Of course, for all of us, there’s fairly big movies that we haven’t seen because we had no interest in watching them. This is true for even the biggest movie buffs.
Which is more rare, and I realize I could be alone in this one, are movies that we put off watching because we know we’re going to like them.
I guess I should explain: there are a few movies that I know I’m going to love, and I feel as though I should save them. Maybe it’s a fear of running out of good movies, so at least I have these ones to look forward to, or maybe it’s a fear of not liking it as much as I should, but either way, this category does exist for me.
This movie is a movie in that category. I’ve always known that I would love it. I love Billy Wilder, dark comedies, and Mad Men, three things that should guarantee my love for the film. Wilder’s other three AFI movies are among my favorites. Yet, I still put this one off, partly wanting to still know that I’ll be able to watch a movie I love with fresh eyes
But for this project, I’ve given up this silly notion and watched it for the first time.
And, actually, I hated it.
Just kidding, of course I loved it.
Here I am with 1960’s The Apartment, written and directed by Billy Wilder.
Coming at the tail end of the 50’s, and focusing on an insurance company, this movie portrays a world of corrupted glamor and men desperate to rise to the top of the American Dream.
It’s very fitting that Wilder, in his observant, ahead-of-his-time nature, creates a movie with a badly needed message for the current time: it’s better to live for ourselves and the people we care about than living the life we’re expected to.
C.C. is rising through the ranks of his company, but it’s coming at a tremendous cost: his own personal happiness. His own needs, including his apartment, are sacrificed for this goal, and it causes him to be sad and resentful. He doesn’t even get to have his own self-image, as he’s viewed by his neighbors as more of a Lothario than how he actually is (which is more of a helpless romantic).
When it comes to his relationship with Fran, though, he finally makes the choice that he’s going to have what he wants, despite the demands of Jeff and everyone else that rules over him. He might be missing out on an office with his name on it, but he feels it doesn’t belong to him anyway (since he’d have to constantly make sacrifices to maintain it).
Fran goes through a similar journey. She works in an elevator, but it’s never her who gets to decide where it goes.
She’s the mistress in a relationship full of disingenuous promises. Not only that, but she’s fulfilling this role that other women in the company have occupied before with Jeff.
She even gets close to killing herself since she can’t quite find the way out.
When she decides to return to the apartment to be with C.C., she really takes her life into her own hands.
This theme comes up again and again throughout the film. Even the movie C.C. is about to watch at home can never truly start because it won’t stop playing commercials, as it has its own obligation to its sponsors.
Dr. Dreyfuss often does the right thing, as he’s a doctor in the right moments and a neighbor in the others.
Now I’m wanting to rewatch the movie again and again to see in what other ways the theme plays out.
I hope I’m not denigrating the film at all when I call it a romantic comedy. This is not necessarily a bad thing (and not a bad thing at all for all you Rom Com lovers).
In some ways, it is a genre piece, and in other ways, it transcends the genre and becomes something far deeper and more meaningful.
Let’s look at the basic structure of a romantic comedy.
Characters live their normal lives, feeling as though something is missing. They either meet for the first time, or they truly see each other.
They start to like each other but an obstacle gets put in the way
Working around the obstacle, they get to know each other more and develop real feelings for each other
They’re about to be together and live happily ever after until a big crisis hits that potentially will throw them apart forever
They overcome the obstacle and get together and can now live happily ever after..
So this movie does follow that formula—not a bad thing, that story structure resonates well with our brains.
However, one thing to note is that a romantic tragedy follows the same steps, only the last one becomes: they both die (or break-up), and all is sad.
Romeo and Juliet is the quintessential example of this romantic tragedy. All builds up to this finale, and it ends with them both dying (sorry for the spoilers in case you somehow didn’t know this).
One brilliant aspect of The Apartment is that it keeps threatening to be the latter.
Death is a major theme throughout. Fran tries to kill herself, and C.C. has to constantly watch to prevent this.
And then, at the end, she hears the champagne cork, which she thinks might be a gunshot.
The tension hangs over it, like it could go the Romeo and Juliet route at any moment, but true to its comedic nature, lets a happy ending unfold.
As with all great movies, it gives us a lesson that can be positive and applicable in our own lives.
I had been putting off watching a movie I knew I’d enjoy based off of some irrational thoughts. And who knows, I could have wound up never getting to see it if I got hit by a bus or all the power in the world was permanently shut off.
This film, though, is so much about really looking at what we want and honoring that. Making our own private apartment our homes instead of a tool for others.
So next time I’m having those thoughts that I need to be sacrificing something needlessly, I can remember the last line of this movie.
And then I can tell myself, “shut up and deal.”
Thanks for reading!
Check out our streaming service: https://www.cideshow.com/subscribe/