-heartedness - such is life, it cannot be changed.
Importantly, in The Apartment, German immigrant Billy Wilder attacks the reinforced-concrete American concept of success (not criticizing, but questioning), showing that not only self-created Nietzscheans deserve respect (or rather, they do not deserve it, according to the director), and it is the unachieved outsiders, social losers and marginals who are the guardians of true humanity (the same position is shared by Woody Allen). The love story of the characters Lemmon and MacLaine is not just a cute addition to the film, but one of its independent narrative cores. Love is possible even when life confuses everything, and even the apartment becomes not yours, but your high-ranking colleagues.
Out of kindness, leaving his apartment to others, wanting to earn the favor of the highest ranks, the hero of Lemmon is trapped, in a cunning interweaving of everyday situations. Tell me, implausible? But the power of Wilder’s comic genius lies in the fact that he is able to give the most daring and strange situations the effect of life’s unpredictability. Like any good comedy, "The Apartment" is eccentric in the best sense of the word: it doesn't have the kitschy gags that Gaidai and Louis de Funes specialised in, but it's really rich in comic unpredictability, it's really fun to watch. Although much of it is forgotten over time (I, for example, do not completely remember the finale, but I have no doubt that it is happy), even now 60 years later, “The Apartment” remains the pearl of the tragicomic genre and almost the only truly dramatic comedy of Wilder (and therefore – unsurpassed by him himself) largely due to its humanity and love for “little people”, whom Hollywood (especially modern) usually teaches to despise for lack of initiative and passivity. Wilder sees in them living, suffering creatures, ridiculous and ridiculous, but radiating a genuine warmth of heart.
While I am in my futile attempts to find something useful, released recently, there are only good old movies that do not age. For example, "The Apartment" by Billy Wilder.
This is the story of a young and slightly naive clerk who works from morning to evening in an insurance company. He also doesn’t know how to refuse, especially when it comes to his many bosses. Therefore, they quickly realized that this can be used, and without hesitation ask to vacate his living space in the evenings, to churn in comfort with their passions. And in return, they only promise an early increase.
The film naturally shot in its time, because a bunch of weak-character careerists recognized themselves in the hero of Jack Lemmon (whom I remember before only from the film “Only Girls In Jazz”). In the current reality, this film is more relevant than ever, and I would not be surprised if someone decides to remake or turn into a sitcom.
And no matter how much on the screen was not drinking and promiscuous relationships, this film is still about love and loneliness. Love for those who should not. The loneliness of good people who do not deserve to be alone.
In this tape, details play a big and important role: what can be said with the word here is played out by things – they replace everything unsaid and unsaid. This picture is about ordinary people who in all this fuss can find each other. Awesome movie!
One day I decided to read the filmography of two-time Academy Award winner for Best Director Billy Wilder. And you know what I noticed? I've noticed how Wilder grows up as cinema matures. That's right. Wilder started with popular at that time films in the genre of noir (quite good), then continued with light and comedic melodramas (I want to note my favorite “Sabrina”, “Itching of the seventh year”). And now the 60s came, noir is outdated, melodramas will not surprise anyone. And then Wilder decided to shoot a magnificent picture of the “Apartment”.
What's so special about this movie? And the fact that "Apartment" is a roller coaster, where you throw from comedy to drama, and vice versa. It was the drama that made this film special to me. The personal history of the main characters makes them more empathetic than any characters from ordinary melodramas.
There's a Fran lifter who has problems with grammar and men's choices. She is unlucky in love, and after another betrayal of the opposite sex, she decides to commit suicide. The attempt failed, but the incident forces her to stay at home with a colleague.
There's Baxter the same colleague, the insecure careerist, who is for a promotion, ready to give that very apartment. In the story, we learn that he has his own personal drama in the past, the experience of which will help Fran overcome her problem. And in the course of the film, Baxter becomes Mensch, a real man.
Wilder has a lot of good movies, even a folk favorite (Only Girls In Jazz). But for me, the “Apartment” is the crown of this author’s creation.
«MOVIE-WISE, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT - LAUGH-WISE, LOVE-WISE, OR OTHERWISE-WISE!»
How good it is to come home after a hard day’s work, warm up a ready lunch from the supermarket and fall asleep to the sound of a working TV. But what if it so happens that every evening your favorite couch is not serving you, but your bosses?
The Apartment is a classic of American cinema, the best film of 1961, although it would be more correct to say since 1961, if not since its release. This film is a product of classic Hollywood, shot in 1960 in just 4 months by the greatest director in the history of cinema - Billy Wilder (the one who shot the famous "Only Girls In Jazz").
The genre of "Apartments" is difficult to determine. It's something between drama and comedy with a touch of satire. It tells the story of a single clerk, C.C. Baxter, who works as an accountant for a large insurance company in New York. Incomprehensible to Baxter himself, an unspoken contract was established between him and his married superiors: in exchange for dubious promotion of a quick career advancement, they used Buck’s rented apartment as a place for love affairs on the side. He has to stay at work late, and then freeze for a long time at his entrance in the rain and snow, looking at the glowing windows in his apartment. It seems that Baxter chose the wrong road to get out of the mud to the princes. And everything would be very sad if not for this charming lifter.
The film is very soulful. There is nothing superfluous here: a simple plot, but a great script, sincere actors, well-written dialogues, well-chosen music and black and white shooting, which in 1960 already looked like an artistic technique in itself. The lack of color wonderfully conveyed the loneliness of a bachelor apartment and the modernist nightmare of an insurance company office.
The main roles are played by the sweet Shirley MacLaine and, only if the slightest resemblance to Daphne from ' In jazz, only girls', Jack Lemmon. By the time of filming, they were already famous for popular movie stars, having a decent baggage of films and awards. It is interesting that in this film wanted to star beauty Marilyn Monroe, which was not approved, it is possible that not only because of the fact that according to her contract she had to act only in color films.
At one time, “Apartment” had an extraordinary commercial success: rental income amounted to $ 25 million, which exceeded the cost of shooting this cinematic masterpiece by 8 times. In addition to the main “Oscar” of the Academy, it is worth noting that the film “Apartment” is included in the list of the 100 best American films for 100 years according to the American Film Institute. Although this is not all the awards that were awarded to the film, its producers and actors.
The tape is certainly not for one view for everyone and for all time. If some viewers limit themselves to screen feelings, others "Apartment" can make you think and in the unspoken notice much more. About the same and Broadway musical "Promises, promises", based on the masterpiece of Wilder.
About the “Apartment” is said to be a film for Christmas, but behind the mask of entertainment hides a completely sad and a little ironic story about people who need to stop stomping around for the happiness of their own lives. But still, this kind, pure and warm tragicomedy contains an important social message, which, perhaps, should be received just in time for Christmas.
Visiting kind little S. S. Baxter works hard as a clerk in a giant office of 32,000 employees, earns $93 a week, and for a little more than 80 a month rents an apartment near Central Park in 8 million New York. But Baxter stays in the office late every day because he “resigns” his apartment to office bosses who take mistresses there. Those docile Baxter are promised a promotion, but the clerk himself is damn uncomfortable. And, nevertheless, the path to the top of the clerk soon went fast, because Big Boss Jeff Sheldrake began to claim Baxter’s apartment. And meanwhile, successfully making a career clerk, very much began to like the office employee Fran Kubelik, working in the firm as an elevator worker.
“Apartment” Billy Wilder in its ideological and external entourage is very much reminiscent of “Marty” Delbert Mann, which in the mid-50s also received the main “Oscar” of the Academy. Office modernity and lonely hearts in the big city – these two works are damn similar. However, if Mann made a film about love, in which the main character, although a good simple guy, but outwardly clearly foolish (Ernest Borgnine’s appearance does not have a special romance), then Wilder touched on several other “strings”. The main character in “The Apartment” by C.C. Baxter performed by Jack Lemmon is not a freak or a hero, weak-willed, hardworking and, of course, a careerist. He is a conformist, but his inability to say “no” causes him a lot of difficulties. And just in this C.C. Baxter, millions of Americans easily recognized themselves, which made this not the most outstanding character, as close as possible to the viewer.
In addition, Wilder in his inherent satirical manner, raised another previously taboo problem in cinema – “it turns out” the men of MASSOVO cheat on their wives. In the film, this is brought to a certain absurdity, because to see how the head of a giant office can not find a place where you can spend time with his mistresses is somewhat strange. But it is on this strangeness that the quite original (although not entirely plausible) plot is based, according to which the rental apartment of the main character turned into a small brothel. However, it is in the “Apartment” almost for the first time in American cinema that adultery is not only a mass, but also a natural phenomenon. And although Wilder, on the contrary, contrasts love and betrayal, giving sympathy, of course, the first, and the traitors themselves in the film are completely shown as goats, but the director does not impose any pedagogical conclusions on the viewer. Everyone makes their own choice, including the main character, who at some point will need to get the right key out of his pocket - either from the apartment or from the status director's toilet.
And a word about the cast. By 1960, Jack Lemmon was already a Hollywood star, but it was after this film that he proved that he was ready to pull successfully and lead roles. His character C.C. Baxter bribes with charm and clear empathy. And the viewer together with Lemmon makes a rather difficult choice between a successful career and perhaps a real love, which is not the fact that it will become mutual. For the first time I really liked Shirley McLaine, who played a romantic, vulnerable and at the same time proud girl. Her final handout, even from burnt cynics, will knock out a tear. And finally, one of his last iconic roles in this film was played by the already slightly forgotten, but still in great physical shape, 52-year-old Fred McMurray. His big-boss, who is addicted to employees, but at the same time true to family values, came out organically authentic, perhaps also because McMurray especially did not have to get too deeply into this role.
Billy Wilder once again caught the trend of the era and put up-to-date and modern cinema for his time, for which he deservedly collected a set of main prizes from the Academy.
A wonderful film with Jack Lemmon and a very young Shirley MacLaine. One that will never go out of fashion or lose relevance.
Baxter is a bachelor, the only one in his office. This circumstance is shamelessly used by his numerous colleagues - lovers to go left. They use Baxter's apartment as a nest for love dates. The owner, meanwhile, is forced to walk late around his own house and be reputed by neighbors for Casanova, who is intemperate in terms of women and alcoholic beverages.
The only outlet for Baxter is Fran, a nice colleague. Every morning he admires her smile, dreams of asking her out on a date. But one day he learns that the lady with whom his boss meets at his apartment... is the same Fran.
Baxter decides to step aside noblely, but the doves are not at all smooth. As a result, the unhappy lover has to solve the problems of the couple. And his feelings for the girl become even stronger.
This is a very good picture, a real classic of American cinema, its “golden fund”. Touching Jack Lemmon, amazing Shirley MacLaine – they can be admired endlessly.
8 out of 10
One day, my wife and I decided to watch films that won the most significant Oscar nomination for best film in their years. One of the first things we decided to watch was the wonderful, black white film The Apartment. Shot in 1960, the film today looks quite fresh, energetic and most importantly even funny. The humor in this film is kind, funny and not a drop of vulgar.
The actors played above all praise, especially I liked Jack Lemmon, who played such a simple, hardworking, a little naive man who wants to love and be loved, his face is just perfect, sometimes he made me smile when just appeared in the frame. Honestly, I know quite a bit about Shirley McLaine, I unfortunately have not seen a single film with her before, but in this film she looks attractive and cute girl, whose smile clearly won many hearts.
The plot of the film is simple, but it is very vital in fact, because in our life very often you face all sorts of choices, your favorite job is work for which you pay more, your beloved mother is your beloved wife, etc. And our main character quite copes with his task, of course, on his way there are all sorts of comic situations, where even unpleasant, but in the end he becomes morally stronger, gains courage and does what he wants, not what is imposed on him.
The film is excellent, it will not leave anyone indifferent, it has everything good for which we love films of this genre, I put it deserved.
10 out of 10
This is the third Billy Wilder movie I've seen. Alas, I am very sorry that I am only now beginning to get acquainted with the work of this wonderful director.
It so happened that, probably, after all, the main film with which Wilder’s name is associated is “Only Girls in Jazz”. It is this tape that is more often shown on television and it is still more on hearing. However, I can say that I personally liked the film “Apartment” much more.
In this movie, I felt and saw the so-called Chaplin’s handwriting. It was Charles Chaplin who often mentioned that in his paintings there is always “laughter through tears”. And here, in a film that has won five Oscars out of ten nominations it has been nominated for, that very principle is very well traced.
At first glance, we have comedy. And from the first minute, Jack Lemmon's wonderful performance makes us smile, because his character is a "little" man in the big city - so funny, partly clumsy and in places so similar to the viewer himself.
But, in fact, under the veil of jokes, irony and funny plot development, hides the real drama, watching which, your heart shrinks.
The film is infinitely touching, kind and, let’s say, useful. Now it is less and less possible to see pictures that at least a little similar to this one in terms of the semantic load that it carries. There's no special effects and, to be honest, there's no amazing camera work. There are only wonderful actors and a beautiful script in the hands of a talented director.
This is one of the few pictures I want to watch again!
“Apartment” of 1960 is considered to be a masterpiece of a) “room” genre / play of the fourth wall and b) Christmas and New Year films. The film has already won five Oscars, including for best film, best original script and best director. The notorious Billy Wilder, familiar to almost everyone for the most part for “Only Girls In Jazz” (especially in the CIS countries), dragged from the “comedy of dressing up” with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon to his next picture, took him in a pair of charming young Shirley MacLaine, who is now known to the modern audience mainly for the roles of grandmothers and mother-in-law with character. Here she is madly reminiscent of Elena Koreva, as young and green and cute as she was in the Pokrovsky Gate.
What can you expect from a sentimental melodrama taking place in a very confined space involving two? Strong feelings, long conversations, psychology at last. Billy Wilder, in my opinion, is still a director of a lighter genre, which is why "Apartment" came out not quite harmonious and not particularly memorable.
The actors play wonderfully, the dialogue seems not boring, but the timing is not justified, and the film itself dangles between comedy, which is practically absent, and drama, for which everything is too frivolous. The main characters seemed pretentious, playing to the public. Not actors who play, but actors who play. It's annoying.
Many people say that the picture is good for viewing on New Year’s Eve alone, if that’s your lot in life – to be alone. Well, it is not particularly noticeable why the New Year's picture - it does not create any mood, although it tries to approach some melancholy; yes, the action there takes place somewhere in winter, but it does not matter, there is no emphasis on this.
For this film, Billy Wilder won an Oscar, thereby repeating the success of his previous work “Only Girls In Jazz”. But in this tape, the director did not change clothes, shooting the picture on black - white film and close to the chamber manner. Wilder drew a subtle history of the relationships of characters, in the process of viewing the history of which the picture changes from the genre of comedy to drama.
The story of a young man and a bachelor, Mr. Baxter, an ordinary clerk of a large insurance company, his image was embodied by Jack Lemmon. The only thing that sets him apart from a crowd like him is his apartment, which serves as a place of love pleasures for four of his bosses. Each time he dutifully gives away the key to the apartment when his bosses demand it. That's why they're pushing him up the ladder. It so happened that one day Baxter finds in his apartment lifter Fran, working in the same company as himself, she tried to commit suicide. Baxter is in love with this girl and when the boss tries to get the key, Baxter refuses him.
Jack Lemmon did a brilliant job in his role. At first, his hero is pathetic, obediently accepts the rules of the game of his bosses. But his love for Fran awakens in him courage and determination, Baxter changes and by the end of the picture becomes firm and principled. Lemmon's sad mask fits perfectly into this film. D. Lemmon is a chic meme and this picture confirms that. As one example, he tosses spaghetti with a tennis racket. The choice for the role of Baxter's partner fell on Shirley McLaine. The director was clearly not mistaken, Shirley fully revealed her creative potential here. Her character looks defenseless, naive and very charming.
In this tape, details play a great and important role, what can be said here is played out by things, they replace everything that is not said. At the end of the film, the moral principle rises and it is a guarantee that not all is lost in our world. Two people, seemingly invisible, find each other. They become an example of morality, honesty and decency.
The apartment is one of the best films in the history of cinema, a clever picture telling its viewer about the victory of a small man over a society of lies and hypocrisy.
10 out of 10
Constructive role of love in the formation of personality, suicide and short-haired nannies
Opinion about the film is positive and biased because suicidal girls in short-haired uniforms are just a hell of a mix of my fetishes. In general, I liked the film when I saw Fran performed by Shirley McLaine, and the rest (good acting, realistic display of feelings) liked later.
Plot: Baxter is a patient clerk from an insurance company; he lends the key to the rented apartment to those higher up the career ladder, hoping to get recommendations for promotion from them, with promises about what they feed him. Eventually, this story gets to the main dude in their company. And the classic love triangle begins with the boss, g., and the damn attractive lifter (whom the boss also has to drive somewhere). For the boss, she is another passion, but she falls seriously in love with her, it is she who falls in love, and does not flare up with passion, because she cares about her happiness, knowing that she does not love him, but loves the boss.
As a result, love changes Baxter, making a strong man out of a gray mouse; it was interesting to observe the process of his personal evolution. And I liked the ending, because despite her overall happiness, it's not sweet.
Very easy movie. It does not “load” the viewer with complex themes for reflection, being extremely pleasant to view the creation. He just introduces us to interesting heroes, among which there are no single villains. Every bad deed that we see here has a certain background: either an old resentment, or so unfolded the situation and so on. In view of this, everyone can empathize, because there is no reason to resist anyone, and therefore I want everyone to be happy in their own way. But the film chooses the most worthy of the number, as if giving us an example to which image one should strive - this is already an instructive part of the movie, which is not made obtrusively and clearly.
In general, “Apartment” is an indisputable classic of not only Western cinema, but also World cinema. He, the film, in a simple, not pretentious manner surveys the themes of the incomprehensible, illogical love of human hearts, as well as the malleability of the human will, which should be nurtured, tempered in order to feel not just free, but happy. He encourages you to fight for your happiness, and not run away from problems - to fight to the last, helping others, then you will be rewarded.
The tape is full of excellent memorable characters. Only Jack Lemmon, whose charm and talent to be equally funny and equally sad I compare with the charm and talent of the unsurpassed Marlon Brando, here plays at the highest level of a character who is imbued from the first minute: we show him from the side of a man of virtue, whom everyone accepts not only because people from work, that is, his bosses and bosses, shamelessly exploit the ward who wants to rise up the career ladder, which is extremely difficult to do only with the diligence and diligence that he shows. That’s why we are introduced to other heroes, among which, of course, the female character Shirley McLaine Fran stands out – she is an ordinary girl who loves those who should not and, realizing this, suffers. However, she tries to correct herself, which Baxter (Jack Lemmon) helps her do. And because of this help, the beginning of which was an unforeseen, unusual string of both funny and dramatic events, the characters come together, but together they are still prevented from being unruly feelings. And here’s how to end this whole galaxy of incidents – full of equally qualitative and colloquial humor, which was clearly inspired by Woody Allen at the time, and situational comics, its unplayed chance, as if referring us to the works of the great Charles Chaplin – and it is proposed to know the viewer.
And the proposal is somehow unwittingly, imperceptibly, you accept, because the dynamics that accompany the timing, as well as the clarity of the plot, are riveted so much that there is no desire to be distracted. And in addition to this comes the moment that even five minutes before the end of the picture you can not understand how all the same will turn out and end – so capable of rapidly developing a story, whose interest, due to the same fact, is not “sprayed”, and remains until the final inscription “The End”.
The film, despite its intimacy, is very lively. He does not appeal to the large scale of the action, he introduces us to pleasant, attractive characters, and already with the help of their feelings and events associated with them, gives a great story, which is imbued and in which you feel both the bitterness of tragedy due to the imperfection of human souls and characters, and the sincere joy associated with funny situations from life, at work, anecdotes in conversations, and casual or not accidental. All this creates a charming, cozy atmosphere, which is only complemented by the entourage of Christmas and New Year holidays, on the eve of which the whole depth of this small, but so attractive story is revealed, which in some moments could remind me of the Irony of Fate, and in others already the creations of Alfred Hitchcock, which shows this film as an extremely diverse creation, not burdened with a complex, ornate narrative, but gifted with a pleasant setting, characters and first-class acting.
And yet the classic art is attractive, once again I am convinced!
Watching this movie creates a sense of comfort and tranquility that I would even call an antidepressant in some way. I was not familiar with American film classics, and I am very glad that it all began with this film. I won’t say I’m a fan of this genre, but I watched this movie in one breath. What became really valuable for me in this picture is the truthfulness of the image of the main character. He doesn’t lie, he just can’t (apparently, something inside just doesn’t allow him to tell a lie), neither himself nor other people, everything as it is, honestly. And he does it with a smile on his face, a little embarrassed, which gives even more appeal, in terms of humanity. And of course, what he has is really the one that many people are looking for and cannot find, do not understand or do not know. . Love! He loves with his heart, nothing else, he does not demand, does not try to enjoy, he just loves and that's it! For that Jack Lemmon image and so many nominations and my respect! Bravo! In general, the acting is very well-coordinated, as in real life, honestly, such feelings visited me! The doctor also shows an example of humanity, regardless of the situation. The theme of separation between those who live in passions and those who have not yet lost what is most important in a relationship - humanity (I repeat again), also occupies a key part & #39. The director made a film about real life, which happens always, watch and enjoy, I advise everyone!
This is my first review because it hurt!
One of my favorite movies. Absolutely everyday story, which seems to be watching from the next apartment, and you think that people do not change.
Banal situations. Typical characters.
Years, centuries pass, and people are still the same, only the housing issue spoiled them.
People are different: sensitive and noble, but often unsuccessful in love matters. They love strongly and painfully, really thinking that this is fate, even fate. They are ready to wait and believe, even when it is obvious that great and bright love revolves only in their fantasies. And the object of this sincere love (here the happily married Mr. Sheldrick) only takes advantage of moments of naive weakness of a lonely girl (his co-worker Fran). How does he use it? Well, that's understandable. Man is a rare monogamous phenomenon.
Interestingly, in reality, such novels can last for years. Men are flattered by the sincere affection and willingness of such women only to give, asking nothing in return. Men need not only sex, but also emotional nourishment. And there is always a romantic person, ready to suffer and love a gratuitously unsuitable man. Sad but true.
And people of another warehouse: living one day, not missing an opportunity to have fun. People who speak beautifully, but do not attach any importance to their words. Married (most often) men in search of entertainment and variety regularly lead mistresses to the apartment, these mistresses have fun with others. Women (sometimes also married) who are ready to go to visit the first meeting, well, it’s fun. Why not? We live once, and I am so beautiful and I am bored.
It is generally funny that the film was released in 1960, but shows very loose morals. And all this is very ordinary and everyday, even as if it was necessary. And this is the Puritan America of the middle of the last century. And by the way, the liquor... Note that everyone drinks regularly, in almost every shot. Sometimes they get drunk. Why do Russians have such an alcoholic reputation? If you look at yourself in the context of this movie, yeah.
Throughout the film, one wonders why good women and good men often go their separate ways. Why do women choose the wrong men and vice versa? Men can also believe in true love. There are men who want not only to have fun, but also to love someone really, take care of someone. This cute, domestic type of men for some reason rarely attracts women.
The film somehow painfully shows the loneliness of bachelor Baxter. Lonely dinner and talking to the TV. His apartment is like a passing yard for those who want to have fun bosses. And then even overnight in the park among the autumn trees.
Baxter, the main character, is not very attractive at the beginning of the film, even pathetic. But when he saves a girl, helps her, he opens up from the other side. This sentimental eccentric guy finds someone with whom he can be a strong and noble knight. Supporting a girl in a difficult moment, he feels necessary, he feels like a man.
Lonely provincial Baxter has long noticed and noted unlike other girls Fran, even found out all possible information from her personal file. He liked her very much, but it is not so easy to find an approach to a woman whose heart is already occupied.
It's funny, but Baxter's desire to get to know Fran came true. And really a Christmas present. The universe fulfills our desires, but often not as we expect.
This story is remarkable because it is about ordinary people. Two losers, you could say. But they're good together. This card episode. So homey. The movie itself is cozy. The eternal truth is that in life you need to appreciate and see those people who are nearby, who help with specific deeds. And to understand that life is easier than it seems. You either do something or you don't. And less fantasy. There's nothing new under the sun.
Surprisingly, the fact is that “The Apartment”, and not “Some like the hottest” (" In jazz, only girls) was the most affectionate film academics, who awarded it with three Oscars at once in the most prestigious nominations: “Best Film”, “Best Director”, “Best Screenplay”. There were only seven such hat-tricks in the history of the Oscars, and one of them fell to the share of Billy Wilder, director and, in collaboration with I. A. L. Diamond, screenwriter of the film. In addition, he has long held the lead in the total number of nominations for the award, losing the palm only to Woody Allen. Six times Wilder took home the cherished statuette from the annual awards ceremony. There were no people who worked with him. They accounted for 14 Oscars. Among them, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McLane and Jack Lemmon, who starred in The Apartment, who worked in 7 Wilder films.
Behind the external simplicity of the plot with a melodramatic bias lies a satirical comedy. Private clerk of the insurance company Charlie Baxter (Jack Lemmon), being a bachelor, has an apartment in a good neighborhood of New York. A colleague of Baxter, standing a little higher in the list of ranks than Charlie, urgently needed a secluded corner for intimate communication with his mistress and the compliant owner of the apartment could not refuse his boss, and soon the selfless services of Charlie were already used by four middle managers. At first, he suffered some inconveniences only because of his softness, since the word “no” was absent in his lexicon, but soon positive aspects appeared. His career went uphill and not far off loomed the prospect of getting his own office. In order to bring the cherished goal closer, it was only necessary to include the key to the HR director’s own apartment in the number of regular users, which he did not fail to do, already anticipating himself as a full-fledged member of the team. For this he was ready to endure any difficulties: freeze in wait in the rain and snow, and if necessary, sleep on a bench in the park.
Billy Wilder ridicules the conformism and germs of corruption to which most people are more or less exposed, both those who give millions of bribes and billions of kickbacks, and those who sell a hundred or two traffic cops, cognac with candy to a doctor or a teacher, or the keys to the apartment to his boss for love pleasures. Wilder strikes with satirical arrows the corporate system of recruitment and placement of personnel, in which the determining factors are not the experience, knowledge and level of competence of the employee, but personal loyalty, the desire to please and literally spread out in order to lick the dirt from the man’s boot. Unfortunately, this problem is not only relevant for America.
An important place in the film is occupied by a melodramatic line, which, after leading the main characters through all the trials, will come to a logical and predictable ending, given that this is a Christmas story. In addition, Wilder was often accused of cynicism, since preaching nonconformism, he in fact always considered the demands of the market, thinking about the plot of the film, especially its final part. Charlie Baxter meets Fran Kabelik (Shirley McLane) and falls in love with her, not yet aware of her secret relationship with the director of personnel, a brain-wasting girl, promising to divorce her allegedly hated wife. It's no coincidence that Fran's job was chosen. As an elevator driver, she can either lift or lower Charlie. The elevator is a great metaphor here. Before a guy difficult choice - career or favorite. Giving way to the girl, Charlie rushes up the career elevator, and choosing Fran, he will immediately be lowered by the elevator to the exit and thrown out onto the street. It would seem that everything speaks for the choice of a career, but this will lead to a moral fall and, on the contrary, choosing love, he will gain wings and feel a spiritual uplift. It's all in his hands.
This picture had a very noticeable influence on many Christmas stories, shot later. It is difficult not to notice its impact on our wonderful director Eldar Ryazanov, who shot the film beloved by all housewives of the country, which became the same symbol of the New Year as Olivier salad. The Apartment is deservedly included in numerous top lists, including, along with three more films by Billy Wilder, included in the list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century. Born in Austria-Hungary, Samuel Wilder, who managed to emigrate to the United States in time in the face of the threat of the brown plague, took the new name Billy Wilder in America, which became his new home. Not knowing English, he not only learned it perfectly, but later became the author of many American idioms. The lyrics of his films are disassembled for quotes, and he himself has forever entered the history of Hollywood and all American culture. His films must be seen.
Reading reviews of this film, I understand that everything has already been said about it: a masterpiece, a classic, a miracle. But still, I will try to leave here my pathetic positive review of this amazing painting by Billy Wilder, which I will review more than once.
A cold autumn day. All working people rush home to their loved ones to stay warm under a warm bed with a bottle of champagne. All except the young bachelor Baxter, who still stands outside and freezes outside his apartment, often looking at the windows. He also looks at time and what he is waiting for. "What are you waiting for?" we ask him a question. And he immediately answers: he gives his apartment for a while to colleagues at work, who in gratitude for this promote him. So now he's waiting for his "friend" to finish the business with his girlfriend to vacate his apartment.
From the very beginning, the film penetrates into the heart: it is fascinating. From the first minute you realize that you will not take off the screen. Despite the black and white picture, the tape still amazes with its beauty and brightness of what is happening. Strikingly sad and at the same time kind comedy drama, which will make you experience incredible joy in the soul for the main characters of the film.
What I like about old Hollywood movies is humor. Easy, unobtrusive and not nasty humor, built on simple everyday situations. Involuntarily smile in funny moments, and sometimes you can even hear your own short laugh. 1960, and I'm laughing. And all thanks to this little genius of cinema - Billy Wilder, who together with Diamond came up with this wonderful plot.
And the actors, what actors! Each actor has his own unique highlight: they outlived their heroes, I’m sure of that. Just look at Jack Lemmon, his simple and kind face, and you will understand. I did not immediately become indifferent to his hero: I was imbued with sympathy and pity for him every minute. His despondent bachelor turned out to be very real and sad, but at the same time able to understand other people and love. Love very much.
Shirley McLane Her charming smile is like sugaring this film: without her, nothing would have happened. Very beautiful and charming: her character on the screen looked flawless. Interesting fact that instead of her, the role could go to Marilyn Monroe, which is mentioned in the film. But, Shirley very vividly remembered me, thanks to the "Apartment", that's for sure.
Fred McMurray is a very courageous actor who preferably acted in comedies. His hero should disgust you: dishonest, disrespectful and disgusting man. Fred did everything perfectly: thanks to his hero, we see a clear line between “good” and, so to speak, “evil.”
One of the main features of the soft atmosphere is music. Every time we hear romantic music, which brings us into a kind of trance: we get closer and closer to the main characters. We feel their love and their sadness more and more. More and more we feel a thin thread that gradually connects Baxter and Kubelik.
Billy Wilder is a versatile director. Its highlights are magnificent films of different genres, which later become classics of cinema: noir, drama, comedy. He, like no other, was very competent and skillfully able to convey his thoughts and ideas to us. Wilder gave us the perfect dishes we ate, asking for supplements. And he cooked a new dish (though it seems much better?) and put it again on a beautiful plate with a fragrant smell. Thank you Billy for making such a beautiful movie. Thank you for making me feel warm. You have no idea how much I love such good movies.
A film that gives an extraordinary sense of lightness, and it is suitable for viewing at all times of the year, even in the summer, even before the New Year holidays. This can be described as versatility, and this was the director Billy Wilder, who did not have much difficulty making both serious films and comedies, “Apartment” combines all the voiced components. How else? The picture is vital, and in the surrounding everyday life things of a different nature always happen.
Essentially, one of the main themes of the tape is that some people have such a thing as uptime in character. That is, a person cannot resist the desires of other personalities, even if this exposes him to limitations and inconvenience, and the rest of us willingly use all this, and brazenly and without blushing. Such a sufferer was the main character of the picture performed by Jack Lemmon with the name Baxter. His apartment for all employees of his company became simply a brothel, a place for dates.
Baxter is understandable. After all, you will not deny the senior, and then the promise of your own promotion on the career ladder, you look and move a few floors higher, and in your own office with a chair and a personal toilet. Another thing is that the young man himself is testing his personal life for strength, most of the time he can not sleep, calmly rest, he catches up with “enviable” constancy. But somehow it is inconvenient for the hero of Lemmon to refuse a request to provide for a while the cherished key to the property.
Of course, most of the "Apartment" appears before the viewer a set of cheerful situations that in any case will not leave anyone indifferent, but there is a characteristic feature of seriousness, when people are faced with unsuccessful love, relationships with married people, traumatizing their heart, and this primarily applies to the heroine performed by Shirley McLane. But after all that happens, there is a strong feeling that you are not alone, your time will come and everything will come to its senses. This is the main merit of the ageless classics of American cinema.
Strengths in the creation of Billy Wilder have a predominant position, however, there may be small problems with long timekeeping, but, in my opinion, the pleasure is to watch as long as possible a good picture with a master class in the form of a harmonious acting pair of Lemmon – MacLaine. After all, there is nothing better than such films, launched before the New Year, because they inspire hope for the best.
There can be such a confluence of circumstances in our lives that sometimes it seems that this higher will dictates how you live and what you do. This chain of interrelated events can lead you to victory, such as finding love, or even losing, such as death. Of course, this chain may not lead to anything. But suddenly it will still happen, as happened to the main character of the incomparable comedy “Apartment”.
Plot
A young employee of an insurance company named Baxter, in addition to his work, also devotes himself to a very unusual business, for which he receives a promotion instead of money. The essence of the case is that Baxter secretly rents his apartment to the bosses so that they can spend a stormy night with their mistresses. When Baxter returns home, he discovers one in his apartment after a suicide attempt. Baxter immediately falls in love with veins.
Game of actors
What I like about old movies is the acting. Old actors even now manage not only to play well, their character seems to really live on the screen. Truly great artist Jack Lemmon played a very funny character. His character is a very decent person, despite his eccentric occupation. Stunning actress Shirley McLaine can hardly be called a comedy in this role, which she performed in the film. However, her dramatic character drew sympathy.
Director
Billy Wilder is one of the most talented directors in film history. Like another famous director, Frank Capre, Wilder manages to shoot his comedies in such a way that they later became worthy representatives of the classics. All his comedies are very kind and actually funny. In addition, Wilder does not skimp on the stylization of his films. When color films were popular in the 60s, Wilder rented an apartment in black and white. It is worth considering that “Apartment” is a chamber film, since most of the action takes place in one small apartment. But that doesn’t stop the movie from being a great movie.
Scenario
The plot itself is brilliant, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the film won an Academy Award for the original screenplay, which is rare for any film. The main character is engaged in a kind of business, for which, instead of monetary profit, he receives a promotion on the career ladder. It has become common for him to be asked to vacate his apartment in the middle of the night. But one day one of his clients leaves his mistress in this apartment, who decides to commit suicide. All this unusual coincidence brings the heroes closer together, and soon even leads to true love.
Operation of the operator
Gorgeous cameraman Joseph LaShell showed real skill in the film. Thanks to certain angles, he managed to convey the mood of the main character, who is forced to live in a special, detached world. The cameraman tries to place it in the center of the frame to show that Baxter is very lonely in this life.
Result
The Apartment is one of the best romantic comedies in cinema history. The director managed not only to make a good and good movie. He managed to shoot a very lifely film, despite the absurd plot, which shows how a terrible coincidence helps the main character to find his long-awaited happiness.
10 out of 10
There is a special charm in old Hollywood movies. Maybe it's close-ups, maybe it's not, maybe it's black and white, maybe it's not, maybe it's dark night streets, maybe it's not. It's probably all about it all at once. And when it's seasoned with a couple of good actors - you want to watch the movie forever!
' Apartment ' is an incomparable movie! A week in the life of a couple of office workers, and do not suspect that in the endless bustle of their happiness wanders by. And without unforeseen circumstances, the two would never have gotten closer.
I loved Jack Lemmon and before watching ' Apartments', Shirley has already seen ' Tender Irma' but in this film she just fascinated me, because here she is so fragile, tender, beautiful, interesting. It was so nice to watch the whole movie. And this short hair is extremely beautiful!
The plot of the film takes place at Christmas, but there are no usual lush Christmas trees with gifts, beautiful houses decorated with lanterns - as we are used to seeing in family films. It's not easy to say that the New Year is on the nose, because for Baxter - that the New Year, that Halloween - just another day. But then she happened, breaking the usual course of things and making Baxter's heart falter.
It is necessary to watch all lovers of soulful cinema, because the charm ' Apartments' it is difficult to convey in words.
"Apartment" - a very good comedy melodrama, staged by the director and co-writer of the script Billjv Wilder. At first glance, this is not a special film, because when you look at all its awards, you get the feeling that this is a film with many years of fan exposure, and who has not yet seen it, he lost a lot, I assure you, this film is ordinary, but with taste, otherwise he would not have received such success. The main roles were played by very popular actors at that time, Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine, they play here two employees of a large insurance company, but only, their positions are very different. C.C. Baxter is an ordinary insurance clerk, Fran Kubelik is a pretty girl who works as an elevator driver.
Baxter is one of the few employees of the company who is not yet married and has not got a family. He is an intelligent, interesting, funny and cute man who all his time lets in the direction of his career, and his personal life has not yet developed. Oddly enough, but colleagues in the robot do not consider Baxter a loser, they make friends with him, because they see great benefit from his apartment, which is located in the city center, very close to the company. The fact is that all male employees who have already eaten enough family life want to have affairs with young girls, and there is no safe place for all these meetings, except for Baxter’s apartment.
The protagonist, Baxter, agrees to rent his apartment to his boss, who promises to pull him up the career ladder. Baxter realizes that he is no longer young, and you need to somehow move towards the opposite sex, and he begins to flirt with a pretty lifter named Fran, who feels completely indifferent to C. C. The main idea of the film is probably the irony of fate itself, which surprisingly gathered in one apartment, two people who eventually realized that they feel a kind of warmth to each other. Summing up, films of these years have always stood out with a special warmth and good presentation from both the cast and the director, a good comedy.
More attention would be paid and filmed by directors of films of this genre.
This film left me with only positive emotions and I will definitely want to watch it again!
The film tells about a man who dreamed of career growth. But gradually, his dream will fade when he meets a girl who did not notice, working with her in the production.
Greatly played roles by Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine. Their play is so shrill, so real, that you want to watch the movie again and again. It is a pity that none of them, then at the presentation of the “Oscar” in 1960 did not receive this statuette. The film received 5 Oscar awards including Film of the Year, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. I am very glad that the melodramatic film with elements of comedy won the most prestigious film award in the world!
It would be very nice if the cinema paid more attention to films of this genre, so that we would watch the “smart” cinema and would learn from the problems that the director wants to convey to us.
“I want to be Mensch. Do you know what that means?
An ordinary office worker, bachelor Baxter falls in love with an elevator driver who, in turn, loves his boss. Such an extraordinary plot is played in Hollywood touching and with humor, as a result of which we have a picture recognized as a classic of American cinema.
Even the idea goes beyond the ordinary here: A person is not just someone with a sense of self-worth. A person who respects the person of another.
The film itself is very light, does not leave a bitter aftertaste and heavy sediment. It is as easy to forget as it looks.
But it's worth a look. A real, sincere film for the soul.