THE APARTMENT

Following on from the success of their collaboration on SOME LIKE IT HOT, director Billy Wilder reteamed with actor Jack Lemmon for what many consider the pinnacle of their respective careers: THE APARTMENT.

C.C. ''Bud'' Baxter (Lemmon) is a lowly Manhattan office drone with a lucrative sideline in renting out his apartment to adulterous company bosses and their mistresses. When Bud enters into a similar arrangement the firm's personnel director, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), his career prospects begin to look up... and up. But when he discovers that Sheldrake's mistress is Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the girl of his dreams, he finds himself forced to choose between his career and the woman he loves.

THE APARTMENT’s mingling of sex, farce and suicide garnered such notices as "a dirty fairy tale" (Saturday Review), "leering and slimy" (New York Telegraph), and "slick cynicism and prurient sentimentality" (Dwight Macdonald). As it plays out against a backdrop of boozy office Christmas parties, mocking holiday decorations, and mirthless cheer, you’ll have to make up your own mind about whether it’s really a romantic comedy or a heartbreaking film about loneliness.

Happy New Year!