The Apartment

Before starting this entry I would like to give thanks to the people who are reading this blog. I welcome your input, comments or questions. It makes me extremely happy to know that somebody somewhere is reading this. Also, next time will be the promised review for what I consider to be the very best film of the year, There Will be Blood.

If you know me personally the following statement will come as no surprise. “I love Cameron Crowe.” Even his critically lambasted Elizabethtown is one of the favorite films in my collection. However, Cameron Crowe lists as perhaps his number one film influence, the classic director, Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot and Sunset Boulevard.)

I consider Some Like it Hot, along with the A.F.I. (American Film Institute,) to be one of the very best comedies of all time. And Sunset Boulevard is also quite good. However, until recently, I had never had the pleasure of seeing The Apartment. Of all Wilder films I believe The Apartment had the most influence on Crowe’s career, especially in regards to Jerry Maguire.

The Apartment was the Academy Award winner for Best Picture of the year in 1960. At the time the subject matter was considered by many too risqué. As CC Baxter, Jack Lemmon plays a business man attempting to work his way up the corporate ladder. Baxter allows those peoples in his upper management to use his apartment for various seedy reasons; mostly it seems, to engage in affairs. Baxter’s neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Krushen) thinks that all the women he hears next door are in fact the numerous women in Baxter’s life. This leads to some very funny moments. In the midst of this all Baxter falls for the beautiful Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine,) an elevator operator. She reminds me a little of Penny Lane in Almost Famous. When Baxter’s boss, Joe Dobsich (Fred MacMurray,) promises him a promotion for the use of his apartment, the story shifts from laugh out loud funny to pure melodramatic genius.

First, I can not write this review without mentioning the absolutely fantastic acting on the part of Lemmon. He plays the “every man” with such a refined skill and charisma that, even though he is the main character, he steals every scene he is in (from himself I suppose.) MacLaine is also quite good. We see her as both powerful yet very much screwed up. There are times when her character makes some very stupid, very irrational decisions, yet we never loose our affection for her.

The film isn’t flawless though. Some of the scenes are redundant. The running length seems long. Although, to be honest, I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what should have been cut to enhance the experience.

Jerry Maguire begins with a tangent about life and Elizabethtown begins with a tangent about “last looks.” Both of these scenes allow Crowe to present us with a wide variety of images. In The Apartment, Wilder does almost the same. While all we see is a normal establishing shot of a building, the opening tangent introduces us to the main character, his world and what his character means in the world at large. By introducing us to their characters in third person, while allowing the events of the film to unfold in first person, Crowe and Wilder allow us see deep into the humanity of their characters, while also understanding them as a part of a grander scale.

The Apartment has been called a “masterpiece.” While I find the wording a bit superfluous, it is certainly a classic film, whose influence on modern film is impossible to deny.