The Apartment - Review-wise

The Apartment or "How to write a terrific-wise screenplay"

Introduction

   Billy Wilder was a genius of screenwriting, everybody knows that, It's a plasure to me to write a review about one of his greatest successes, The Apartment.

   Review

   The Apartment, written anddirected by Billy Wilder and starred by such stars like Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, is about CC Baxter, a regular office worker that lives in a cozy apartment which he not always can go in. The reason? Four of his superiors uses it for trysts, and once he's promoted for providing such pleasures, his boss decides to look after what's CC "Buddy-boy" Baxter's secret. One more time Wilder presents us a gripping premise with a heavy subtext about ethics that makes us totally focus on that 100% original story to see what happens next. But different from other pictures like "Some Like It Hot" (also starred by Jack Lemmon), this feature has a more dramatic tone, differing from the hilarious comedy I just quoted or a huge thriller like "Double Indemnity", showing Wilder's great eclecticism.

   I don't why, and I don't think I shouldn't, I felt so empathy with the protagonist, who's always suffering of head-aches due to the mess that the guests leaves behind, the nights he just can't enter on his own apartment, the neighbors who sees you as THE womanizer that don't let the others sleep with loud music and giggling hummings. Maybe because Wilder created one of the MOST HUMAN characters of all time, I can see that, although is almost impossible someone in real life give the keys of his own apartment for a colleague to rise on the company, there is some CC Baxters in the planet.

Come on, how can't you recognize yourself with this frame? I named it "me on Mondays"

   Anyway, technically speaking, the cinematography of "The Apartment" is noir-wise (hehehe, this was a reference), with several scenes where there is a great contrast between light and shadows, I bet that if this movie was filmed in technicolor, the art design would probably invest on satured colors, because nothing could evidence more the inspiration that Wilder got from Ed Hopper's paintings (cinephilia is also culture). I don't know if the problem was with my headset, but I thought the sound of the picture was too low, could you please watch it at home and then write below on the comments what you think about the sound design of the film? But remember, "this is a respectable house, not a honky-tonky. Come on, Oscar" (yeah, this is one of the dozens of memorable quotes this picture has), about the editing, it was OK.
   All the actings were amazing, Jack Lemmon has a great commical timming although this is a drama, MacLaine is so sweet on this movie, but we can all see the melancholy of a broken heart on her eyes, Fred MacMurray makes a hateful antagonist that constantly threatens the protagonist and uses his physical shaape as a helper for this and guess what, he pissed me off, congratulations, you did well your job.
   The screenlay is full of brilliant dialogues such as:
CC Baxter - "Your mirror is broken"
Mrs. Kubelik - "Yes, I know. I like it this way. Makes me look the way I feel"
Brilliant, right, no surprise it won an Academy Award.

   "The Apartment" is romantic, gripping, beautiful, brilliant and is special because is one of the single exceptions of films whose title translation in Portuguese is more interesting than the original one "Se Meu Apartamento Falasse", explendid and practically flawless, 10 out of 10.