Wilder's Wistfulness: Modern Isolation in 'The Apartment' (Eureka! Masters of Cinema)
- ethanbeaven97
- Mar 7, 2021
- 4 min read
(A mock essay accompanying a Eureka! Masters of Cinema DVD release of 'The Apartment', written Spring 2018)

(Still from 'The Apartment')
After the success of Some Like it Hot (1959), Billy Wilder plunged himself and Jack Lemmon into far more darker territory in his next film The Apartment (1960), an anti-Capitalist black comedy about the human condition in corporate America.
Wilder's classically crude and innuendo laden dialogue, co-written by I.A.L Diamond, along with its crisp black and white cinematography. permeates the film's atmosphere with a sleazy realism that recalls the noirs that ignited Wilder's career in the 1940s. It was also in the '40s when Wilder was first equipped with the idea to write The Apartment. After attending a screening of Noel Coward's drama about adultery Brief Encounter (1945), Wilder began to wonder about the character that lent his room out for his boss' scandalous affair. However, the concept would not receive finance until the late 1950s due to the limitations of the Production Code. The film's narrative also has its roots in a highly publicised Hollywood scandal in which agent Jennings Lang was shot by producer Walter Wang, after discovering Lang and his wife in a low-level employee's apartment attempting to 'get up the ladder'. Like Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon), these men were outsiders whose desire to achieve the American Dream could only become an actuality in exchange for their morality and dignity. The film's massive success at the Oscars then is considerably ironic considering the film's commentary on the dehumanising effects of capitalism, especially in the wake of Hollywood's purge of suspected communists in the 1950s.
For The Apartment, Wilder recalled his years growing up in Europe by imbedding the influence of 'New Objectivity' (a pictorial movement of the 1920s that was a reaction to expressionism) into the film's themes and aesthetic. It was this movement's 'left', the 'verists', whom Wilder was influenced by the most, whose works depicted ugly, sordid themes with dark humour in a spirit of pessimistic satire. It is The Apartment's form of bleak, sleazy realism then that recalls both the noir movement in American cinema, and early 20th century European art. The film's firm roots in noir go far further though when considering the work of cinematographer Joseph LaShelle. LaShelle won an Oscar for Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), and continued his work on noirs such as Fallen Angel (1945). The impressions of LaShelle in The Apartment stood out at a time when black and white cinematography was becoming a rarity in Hollywood, as new technologies such as 'Technicolor' were introduced to rival the rise of television.
Wilder and LaShelle decided to shoot the film on a significantly wider 2.35:1 canvas than expected, a ratio usually reserved for Epics and Westerns. This had a considerable effect on Wilder's use of space and setting in the film, as this ratio minimalised the spaces in which Baxter operated and lived by emphasising the surrounding structures. Examining some of the wide-angle shots of Baxter's workplace, the office workers and their desks are organised in symmetrical precision like an army garrison. This emphasises conformity and a lack of identity as the workers are no more significant than each other, or the stationary desks they work at. The use of wide-angle also helps to create an image that is claustrophobic and imprisoning by accentuating the low ceiling and large desks, thus referencing the lack of freedom Baxter has, and further scrutinising with a potent irony that American capitalism is restrictive to individual freedom. Considering the 'Mensch' motif and the recurrent criticisms of American culture, it becomes evident that Wilder is treading in the same water as Franz Kafka. The protagonist of The Metamorphosis (1915), Gregor Samsa, shares many similarities with Baxter in that he has become a spineless agent of capitalism, although his dehumanisation is far more literal.
Baxter's apartment is, of course, the most significant setting of the film., and is where he and sordidness live. The tight and cramped design of the apartment is down to the film's art director Alexandre Trauner (Les Enfants du Paradis, 1945) and Wilder's regular set designer Edward G Bayle (Gone with the Wind, 1939). The bedroom is almost always a presence in these internal shots, the immoral secret lingering in the background like Baxter's own subconscious repulsiveness towards his own actions, towards himself. The loneliness Baxter suffers is emphasised by this too as it is a visual reminder of his own relationship status. Furthermore, there is a darkly humorous scene in which Baxter talks to his television. It is a perfect mix of comedy and pathos, satirising his existence whilst also pitying it. Also in his apartment lingers a drawing on the wall that appears to be a big fish in the centre of cyclical patterns. This comes into view when his boss visits, attempting to persuade him to let him use his apartment for his own devious deeds. With the other negative commentary on capitalism, one can only assume it is a reference to the food chain of capitalism, the boss representing the big fish that dominates the others whilst the little fish like Baxter abide to this pre-ordained cycle.
The travesty of Lemmon's and Shirley MaClaine's (Fran Kubelik) performances were that they were not properly rewarded at the 1960 Oscars. However, testament to the influence of Lemmon's performance, Kevin Spacey dedicated his best actor award for American Beauty (1999) to Lemmon. The Apartment was subsequently a significant influence on American Beauty, according to director Sam Mendes, and has had a far reaching influence ever since. We at Eureka! are immensely proud to present another Wilder classic to you. Now, shut up and press play.
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