Today, I move on to the first black and white classic Christmas film on my list, Billy Wilder’s beloved The Apartment from 1960. It’s the oldest movie I’ve watched so far and an Oscar winner to boot, so I’m excited to experience Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine in this smart but surprisingly heavy comedy drama. Lemmon is C.C. Baxter, a single office drone in an insurance company who, in a bid to climb the corporate ladder, lends his apartment out to the executives to let them carry out their extra-marital affairs. It gets complicated when he falls in love with his dreamy co-worker Fran (Maclaine) who is also the object of his superior (Fred MacMurray)’s affections.
This is a wonderful movie, though I’m initially not so sure it’s actually a ‘Christmas film.’ However, I note that it ranks highly on a whole bunch of ‘best Christmas movies ever’ lists, so I give it a go. Turns out it is set at Christmas time and the big office yuletide party plays a hugely important part, so it totally counts.
This tale of desperate singletons is a reminder about how the holidays can be a tough time for lonely people, living alone, trying to find love and struggling to make ends meet during the so-called ‘most wonderful time of the year.’ In the midst of this pandemic, this really makes me feel for all the poor, unattached folk who live alone and can’t get out and mix with people.
Baxter, however, can’t even seem to be alone in his own house. He’s constantly kicked out every night by chancing, philandering execs who take advantage of his hopeful eagerness to please. He desperately desires to work on the hallowed ‘27th floor’ and impress the adorable Fran who he makes eyes at on the elevator each morning. He thinks he’s been rumbled when manager Sheldrake (MacMurray) informs him he knows about the apartment, but it turns out the scoundrel wants to use it for himself in exchange for the promotion. Emboldened, Baxter asks Fran out, gets stood up and comes home to find out that – gads! – Fran is Sheldrake’s bit on the side, also being strung along by the slimy superior. And he’s only gone and abandoned her there, causing her to take an overdose just before Baxter finds her.
It's a compelling, twisty-turny, unconventional love story capped with fine performances. Lemmon’s loveable average Joe is eternally optimistic, despite being constantly used and abused by back-slapping colleagues. Maclaine here is the prototypical ‘manic pixie dream girl’, impossibly cute and ethereally lovely, but also gets to show surprising depths of sorrow when she too is chewed up and spat out by the world of men who abuse their power and privilege.
The film says a lot about how so many of us have become unwitting slaves to ‘the system’, following the whims of others, in blind hope that we’ll maybe, possibly get something worthwhile out of it. This, for many, can never feel so true as it does at Christmas, when we feel we need to follow the rules and be good little servants and consumers, while the rich get richer.
Being the first black and white picture I’ve watched for this, it makes me realise just how important colour can be to establishing a festive, Christmassy atmosphere. It’s a beautiful film, but struggles to convey the magic of twinkly lights and decorations that glorious technicolour can. Still, the dark grey tones do help make the world of these characters all the more barren and lonely.
It’s an engrossing tale, one that at first feels like it’s shaping up to be a fun, screwball comedy but Fran’s drastic suicide attempt transforms it into something more, a tragic but also sanguine peak at the lost souls for whom the holidays can be a rough ride. Despite all the shit she’s put through, Fran keeps her chin up and remains sassy and full of life. So, it’s heartbreaking to see her so worked up over a dweeb like Sheldrake, a guy who tells her he’s besotted while sneaking a peak at his watch.
It’s a relief when Fran and Baxter do eventually find each other and even more cathartic when we realise she’s not just settling, but is going to make him work for it. It’s an intelligent, enjoyable film about not letting anyone take you for granted, of respecting yourself and grasping hard to any light we can find in the cold winter darkness. But it’s kinda funny too, don’t worry.
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