Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment'

"Mildred, he's at it again!"

"Thursday? But that's 'The Untouchables' with Bob Stack!"

i was just told to watch this

You should get on that, viewing-wise.

i will

maybe now, i can't sleep, seems sensible enough

Love this film! It is the first year I don't watch it for the holidays.

some lover you are. SOME SEXPOT.

the best soul-price in movie history may be 'the executive washroom'

Should I revisit this? I watched it once and wasn't too hot on it—felt it aged not terribly well. Sort of stagy and staid. I was born in the latter half of the 80s, so maybe it is a generational thing.

what does it need to unstaid it?

Read a Paris Review interview w/ Wilder just recently, where he talked about how it was watching Brief Encounter - and particularly the scenes where Trevor Howard's pal lets him use his bachelor flat - that provided the inspiration for The Apartment. Maybe this is commonly known, but it was news to me.

Watched it again yesterday evening. Then watched it again this evening.

Assorted new items on task list for the rest of 2014: tapping hesitant dogs, taking the hat off in crowded elevators, buying sock stretchers, trying to recreate a Martini petal.

tis the season

(almost)

sometimes it's a twi-night doubleheader

"...Mildred..."

i said i had no family; i didn't say i had an empty apartment.

why do all you dames hafta live in the bronx

basically every line is great from any of baxter's pre-sheldrake patrons, a little chorus of minor devils: "how selfish can you get? the other night i had to borrow my nephew's car and take sylvia to a drive-in in jersey. i'm too old for that sort of thing. i mean, in the volkswagen."

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bd/5d/cc/bd5dcc3a76394f02a73a039749c81af6.gif

is this "jamesian"

what, your posting?

just testing the batsignal

i don't know if its jamesian or not but its fucking beautiful

are there any other movies where the sage who delivers the big moral exhortation echoed at the happy ending ("be a mensch") totally misunderstands the hero's problem

I can do without the other colleagues who use the apartment but otherwise Ms Kubelik forever.

but if it weren't for them who would teach baxter to say "-wise"

aping the tics of authority such a habit for him that he repeats "o-u-t OUT!" to ms kubelik one scene after a barman says it to him

anyway thomp otm on several levels cuz that section is thick with gorgeous ironies: he unknowingly gives her the card then she unknowingly gives him the mirror then she unknowingly stands him up for his own apartment. even the music doesn't overplay these bits. (it overplays fran's suicide. but it also does a huge favor to this admittedly kinda mechanical or corny line i posted earlier--i said i had no family; i didn't say i had an empty apartment--by backing it via jukebox with the faint climax of i think "o come all ye faithful", as a flourish before a cut.)

fran's attempted suicide i mean obv

don't have a cap handy of the christmas card (SEASONS GREETINGS FROM THE SHELDRAKES) but i noticed this time that the family dog is 1) named "figaro" and 2) the only sheldrake not listed in ALL CAPS: the boss is sensitive to every hierarchy

but if it weren't for them who would teach baxter to say "-wise"

Poll:

-wise
in regards to
in respect to

the fact that

Joseph McBride re-shared this on his Facebook feed

https://scontent.fman2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10513358_10152106267411787_8016945032040568554_n.jpg?oh=b94e12dc1a3ba79ab761692c0e0b21f7&oe=57F4E108

As someone pointed out in the comments, The Apartment opened in the same week as Psycho, and it beat it to the Best Picture Oscar.

Hitch needed a writer to sub compelled for impelled

I guess that's 'evidence' it is genuine Hitch rather than James B Allardice

Saw this yesterday. Really loved the last shot of the couple smiling and playing cards instead of kissing.

This is a flawless film, isn’t it? I mean script-and-execution-wise.

Just caught it on the big screen.

I cannot reconcile the fact that Wilder followed this up with One, Two, Three, which I’ve tried three times to like but find a massive unfunny dud each time.

Bought that at a library sale last week--not with any particular enthusiasm, it was just there and cheap. I love The Apartment.

I believe Stanley Kauffmann tore it to shreds in his first collection.

I watched it again this last time after having become familiar with the wit and charm of Arlene Francis from watching old What’s My Line? episodes, but in One, Two, Three she’s totally wasted in a retrograde role.

I actually own Stanley Kauffmann's first book so out of curiosity I looked up what he said about One, Two, Three... and he actually liked it overall. Praised its wit and "intelligent energy." Whereas he was lukewarm about The Apartment]!

You may have been thinking of Pauline Kael's pan of One, Two, Three from her first collection. She actually did tear it to shreds, even mocking Kauffmann's praise of it within her review.

Just a little off...Must have been Kael, yeah. I know--with 100% certainty--that Some Like It Hot was a Kauffmann favourite; he included it in one of his end-of-book "Reviewings" sections, where'd he revisit films he loved.