Billy Wilder began the 1950s with a masterpiece, Sunset Blvd., and he ended it with one, 1959’s Some Like it Hot. It’s tempting to call The Apartment, astonishingly released only one year later, a victory lap. It’s tempting, but Wilder won’t let us. The Apartment is often considered his most sentimental film, but merely seeing the sentiment does a disservice to a film clearly assembled with love and care, an indomitable spirit, and best of all, a real humanity mixed up in Wilder’s customary bitter humor and acid tongue. There are films that may be more telling about the human condition, but for pure cinematic entertainment that knows just how far to push the envelope and to leave to suggestion, few films match The Apartment. Continue reading →