Film

A corporate drone adrift in a sea of desks, C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) hopes to land a promotion by letting his higher-ups use his place for their after-hours sexual escapades. Things turn sour when the elevator operator (MacLaine) with whom C.C. has become smitten gets romantically involved with his married boss, and the two become regulars at the apartment. Shot through with Wilder’s trademark acerbic humor, but anchored by a tender empathy for its characters and a deeply felt evocation of the New York winter blues, The Apartment finds the Hollywood romantic comedy caught between its innocent beginnings and the incipient sexual liberation of the 60s. The result is a multiple-Oscar-winning classic with an emotional resonance and tonal complexity rarely seen in the genre before or since.