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."

"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."

The Apartment juxtaposes romantic comedy warmth with darker cynicism, inspired by Brief Encounter and evoking David Lean's themes of fleeting extramarital romance. The protagonist, C.C. Bud Baxter, leases his apartment to company executives to advance at work, enduring humiliations and a memorable winter night stranded in Central Park. Jack Lemmon's performance renders Baxter sympathetic through nervous physicality and comic gestures. Joseph LaShelle's shadowy cinematography introduces noir textures while Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's sharp plotting and staccato repartee balance laughs with moral earnestness. Fran Kubelik's role as elevator operator and MacMurray's Jeff Sheldrake create the film's romantic and ethical conflicts.

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