The Apartment (1960)
Director: Billy Wilder
One of the fascinating quirks of the list is the higher placing for this darker-veined comedy than the bewigged flamboyance of so-called ‘funniest film of all time’ Some Like It Hot. To argue between them rather misses the point (both are excellent and must be seen) — what stands out is how The Apartment has grown in stature as one of the diminutive Hungarian émigré’s finest films. On the surface, it’s the straight downtrodden-boy-meets-indifferent-girl formula, but Wilder, who skipped Berlin as the Nazis took power, came possessed of a more savage view of the world’s workings. Jack Lemmon’s hypochondriac Baxter is a friendless corporate climber; the object of his affection, Shirley MacLaine, an unstable lift girl having an affair with the CEO. Their meandering path to romance twists between notions of prostitution (corporate and real) and even suicide. Meet-cute it is not. Yet, somehow, the film remains optimistic about their chances. Read Review