The Apartment

Wednesday 8 July at 7.30pm

Billy Wilder | USA | 1960 | 125 mins | PG

Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine star in Wilder’s heartwarmingly cynical classic tale of an office worker who loans out his apartment as a trysting place for his philandering superiors.

“Billy Wilder perfected his signature mix of cynicism and sentiment with this sardonic romantic comedy, which won him his second Best Director Oscar and also took home trophies for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Jack Lemmon stars as Bud Baxter, a lowly office drone at a giant insurance firm who looks to scale the corporate ladder by loaning out his apartment to higher-ups for their extramarital assignations. Heartbroken when he discovers that his crush Fran (Shirley MacLaine) is the mistress of his callous boss (Fred MacMurray), Bud becomes her unlikely saviour when she attempts suicide from romantic despair. Nursing her back to health in his apartment, the corporate mouse becomes a lion in love, fearlessly facing down his bosses even as he can’t quite confess his feelings to Fran.” – TIFF Cinematheque

“When Wilder and Lemmon worked together, their strongest films brought darkness and delight to the screen with sophistication, humour and a biting satirical edge. This is their masterpiece, a wry comment on the vicious world of corporate America, but with an ending as romantic and beautiful as Hollywood ever mustered.” – Hannah Gatward, British Film Institute