Well, not all of the votes came in, but they wouldn't have changed the results anyway, as The Apartment won by a landslide! I apologize for not putting up the thread on time, but this week was especially stressful because of University. Well, anyway, to cut it short, I will make the period a little longer this time around. Yoiu have got time until Sunday, May 14th to rent/borrow/buy The Apratment, watch it and discuss it in here.

Once again, please participate as much as you can to keep this thing going! Thanks in advance.

Here is our members list again:


1. Dr. Lecter
2. lennier
3. yoshue
4. neo_wolf
5. Christian
6. android
7. haerpinot
8. Shack
9. Zingaling
10. jmart007
11. andaroo
12. Atoddr
13. Chris
14. Dkmuto
15. publicenemy#1
16. xiayun
17. MikeQ.
18. Riggs27
19. baumer 72
20. Andrew

I am still waiting for a couple of them to comment on Dangerous Liaisons!

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Please unsticky the Club Pick #1 thread and sticky this one!

I'll go ahead and give a bunch of pertinent Apartment information.

Directed by the great Billy Wilder, a man possibly responsible for more classics than anyone but Hitchcock. Indeed, some recent critical examination has presented, IMO, a tendency to underestimate Wilder and his films because they are so goddamn fun and entertaining.

A German immigrant, he began his career screenwriting some classic 1930's comedies with Charles Brackett, including Ninotchka, Ball of Fire and Midnight. His first directing gig was 1942's The Major and The Minor, in which Ginger Rogers pretends to be a 12-year old girl (!). It's 'minor' entertainment. Heh.

For the next 20 years, however, Billy Wilder would co-write and direct some of the best movies Hollywood has ever churned out. Double Indemnity (1944). The Lost Weekend (for which he won two Oscars) (1945). Sunset Boulevard (Best original Screenplay)(1950). Ace in the Hole (1951). Witness for the Prosecution (1957). Some Like It Hot (1959). That's just scratching the surface.

1959's Some Like It Hot was the AFI's number one comedy of all time. Yes, folks, it's good. The Academy, however, despite throwing it a few nominations including Best Director and Best Actor, snubbed it in the Best Picture category. We all know the academy is forever 'making up' for mistakes. This is important because the next year, 1960, The Apartment was released.

Nominated for 10 Oscars, it won 5 including:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Original Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Art Direction- Black and White

The five awards it did not win were:
Best Actor: Jack Lemmon
Best Actress: Shirley MacClaine
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Kruschen
Best Cinematography- Black and White
Best Sound

The Apartment also won the BAFTA, The Golden Globe (Musical or Comedy) and The New York Film Critics Association Award, as well as the DGA and WGA.

The Apartment, despite moments of pathos, is also one of those few comedies to win Best Picture, a small group that includes It Happened One Night and Annie Hall, among others.

The Apartment is Cameron Crowe's favorite film, and was #93 on the AFI's 100 Best American Movie countdown. Should have been higher.

For the rest of his life, Billy Wilder's career was a mixed bag; he never again reached the heights of his 40s an 50s films. 59-60, when Some Like It Hot and The Apartment were released, was his high point. His final film, 1981s Buddy, Buddy is one of the worst films ever made. Please don't see it.

I'll kick off the comments, and they're not pretty.

Everything from the snail pace uneven quality of the movie to MacLaine's annoying whiny Fran got on my nerves when I watched this.

I assume spoilers are game from here on in, so don't read the next couple lines unless you don't mind knowing how it pans out.

By the end I just wanted Fran to actually off herself. I thought, Good riddance.
I think there's something about this man looking onto another woman slowly unravelling that just irritates me as far as a narrative style, however. Because I didn't like Virgin Suicides either. But Apartment never even goes the full length, instead settling for a Ms Lonely Hearts (Hitchcock) ending, but making it a two hour story with little intrigue and just alot of bumbled stepping. I guess it was a big deal to depict miserable manic women in 1960, but by now I am just bored with it, and the technical aspects of the movie didn't compensate for my disinterest in the subject and narration.

*end spoilers*

I'm interested to hear what others thought though, since i do realize I harbor no love for this voyeurism of middle-aged female depression.

Well, I liked it but I didn't love it. I thought the first hour was pretty good, but when MacLaine's character has her 'incident' everything slows down too much. Then there's a rush in the last 10 minutes to tie everything up. It does have some good moments though. Lemmon is always good and I've never seen a young Shirley MacLaine before. I thought she was pretty cute. Maybe my expectation were too high, but I would rate this a B.

*spoilers*



I was like, die already.

I know that's mean, but it was an affair. And I didn't really come across that well. Taking an affair so seriously, she new he was married. I dunno, she just seemed clingy. All this is fine if we're dealing with psychological sketches, but considering the content, I felt The Apartment was suprisingly un-psychological. It felt very distant to me. It might have been the comedic setting of how many superiors were using his apartment. And it got a bit choppy because of it. Can't really deal with four or five examples, plus the work promotions, plus the budding relationship between Lemmon and MacLaine. It almost felt to me like a Neil Simon play, but without the nuance in dialogue, or the real tackling of domestic boredom and fueding. Meh.

It should be in the mail tomorrow.

My wife basically said the same thing, lol. She didn't care for The Apartment. And now we're halfway through Lawrence Of Arabia which is boring her. I'll have to rent a romantic comedy next to stay on her good side.

Rent The Accidental Tourist! That *almost* made my top ten list of best nominees. Its more a dramatic romance than a comedy one, but Davis is quirky, as is Hurt's family, so its not really sad. Its very nice. You two will like it. Your wife apparently has good taste.

Hmm, I am struggling to get it...

hmmm apparently my copy was shipped on the 24th April with a 2-3 day delivery time.... i think it's time to contact the company

Well, I finished it last night, and my thoughts about it are along the same lines as Atoddr's. I liked it, but I would not say that it's an excellent film. There are excellent parts, especially towards the beginning, but once the first hour goes by, it just drags and drags. I was annoyed by Fran, but it was nice seeing a younger MacClaine. I was also annoyed by Lemmon's character. There's a pushover, and then there's that. Who in the hell lets their bosses use their home for their own recreation? I just don't get it. Lemmon was the standout as far as acting goes, and he was the only one who should have been nominated for an Oscar. I really don't see how this won 5 Oscars, but oh well.

I think I will give it a B.

Hm... so anyone else seen it? I'm about to watch it...

I just got it yesterday, yay! Will watch it tonight.

I finished it this morning.

I certainly enjoyed it...
Maybe its because I watched the film in three sittings, but I didn't find MacClaine's character that annoying.

When are we picking the next one? I have another list on the way, and there are oodles of promising (if slightly controversial) picks on it!

Well, my video store officially sucks. I think they used to have all these films when VHS was around a couple years ago, but when the DVDs came in they just didn't restock a lot of the older movies.

I'll try to find a download, though I probably won't find one.

I ordered it on Monday.

Not much enthusiasm for this pick. Perhaps we should move on?

Well, we are anyway on Monday.

It seems quite a difficult one to get hold of, apparently a replacement for the copy i didn't recieve has been posted, but still hasn't arrived

The copy I ordered didn't arrive yet either

ACK!

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This is a very heartwarming film. Jack Lemmon has always delivered very good "everyday man" performances and he excels here as well. The direction is also good (that short opening scene in the accounting office comes to my mind, also when C.C. Baxter's face twitches with excitement as he is hearing the cast of Grand Hotel - then getting disappointed as sponsors and alternate sponsors chime in, HAHA). I was fine with Shirley MacLaine (she's cute though, hehe - when her ass got slapped in the elevator, funny - but wasn't this movie before the whole sexual harrassment/discrimination thing?), she wasn't that grating to me. Though I *think* it won too many Oscars.

Some people compared the ending to The Lost Weekend, also directed by Wilder. Heh. But that movie was a cheat (completely changing the gritty and gripping aspects of the book to a more palatable movie version). At least The Apartment had a controlled drama/comedy tone in its entirety. I'd give this movie a B+.

Also... $85 a month for a nice apartment? Good times.

And I think a boss asking a certain employee for favors in exchange for a promotion still ring true in certain circles...

Though not necessarily using their apartment... tee hee.

Can be unstickied now.

Hmmm...only six out of 19 watched it (and I know, I am guilty of not watching it myself as well, but those library morons failed on booking this one for me on time).

The Apartment is one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite Billy Wilder movies. No-one here has really talked about Wilder. Born in Austria in 1906, Billy Wilder emigrated to the United States following Hitler's rise to power. He and Charles Bracket wrote over a dozen scripts including Ninotchka (Ermst Lubitsch) and Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks) before Wilder convinced Paramount to let him direct. The result was The Major and the Minor (1942) starring Ginger Rogers which was a hit and led to Bracket and Wilder writing films including The Lost Weekend (1945), A Foreign Affair (1948) snd Sinset Boulevard (1950), all of which Wilder directed.

Wilder's second partner was I.A.L. Diamomd whose screenplays with the director included Some Like it Hot (1959), The Apartment (1060) and Irma La Douce (1963) which also starred Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine.


I love The Apartnent because of it's delicate balance of elements. At once, the film is a comedy, a drama and a biting satire of corporate and personal hypocrisy in the early days of The Cold War.

For the second time (the first was Double Indemnity (1944), Wilder turned Fred MacMurray's All American image on its ear by asking him to portray the duplicitous Jeff Sheldrake. Walt Disney, who had just signed MacMurray for family films like The Shaggy Dog and The Ansent Minded Professor, wasn't pleased with Wilder's movie

As for complaining about Shirley MacLaine...here's a story. When Jack Lemmon first decided to become an actor, he invited his father and mother to a local theater performance. Afterwards, Lemmon's parents expressed their pleasure at their son's work. Jack, looking for constructive criticism, asked them if there was anything they hadn't liked. At that point, his mother started to say something but was interrupted by Lemmon's dad. "Shut up." said John Lemmon. "He was perfect."
That's how I feel about Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment.

The Apartment is, to me, a nearly perfect movie, highlighted by the delicately nuanced performance of Jack Lemmon. The only criticism I can think if is that I feel the roles of the next door doctor and his wife (played by Jack Kruschen and Naomi Stephens) were a bit too broadly written.


However, its writing that sets Wilder movies apart from all others. The level of sparkling, witty dialogue acheived by the director and his co-writers has seldom been equaled and never bettered. Wilder's way with a quip extended to real life as well. Asked if it was important that film directors be able to write, Wilder said "No, but it's nice if theyre able to read." When he was courting his wife, Wilder told her "I'd worship the ground you walked on if you lived in a better neighborhood. "

During the production of Sunset Boulevard, Wilder told his camaraman "Let's shoot it through a piece of cheese and win Best Foreign Film." One year, Wilder directed a Christmas pageant. He was asked if an actor who had been a Nazi could again play the role of Jesus as he had before the war. "Certainly," said the gracious Mr. Wilder. "But only if we use real nails."



Lastly, I don't think The Apartment drags for a second. Today. movies are paced to please the young, male audience Hollywood is determined to reach. Back in the sixties, that wasn't the case. Yes, things like character development and scene setting may slow the pace. However, the reward is a ruchly detailed American classic as funny as it is moving. The Apartment is well worth its rental..


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