Films > Film Reviews

The Apartment

Cinema City

21/02/17

Before going to see The Apartment at the wonderful Cinema City I had no idea what to expect. I knew very little about the film, but feel that as a result of this this my experience was, in the end, greatly enhanced. The night started with a well spoken introduction about some of the views that The Apartment tackles, and information about accomplished director Billy Wilder and the film in general. This quickly made me realise that this is a film that is very highly regarded and that I was going to be in for a real treat. And I wasn't disappointed.

The film is mainly set in the world of C.C Baxter, or Bud as he is known to some, a well mannered lonely office worker. He wants to get higher up his insurance companies ladder, and to try to achieve this he lends his apartment to four company managers who use his abode to have secret relationships behind closed doors. Although this is a challenging way for Bud to operate it gets him promoted, and allows him to move on from just being a basic office worker into a more well respected position. As the film progresses we meet Fran, who is played wonderfully by Shirley Maclaine, and we realise that Bud is in love with this simple elevator girl. This causes to be problematic as one of the managers that uses his apartment is also ‘in love’ with Fran and has been seeing her for numerous months.  The film then proceeds to tell us how Bud tries to win the heart of Fran and how he overcomes the cruelty of the money grabbing company managers - don’t worry I won’t spoil it for those of you that haven’t seen it.

This black and white Oscar winner made in 1960 completely exceeded all expectations I had. Director Billy Wilder does a fantastic job with balancing humour, romance and drama and uses his talented actors brilliantly. The humour was done very cleverly and got the healthy sized Cinema City crowd laughing throughout. Another thing that I loved about this film is how we grow to care about Bud so quickly. Within the first 20 minutes of the film I was already completely with C.C. Baxter and was urging him along his journey, hoping that he would get the girl that he deserves. Again Billy Wilder does this so well by doing small things, such as starting off the film with Bud narrating factors of his life that he knows off the top of the head, for example how if the entire population of New York at the time were laid out end to end they would reach the outskirts of Karachi in Pakistan. Lastly I must say that the film has a lovely jazz soundtrack which works brilliantly throughout the film and is used cleverly in the scenes at the Chinese restaurant.

If you haven’t seen this film then I would strongly urge you to make the effort of seeing it. This is a brilliant film that is directed expertly by Billy Wilder and manages to twist humour, romance and drama all into one scintillating cinematic experience. Watch it!