the apartment (billy wilder, 1960)

About a month prior to last xmas, I posted a list of 100 great movies ... the idea was to tell which ones you'd seen. One I hadn't seen was The Apartment, which startled quite a few people; the result was that film's DVD was one of my xmas presents. As usual, it takes me a long time to get to all my presents, so I only just now finally watched the movie.

It's a film that seems very much of its time, although by that I don't mean it's dated, only that watching it for the first time in 2006 means I bring a different set of expectations than did viewers in 1960. It's as if we have all caught up with Billy Wilder's cynicism ... behavior that must have seemed shocking and amoral in 1960 seems like business as usual (pun intended) in 2006. Sometimes you watch an old movie and you think "things aren't like that any more" ... watching The Apartment, you think that not only are things still "like that," but that people have become blasé about it. Schlubs who demean themselves to climb the corporate ladder ... bosses who take advantage of the schlubs ... women who are pawns in the games played by bosses and schlubs ... it's very recognizable today.

It's also interesting that Wilder manages to play with creaky plot devices without ever falling victim to them. In fact, throughout most of the film, you are caught up in the story and (especially) the performances, and you don't even notice how Wilder is achieving his aims. The script by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is almost perfect in its construction, but you don't realize this until after the movie is over, unlike, say, His Girl Friday (or, rather, The Front Page), where the mechanics are there for you to enjoy as you watch.

Meanwhile, you've got Jack Lemmon in a defining performance ... I run hot and cold with Lemmon, but this is before his act became schtick. Shirley MacLaine breaks your heart. And, as many have noted, both of them manage to give us characters who, while bounced around by life (and their own actions), nonetheless are human, flawed-not-perfect, and eventually self-aware.

What didn't work was the comic aspects of the film. I think this would be different if I'd watched it with a crowd in a theater, where people would be laughing. Sitting alone at home, I kept waiting for the funny stuff, and when the movie was over, I was still waiting. As I type this, I'm puzzled why anyone would call this film a comedy. It struck me as quite serious.

Finally, I had a personal reaction, which I think is often true when you watch a movie from the past. While my parents spent a lot of time out on the town in their younger days, they pretty much quit going to the movies by the early 60s. So while they had their favorites (Gigi is one that comes to mind), it was hard as a kid to think of my parents as movie-lovers. But occasionally something would sneak through. When they would play cards, they would on occasion call the other "Judy" in reference to the gin rummy scene in Born Yesterday, and I always assumed another of their pet card-playing sayings must have also come from that movie. Imagine my surprise when The Apartment came to its closing line, and Shirley MacLaine said "shut up and deal."

One last thing: by the end of the movie, I was really sick of that fucking song.