The Apartment

The Apartment (in Spain, El apartamento; in Argentina and Mexico, Bachelor's Pad) is a 1960 American romantic-drama comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray. The story told was inspired in part by Noël Coward's script for the 1945 film A Brief Encounter, which was an expansion of his one-act play Still Life. , 1936.

This was Wilder's sixth film after its predecessor's similar Some Like It Hot, a critical and commercial success, which produced $25 million in box office earnings. The Apartment was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Lemmon and MacLaine were also nominated for the Academy Award, winning Golden Globes for their performances in the film. This film was the basis for the Broadway musical Promises, Promises.

The Apartment has come to be regarded as one of the greatest films, appearing on lists from the American Film Institute and Sight and Sound. In 1994, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

Calvin Clifford (C.C.) "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office worker for an insurance company based in a New York skyscraper. Seeking to move up in the company, Bud allows four of his bosses to take turns using his Upper West Side apartment for their extramarital dates, so noisy that his neighbors assume it's Bud who brings home different women every day. nights.

The four managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) call him Buddy to make him feel special, and write spectacular reports about Bud, who is expecting a promotion from his chief of staff, Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Bud at his office, but tells him that he's figured out why he's getting such glowing reviews of him, so he's promoting him in exchange for exclusive use of the apartment. He insists on starting using it that very night, and as compensation for his inconvenience he gives Buddy two tickets to the Broadway musical The Music Man.

Leaving work, Bud runs into Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator he greets daily, and invites her to go to the theater with him. They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a friend. The man in question is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is going to divorce her wife to be with her. They both go to Bud's apartment while he waits desolately outside the theater.

Several weeks later, in the middle of the company's wild Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams) tells Fran that she is the latest in a series of women, including the Olsen herself, company employees whom Sheldrake has seduced with the promise of a divorce from his wife. That afternoon, at Bud's apartment, Fran argues with Sheldrake, angry with herself for believing her lies. Sheldrake assures her that he is in love with her, but when night falls he returns to her house with her family.

Meanwhile, Bud has figured out the situation between Sheldrake and Fran. Devastated, he makes contact with a woman in a bar and takes her to her house. When they enter the apartment, he finds Fran in her bed, dressed but unconscious from an overdose of pills. He asks his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss, for help to revive Fran without having to notify the authorities, and he makes her believe that he and Fran are lovers who had argued over something so ridiculous that he had not taken it seriously, and that's why he was with another woman while she was trying to kill herself. This is not surprising to Dr. Dreyfuss or his wife, who consider Bud a womanizing playboy, judging by the incessant noise coming from his apartment at all hours. Fran spends a couple of days recuperating at her apartment, while Bud entertains her and tries to distract her from any morbid thoughts with endless games of Gin Rummy.

Due to her absence, Karl Matuschka (Johnny Seven), Fran's brother-in-law, shows up at the office looking for her, but neither she nor Bud are there; however, one of the executives who used the apartment had found Fran in bed the day before when she stopped by hoping to use it, and she has discussed it with other colleagues. Resenting Bud because he now doesn't let them use the apartment, he gives the brother-in-law the address where he can find Fran. Bud is again the one to suffer, and Karl punches Bud in the face a couple of times. Fran kisses Bud, grateful that he hasn't told Karl about her affair with Sheldrake, and Bud, realizing that she cares about him, tells her that her blows didn't hurt at all.

Sheldrake rewards Bud with another promotion, and fires Miss Olsen for exposing her track record to Fran. However, the secretary takes revenge by telling his wife, who immediately throws him out of the house. Sheldrake moves into a room in his gym, and decides that he can now move forward with his relationship with Fran in light of her regained bachelorhood. When Sheldrake asks Bud for the key to his apartment for New Year's Eve, Bud refuses and quits the job. Sheldrake tells Fran at the New Year's party they both attend, and Fran finally realizes that Bud is the one who really loves her. Fran abandons Sheldrake in the middle of the party and runs to Bud's apartment. As she is reaching the door, she hears a loud noise, similar to a shot. Fearing that Bud has shot himself, Fran bangs on the door and calls out, Mr. Baxter!. Bud opens the door while he is holding a freshly opened bottle of champagne, and ushers Fran into the apartment. There are stacked boxes ready for a move to another job in another city, but Fran tells her that she is finally free of her, and she sits next to her with a deck of cards. As they cut the deck to start another game of Gin Rummy, Bud tells her that he loves her, that he is madly in love with her, to which she responds, handing him the deck with a beaming smile: "Say no more and play." ”.

Cast

Calvin Clifford "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) and Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) on one of the final scenes of the film.

Style

Shirley MacLaine in the movie trailer.

Billy Wilder made a cinema with a simple technique and a complicated plot. By saying complicated one refers to an argument with great details, ambitions or desires. The film is narrated almost entirely with an omniscient narrator, who does not take sides at any time, except for the first scene, in which the voice of Jack Lemmon introduces us to his character, his life and the small problem of he.

Awards and nominations

Oscar Awards

At the 33rd Academy Awards, the film was submitted in ten categories and won five:

Medals of the Film Writers Circle

Other awards

• BAFTA Award: to the best film, to the best actor (Jack Lemmonand the best actress (Shirley McLaine).
• Golden Globe: the best movie, the best actor - Comedy or musical (Jack Lemmon) and the best actress - Comedy or musical (Shirley McLaine).
• Venice International Film Festival: Volpi Award to Best Actress (Shirley McLaine).
• New York Film Critics Circle.
• Guild of America Award.
• WGA Awards (Writers Guild of America Award)

American Film Institute

• AFI's 100 years... 100 films (#93),
• AFI's 100 years... 100 smiles (#20),
• AFI's 100 years... 100 passions (#62),
• AFI's 100 years... 100 films (tenth anniversary edition) (#80).
• AFI's 100 years... 100 phrases:
  • Fran Kubelik: “Don’t say more and play” - Candidate