For the Love of THE APARTMENT

I’m a pusher.

A pusher of the worst kind.

A black and white comedy/drama from the 60’s pusher.

“You’ve gotta see it. It is so funny. So witty. The language play is phenomenal and I even named my daughter after the writer/director Billy Wilder.”


I usually get a shrug or “okay” or “whatever.”

But really, it’s the perfect film, at least to me.



It was love at first sight.

I actually stood and clapped after I saw it for the first time in my living room.

Dead, spot-on dialog with heart and spirit and attempted suicide and love to boot.

Maybe it’s just that I identify with it a little too much…

C.C. BAXTER
The mirror...it's broken

FRAN KUBELIK
Yes, I know. I like it that way.
Makes me look the way I feel.

“C.C. "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) tries to climb the corporate ladder through the door of his apartment! By providing a hideaway for his bosses and their mistresses, he is promoted based on the use of The Apartment. When he lends the key to the big boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), he finally gets the key to the corporate washroom and his love life takes a turn. For Sheldrake's mistress is the elevator girl, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Gaining some gumption through the awakening of his love of Fran, Bud must make the most important executive decision of his life.”

Too many times I’ve been stuck in that space in between relationships, guessing what was going to happen next, the one on the outside looking in.

FRAN KUBELIK
I just have this talent for falling in love
with the wrong guy in the wrong place?

How universal is this feeling, this search for love in all the places we should ignore - the extra on the sidelines? Seemingly invisible, walking through your day without seeing what is right in front of you.

FRAN KUBELIK
When you're in love with a married
man, you shouldn't wear mascara.

And then trying to be the one not getting hurt, giving everything of yourself for so long that one day you realize that you yourself are the one who is gone.

FRAN KUBELIK

Some people take, some people get took.
And they know they're getting took and
there's nothing they can do about it.

When Fran tries to commit suicide, the sadness in this comedy/drama is palpable. The juxtaposed jaunty dialog mixed with the true heartache and loneliness, creates a complex atmosphere and a story that keeps you transfixed and hoping, hoping for some happiness, some kindness. Hoping that someone, anyone, will actually see the potential and beauty in the two lead characters. They seem to be invisible to the rest of the world, except when they are being used by others.


In Seattle many years ago, a new 60 mm print of The Apartment came to The Egyptian Theater. I got dressed up in my best little black dress, heels, accented with a wrap, and my grandmother’s ruby red broach. I sat in the dark of the theater and silently cried. The tempo of the words, the silver of the print, the earnestness in Baxter’s eyes, the true vulnerability in Kubelik’s face was stunning and real, moving before my eyes at 24 frames per second. When Fran ran across the giant screen to meet Baxter in the apartment, my heart flew off and was caught in the soft, silver screen of it all. I could have jumped out of my seat and ran with her.

As much as I want everyone to see The Apartment, I often don’t want to share it. What if they don’t like it? How would I cope? What if the black and white just bores them, what if the dialog is too “old fashioned?” I can’t take the criticism because I want the trueness and the beauty of it all to shine for everyone. I guess we all feel this way about our favorite films, they are like our second skins, keeping us warm at night when dawn just won’t come quick enough.

But I do think nearly everyone knows what it feels like not to want to go on, what it feels like to work so hard and keep running into the same wall over and over again. Everyone needs a little acceptance, kindness, and love – even if you’re a schmuck with an extra dose of uncool integrity. Oh, how I’ve decided that I don’t ever want to be cool. But I wouldn’t mind living inside a few of the frames of this film.

FRAN KUBELIK
Shut up and deal.

“Movie-wise, there has never been anything like ‘The Apartment’ –
laugh wise, love-wise, or otherwise-wise!”

“A Billy ‘Some Like It Hot’ Wilder Production.”