Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” – CIFF Classic Film

Coronado Island Film Festival and the creative mind of the great Billy Wilder (“Some Like it Hot”) have just made your Thanksgiving holiday a little bit racy and a lot more fun.

The 1960 romantic comedy-drama “The Apartment” will come to Coronado’s Village Theatre on Wed., November 30 (the night before Thanksgiving).

Produced, directed and written (with I.A.L. Diamond) by Wilder and nominated for ten Academy Awards (winner of five), the film is part of CIFF’s monthly Classic Film Series. Doors will open at 5 pm for a Meet and Greet with complimentary libations, followed by a vintage cartoon and the feature presentation at 5:30. Tickets are $15 and are available at coronadofilmfest.com.

Following the success of 1958’s “Some Like it Hot,” Wilder was eager to work again with actor Jack Lemmon, whom he compared to the brilliant Charlie Chaplin and thought could do no wrong. The film also stars Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, and Jack Kruschen. The film won Best Picture, Best Director (Wilder), and Best Screenplay (Wilder and I.A.L Diamond). Lemmon and MacLaine were nominated for Best Actor and Actress, and Kruschen, who plays  Lemmon’s doctor neighbor, for Best Supporting Actor. Both Lemmon and MacLaine won Golden Globes for their performances.

Austria/ Hungarian-born Wilder and the Romanian-born Diamond enjoyed a thirty-year collaboration, including the1958 “Some Like it Hot.” The two managed to combine witty dialogue with sexual situations, exploring male-female relationships with the right mix of satire, humor, and sentiment without ever becoming sleazy or cliché.

“The Apartment” tells the story of lonely bachelor insurance clerk C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Lemmon) attempting to curry favor and climb the corporate ladder by allowing his married superiors to use his Upper West Side apartment for their illicit romantic liaisons. Meantime, Baxter falls for the building’s elevator operator Fran Kubelik (MacLaine), who, as it turns out, is having an affair with Baxter’s boss. Oh dear.

In the hands of any other director, this could have been yet another wacky rom-com with some sex thrown in, but Wilder has given these characters depth and humanity, and his cast more than rises to the occasion. Prepare to enjoy brilliant writing, directing, and spot-on, Oscar-worthy performances, all on Village Theatre’s big screen. There’s no experience quite like it.