The Apartment

It’s the Golden Age of Billy Wilder in this sharp, insightful, and funny comment on the wonderful, wonderful world of business (and love), The Apartment. Released in 1960 by United Artists, it’s Mad Men come to life at the beginning of the 60s, if Mad Men was about all the people four levels below Don Draper and how they’re victimized by those one level below Draper. It’s, in my opinion, the best example of Wilder’s jaundiced but realistic view of the world, and for the business world, it’s dead on. I watched it every year when I was part of that hurly-burly, to wash the rancid taste out of my mouth. Now I get a charge out of revisiting it, for nostalgia, but also to think about how the hierarchal world of business has been beaten up by COVID and the collective realization: there’s more to life than business and getting ahead.

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark