The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)

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#1 Post by **Mr Sausage** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:32 am

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, June 22nd.

Members have a two week period in which to discuss the film before it's moved to its dedicated thread in The Criterion Collection subforum. Please read the Rules and Procedures.

This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

I encourage members to submit questions, either those designed to elicit discussion and point out interesting things to keep an eye on, or just something you want answered. This will be extremely helpful in getting discussion started. Starting is always the hardest part, all the more so if it's unguided. Questions can be submitted to me via PM.

#2 Post by **Mr Sausage** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:33 am

Just in case you weren't burnt out on Wilder yet, our current discussion is the winner of the Wilder Auteur List, The Apartment.

#3 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:56 pm

Sorry, I’m still trying to rewatch Grand Hotel

Rayon Vert · #4 Post by **Rayon Vert** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:36 pm

I'm thinking these late-in-the-game film club discussions make less sense when the films have already been discussed at length in the project lists. We better not have a Hatari! film club discussion in a month from now!

knives · #5 Post by **knives** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:52 pm

Honestly I've been assuming it would be Red River or His Girl Friday we'll be talking about.

#6 Post by **swo17** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:54 pm

This is the way it crumbles

denti alligator · #7 Post by **denti alligator** » Mon Jun 08, 2020 5:53 pm

I guess I should rewatch this. It's been well over a decade, maybe two, and I don't have fond memories. But clearly I'm wrong (not about my memories) and need to find the time to reconsider this one.

T!me · #8 Post by **T!me** » Sat Jun 13, 2020 5:47 am

I finally got around rewatching it last night and oh my, what a masterpiece. Every aspect is just Wilder on top of his game and wouldn‘t it have been so late, I would have rewatched it again (I still need to listen to the audio commentary by Bruce Block).

One interesting aspect of the movie I‘m not so sure about regards the kind of comedy and the level of cynicism each character brings to the table. Ms. Kubelik seems to me to be the most cynical of the bunch so her „funny“ moments mostly stem from sarcastic remarks. C.C. Bexter on the other hand seems to graduate from naive to fed-up with the system over the course of the movie. Most of the humor of his character kinda arises from slapstick or cringeworthy situations.

So, I really don‘t know much about comedies of that time, so please correct me if I say something wrong, but this cringe-comedy seems to me to be a mostly modern kind of comedy which arose with the likes of The Office (U.S.), Arrested Development etc. and which separates itself from the humorous situations found in most srewball comedies.

Was this kind of comedy something new to that era? Do you even consider it to be cringe?

The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)

The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)

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