The Apartment

Billy Wilder, a cynical Viennese Jewish refugee, explored the sexual mores of Americans in a series of biting satires. The Apartment is ostensibly a comedy starring two sympathetic leads, but given that Jack Lemmon allows his bosses to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs while Shirley MacLaine attempts suicide there, it's clear this is no conventional American comedy. Instead, it’s something far more racy, sharp, and subversive than what was typical in the early 1960s. What begins as a typical Wilder farce takes a sharp turn midway, adopting a darker, film noir tone. Wilder lays bare the unpleasant truths hidden beneath the puritanism of the Cold War era, exposing how, in corporate America, the drive for possession knows no limits — even people, whether women or workers, become commodities. The Apartment is, in short, one of the most bitter, painful, and beautiful comedies ever made.