At the 1961 Academy Awards, The Apartment became the last film shot entirely in black & white to win Best Picture. Written and directed by Billy Wilder, it was his follow up to Some Like It Hot, a film that’s consistently ranked at the top of any respectable list of cinema’s greatest comedies. The Apartment usually makes those lists as well, but a lot further down, which is a shame, because The Apartment is a far better film I think. And funnier as well. It was also Wilder’s second collaboration with Jack Lemmon (the first was, of course, Some Like It Hot, which wasn’t even NOMINATED for Best Picture, thankyouverymuch).
The Apartment certainly wasn’t the first appearance of Lemmon’s “everyman” or “loveable loser” persona, but it may have been the perfection of it. He plays C.C. Baxter as if he’d been living the role his entire life. It’s a character Lemmon never seemed to tire of playing either, which is fine because I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching him do it.
The way he brings this sort of anxious energy to the role pulls me into the movie every time I watch it. In fact, Baxter is constantly moving, fidgeting with this or that, pacing around the room, the man cannot sit still. It’s very much a performance that leaves you feeling exhausted when it’s over.
MacLaine on the other had, as elevator operator Fran Kubelik, delivers this soft, gentle portrayal. She’s got a bit of sass to her, and as we get to know her, along with Baxter, you start to see these dark undertones.
One scene in particular comes to mind; at the office Christmas party Baxter pulls Fran into his office to get an opinion on the new hat he’s just purchased, a black bowler. When she offers up a mirror out of her purse Baxter notes it’s broken and she responds, “I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.” Those two sentences perfectly encapsulate that character.
The way Wilder gets around the film’s racy subject matter (married men and their mistresses) is almost as entertaining as the performances. Often times he uses humour to alleviate the tensions, to try and make light of the scandalous behaviour (remember, this was filmed in 1959), and when he does address it directly it’s always through Baxter, the one man in the film with honest intentions. Rather than cry fowl and try to exonerate himself, Baxter often intentionally throws more fuel on the fire by covering for others and shouldering the blame. To be fair though, in a majority of the film he’s doing it for what he thinks is professional gain.
As much as I adore the movie, after this most recent re-watch I couldn’t help but notice that there’s no real spark between Lemmon and MacLaine, or rather Baxter and Fran. And that’s not exactly a bad thing. I think a lot of what we perceive as chemistry on-screen comes from the whole “opposites attract” theory, and (allow me my tangent here) that’s too often translated into real life. Yes, anger and passion can often walk side by side, and there have been plenty of romances that begin (and end) in that sort of love-hate banter. In the movies it’s certainly fun to watch. I mean, how much fun would Star Wars have been in Han and Leia just spoke calm and collected towards each other?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that those types of romances can’t or don’t work, just that there’s something to be said for two people who are comfortable with each other, who’s conversations don’t escalate into shouting matches, who don’t try to read malicious intent into every misstep along the road. When Baxter first asks Fran out he begins to ramble on about all the small details he knows about her life. Whe she asks him how he knows all of this stuff he tells her he looked up her file in the company database. It’s a scene that could have easily played out as creepy, and it comes off that way, but Fran just smiles, acknowledging his crush as being more sweet and not so much spooky, and agrees to go out with him. I think that plays perfectly into the final scene in the film; Baxter finally professing his love for her, Fran handing him a deck of cards and saying “Shut up and deal.”
That’s why I love this movie I think. It presents a kind of romance that isn’t whirlwind or insanely passionate, it just is. It’s two people finding each other, then, finding out they can’t live without each other.
