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The Apartment (1960)
What is it? Billy Wilder's pitch-black comedy about a lowly company schmo who lets his bosses use his apartments for their extra-marital trysts, until he falls in love with one of their targets.
Why did it win? Well, life-wise, laugh-wise and otherwise-wise, it's pretty much irresistible - dark enough for cynics and sweet enough for the romantics. It may also be a belated apology for the previous year's oversight of Some Like It Hot, or so we'd like to think: the Academy's way of saying nobody's perfect.
Did it deserve to win? Absolutely, quality-wise - and a special hurrah given that it's a rare comedy win for Best Picture. It's unquestionably the best of the nominees (it was up against The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers and The Sundowners) - but if the best films of the year had been nominated, things might not have been so easy. Also out were Psycho, La Dolce Vita, L'Avventura, A Bout de Souffle, The Magnificent Seven and Spartacus.
Worth a look? Shut up and deal - that's a yes.
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