The Apartment

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a low-level employee at a huge New York insurance company, has found an ingenious way to climb the corporate ladder: he lends his apartment to his bosses for their extramarital encounters. The arrangement works well until Baxter discovers that one of his guests is Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the elevator operator at his office and the woman he is in love with. From there, things get complicated, as a witty comedy about ambition and office life gradually turns into a funny, sad and surprising love story. Wilder moves effortlessly between comedy and melancholy, casting a sharp eye on a world of loneliness, compromise and power. Lemmon and MacLaine are wonderful in the leading roles, giving the film the warmth and humanity that have made it one of Wilder’s most beloved works.