The Apartment: Billy Wilder’s Christmas classic is the blueprint for romcoms everywhere
For romantic comedies and Christmas movies alike, a little misery can go a long way.No one understood this balancing act more than Billy Wilder, whose films ran the gamut from bottomless cynicism (Ace in the Hole) to gender-bending farce (Some Like it Hot).His 1960 film, The Apartment, splits the difference.Like another yuletide classic, Carol, the film finds inspiration in David Lean’s Brief Encounter, which depicts an extramarital affair briefly consummated in the bed of a friend’s apartment.In an old interview, Wilder says he was compelled by a character “who comes back home and climbs into the warm bed the lovers just left”, and so The Apartment’s hero, CC “Bud” Baxter, was born.
Baxter, played by Jack Lemmon (hired right off the back of Some Like it Hot), is an insurance worker who scales the corporate ladder by leasing his bedroom to a rotating cast of middle managers.The concept isn’t far removed from an Airbnb, though Baxter weathers the additional humiliations of accommodating his superiors’ sexual conquests outside work.On one sorry occasion, a late request sees him stranded in Central Park on a winter’s night.Wilder didn’t necessarily conceive of the film as a comedy (at times, Joseph LaShelle’s shadowy cinematography more readily evokes noir), but in his own words: “When they laugh, I don’t argue.” Wilder and co-writer IAL Diamond’s playful plotting and staccato repartee keep the film from sinking into the gutter, and Lemmon remains endlessly likable while channelling Baxter’s nervous energy into a spectacle of physical gestures.
Each dramatic reveal is offset by a similarly unforgettable joke, whether it’s Lemmon fussing over the placement of a bowler hat or straining spaghetti through a tennis racket,When Baxter develops an innocent crush on Shirley MacLaine’s elevator operator, Fran Kubelik, he unknowingly finds himself in competition with Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), the company’s personnel director,Kubelik has sworn off Sheldrake after a summer fling (one of many that this family man has conducted within the office), but he lures her back into his arms when he dishonestly vows to leave his marriage for her,The same day, he offers Baxter a promotion in return for exclusive usage of his Upper West Side abode,Sheldrake may be a philandering emotional terrorist – at the time, MacMurray had become a Disney icon, leaving some audiences scandalised – but Bud discovers the limits to his downtrodden “nice guy” exterior when he encounters a passed-out Kubelik in his apartment on Christmas Eve.
As Baxter and Kubelik finally get to know each other, Wilder works through the self-loathing at each character’s core.Kubelik struggles to believe she’s worthy of anything greater than a tryst with a man who leaves her a $100 note before returning to his wife and children for the holidays.Baxter lacks the courage to stand up for himself and risks numbing himself entirely to the spiritual corruption he’s become immersed in.To illustrate the point, Wilder frames his workplace as an unending procession of desks and bodies, with production designer Alexandre Trauner making clever use of forced perspective tricks.With the film being made in the twilight era of the Hays Code, MacLaine embodies a more candid, less inhibited form of female sexuality than had been typically portrayed on screen.
It’s a sweet, unconventional performance that’s subsequently informed any number of manic pixie dream girls and alt-heroines; her ecstatic, new year’s sprint through the streets of New York has become the template for the romcom’s climactic dash towards destiny.In romance and business, ethics are always optional; as Kubelik muses, “some people take, some people get took”.Six decades on, its depiction of atomisation and alienation has barely aged; ill-advised workplace affairs endure, forms of self-commodification have multiplied, and insurance companies remain deeply evil.For anyone who finds themselves lonely on Christmas – or any other day of the year – there are few films more comforting than The Apartment.The Apartment is streaming on MGM+ in Australia and the UK and Fubo in the US, as well as available to rent globally.
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Why my mum’s scotch eggs are my Twixmas essential
The culinary essence of the festive season is a kind of sanctioned chaos. Never mind that, from one angle, Christmas is mostly just rigidly observed collective food traditions and grown adults dying on the hill of whether yorkshire puddings should be served with turkey.I don’t think I ever really feel that warming yuletide rush until I have turned a disparate assemblage of leftovers into what, to the casual observer, looks distinctly like a completely unhinged plate of food. I think most of us will know the sort of thing: there will be ragged hunks of surplus cheese, brine-slicked olives, stray bits of fruit and thick slices of the last of the cola-glazed ham; there will be a splat of cranberry sauce, a wodge of stewed red cabbage, and a dense, sticky slice of breathalyser-troubling Christmas cake. It is, I suppose, what most people think of as a Twixmas picky tea
Crunchy, tangy and fun: nine summer salad recipes to make this Christmas
The sun is beaming, cicadas are chirping and the air conditioning is on full blast. What better than a fresh salad to sit amid the holiday spread?While beautiful in theory, when it comes down to it, salad is often the bottom of the Christmas food hierarchy, resulting in a slap-dash selection of soggy, underseasoned leaves.The recipes we’ve chosen range in prep time but all offer something special – hot, cold, creamy, tangy – qualities guests may not expect. Some shine as a main dish while others work well as a supporting character to ham, turkey or other festive proteins. A few are also able to be easily assembled upon arrival if you’re not hosting
No more kitchen martyrs – a guide to sharing the load at Christmas
“Anything I can do to help?” If ever a line was guaranteed to incense the person in charge of cooking for a crowd, it is this one: uttered in seeming innocence by a guest roused by the sound of clattering pans, and who wants to seem polite but in reality hopes the answer is: “No, thank you.” This was drilled out of us from a young age by a mother who firmly believed that those who are serious about helping need not look far to find vegetables to chop or pots to wash up. But for guests who can’t “read” kitchens – or minds, for that matter – there are some principles that might prove helpful at this time of year. And, for hosts who hate delegating, there are a few ways to share the load (and increase the fun) without losing your sanity.The Guardian’s journalism is independent
A meat-free Christmas: Chantelle Nicholson’s French mushroom pie, caramelised pear pud and more
Christmas for me began as a summertime celebration in New Zealand, with long days and warm evenings. Twenty-plus years on, the wintry cosiness of a UK Christmas has taken hold. Now, my essentials include perfectly crisp roast potatoes with plenty of gravy, and sprouts (non-negotiable). Even my young niece and nephew love them, which is a small victory I’m quietly proud of.Warm gougerès fresh from the oven are a pretty tricky thing to beat
10 of the best Australian sparkling wines for every budget
If my Spotify Wrapped is anything to go by, I’ve spent a suspicious amount of time with Phil Collins this year. While I’ve been listening to Another Day in Paradise, champagne prices have been climbing, and finding quaffable Australian traditional method sparkling under $30 is becoming more challenging, as local bubbles float up with their imported counterparts.Against all odds, there are still a few affordable, excellent Australian sparkling wines out there, along with many worth splashing out for. While I can’t promise these wines come with the same 80s flair as Phil Collins, they’re bottles I’ll be putting on high rotation over the festive season.1
Cosmopolitan Christmas: Stosie Madi’s French-African-Lebanese Christmas lunch – recipes
I was born in west Africa, and brought up between there, France and the UK in a French-Lebanese-British family. Unsurprisingly, then, our Christmas lunch was more than a bit diverse: my father always insisted on some British and Lebanese elements, while my mother contributed French dishes and technique; west African produce was also a must, because the house would be full of all nationalities, including our African family. Not only that, but our Christmas would invariably start with a guest list of about 20, and another 20 or so waifs and strays would always then turn up in need of feeding and watering. Today’s dishes were part of our regular seasonal festivities, as good in the sunshine as they are robust enough for a chilly British winter.Lebanese feasts always feature some form of pie, and sambouseks are tiny little ones with various fillings
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