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The Apartment

The Apartment. Billy Wilder, 1960. Billy Wilder. Over 50 films an 6 academy awards Born June 22, 1906 Samuel Wilder, grew up Austro-Hungarian Empire

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The Apartment

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  1. The Apartment • Billy Wilder, 1960

  2. Billy Wilder • Over 50 films an 6 academy awards • Born June 22, 1906 Samuel Wilder, grew up Austro-Hungarian Empire • Father, Max died in 1926 and his mother Eugenia who spent a great deal of time in America told him stories and began his fascination with the US

  3. Beginning of Career • Started out as a journalist • Received his first break as a filmmaker in Germany in 1929: MENSCHEN AM SONTAG (People on Sunday) • Rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France, and ultimately to the United States

  4. He worked on and off until 1938, when he began a long and fruitful collaboration with Charles Brackett. Their partnership, which lasted twelve years, produced a succession of box office hits including HOLD BACK THE DAWN (1941), DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LOST WEEKEND, and SUNSET BOULEVARD.

  5. DOUBLE INDEMNITY, co-written with Raymond Chandler was a tense and thrilling film noir, while SUNSET BOULEVARD investigated the bizarre and tragic life of a once famous silent movie star. Both proved Wilder’s ability to create successful and artistic cinema. --PBS (American Masters)

  6. The 1950s saw Wilder produce several films alone including STALAG 17 (1953) and THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, before teaming up with the writer/producer I.A.L. Diamond in 1957. The two would collaborate for over twenty years, producing such major hits as WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1954), SOME LIKE IT HOT and THE APARTMENT --PBS (American Masters)

  7. Themes of The Apartment • Baxter is a clerk who gets ahead by hiring his apartment to philandering superiors in exchange for a promotion • Jack Lemmon’s CC Baxter is a symbol of Joe Public’s complicity in corporate ethics

  8. Secondary Themes • Interesting that Wilder hated television (look for how this is expressed in The Apartment) • Baxter as little white dot? (image theme)

  9. Billy Wilder’s Approach • Material is almost always serious, but also has an ironic edge • “What I hate more than not being taken seriously is being taken too seriously” • many of his films have happy endings (while not necessarily his most famousfilms like Double Indemnity)

  10. Cinematography • Many elements of the cinematography show Baxter as “the little guy”

  11. Compared to:

  12. Exposition • Pay close attention to the first few scenes of the film and think about all of the different ways exposition is communicated • Exposition (from wikipedia) is a technique by which background information about the characters, events, or setting is conveyed in a novel, play, movie or other work of fiction. This information can be presented through dialogue, description, flashbacks, or even directly through narrative.

  13. There is a great deal of detail in the film’s exposition • Key to executive office • Office Details • Television • Sleeping Pills

  14. Since the movie is about two people who become emancipated, it is important to see what they are emancipated from (why there is so much detail in the beginning) • Baxter is non-judgmental, bending over backwards for everyone to climb the corporate ladder • Miss Kubelik is in love with a married man and is trapped in an unhealthy situation

  15. Jack Lemmon’s collaborations with Wilder link • Perfect “every-man” • An unlikable character overall, so Lemmon is key to make him seem like a descent guy • considered a genius, because he can do physical comedy (very complex) and act at the same time

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