Typical Wilder

Trystan 2022-03-24 09:01:36

To say it's a comedy is to say that it, like Wilder's other films, has a happy ending at the last minute after repeatedly mocking the innocuous human weakness of a few minor characters. The lucrative manager in "The Merry Girl", the saxophone player who is rude and full of lies in "Passion", and the small insurance clerk who gets promoted by lending his apartment to his boss for a tryst, and the The wrong person goes with the elevator lady who still has no courage to break up after knowing the truth. They are undoubtedly not noble people, but their "human flaws" are within the scope of forgiveness. What's more, in the end, they were all forced by love/reality to return to a relatively positive and warm image.

Similarly, the female characters in his films are mostly face-to-face: beautiful but emotionally idiots. Compared with the vivid and three-dimensional male protagonists, they are just a symbol, representing "a beautiful woman who is in love with the male protagonist". For example, when the elevator lady in this episode first appeared, she was so elegant, lovely and individual, which made people almost call her a model of women, but she was actually a silly girl who couldn't grasp her feelings and was confused and constantly interrupted. Compared with the few movies of the same era that I have seen, perhaps this is a common phenomenon in that era? (But beauty is really beautiful, how could you find so many such beautiful actresses at that time!)

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Extended Reading

The Apartment quotes

  • Charlie - Bartender: O. U. T.! Out!

  • Mrs. Lieberman: Good evening Mr. Baxter.

    C.C. Baxter: Evening, Mrs. Lieberman.

    Mrs. Lieberman: Some weather we're having.

    C.C. Baxter: Yeah.

    Mrs. Lieberman: Must be from all that mishegaas at Cape Canaveral.