The Apartment

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) has found the quickest way to rise from a nobody-clerk to an executive in hisNew Yorkinsurance company.  He lets the other executives use his apartment as a safe place to take their mistresses.  Though Baxter is often waiting outside in the cold when a date is running late, they drink all his liquor and eat all his cheese crackers, he keeps putting up with the pile of annoyances in hopes of the men acting on their promises to make him an executive.

Because of all the comings, going, loud music and empty bottles of liquor in his trash, Baxter’s neighbors assume he’s a real swinging bachelor.  His neighbor, Dr. Dreyfus (Jack Kruschen) says he can hear everything from next door and advises the young man to either slow down or donate his body to science.  With Baxter not always able to explain all the noise, the land lord starts becoming suspicious.

At work, Baxter has eyes for the pretty elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).  They flirt in the elevator on his way to see Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) about a promotion.  Part of this promotion includes letting Sheldrake use the apartment as well, but at least he has theater tickets to exchange so Baxter has somewhere to go, so Baxter asks Fran to go with him.  What Baxter doesn’t know is that Fran is Sheldrake’s mistress in a long line of mistresses.  Later, after drama ensues and Fran finds out the ugly truth about her relationship with Sheldrake, she tries something drastic in Baxter’s apartment.  Baxter becomes the only person who cares enough about Fran to help her.

Baxter is the sort of nice guy we can’t help but love, even though it’s obvious he’s a huge pushover.  He is constantly being taken advantage of by the executives just for a fast-track promotion.  Though we realize this isn’t the most honest path to rise in the company, we don’t chastise Baxter for loaning out his apartment.  Of all the scandalous ways to get ahead at this insurance firm, Baxter is keeping pretty tame and classy.  And for those of us who tsk-tsk-ed him at any point are turned completely in his favor when he unselfishly helps Fran.

Out of context, this plot may sound a little heavy.  In the film, it’s anything but.  From the start, a wonderfully light tone is set and stays consistent throughout the film.  We’ve got Jack Lemmon with all his quirky, charming comedic genius being pulled different ways.  His scene in Sheldrakes office with the nasal spray had me in stitches.  The jokes are quick, charismatic and naturally off the cuff.  And when the plot becomes heavier, that light feeling is not lost.  It becomes a wonderful charm to help ease the tension, get Fran back on her feet and moves Baxter to new levels of confidence.

You rarely find a film with this high level of comedy and an engaging plot with so much at stake.  Between the wonderful acting, which can range from slapstick comedy to life and death dramatics, and the zany yet calculable plot, The Apartment does not let up or let you down.  It was a two hour film, yet I sat back, laughed and became so engrossed it felt like it was over too quick.  I highly recommend The Apartment to all people who just want to enjoy a classic film.  Other than the horrible injustice done to Psycho (I cannot forgive the Academy on that one), Billy Wilder’s The Apartment is the best picture of 1960.

“When you’re in love with a married man, you shouldn’t wear mascara.”

The Turning Point

The world of ballet is quite a demanding profession.  Physically, it takes years of practice, tough training, a certain amount of comfort in tights and can take a real tole on one’s feet.  In The Turning Point, we see that the honor of touring with a ballet company can mean sacrificing many of life’s milestones.  Unfortunately, there are regrets on either side of the decision to keep dancing or to have a family.

Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) and her husband Wayne (Tom Skerritt) were both professional ballet dancers together, but decided to give it up and have a family.  Now in their forties, they have three children, two who seriously practice ballet and Deedee runs the town’s dance studio.  When the old company they used to tour with comes to their Oklahoma town, they host a party for them in their little suburban home.  They get to catch up with old friends, especially Emma (Anne Bancroft).

In their days together with the company, Deedee and Emma were great friends and very competitive, but their separate paths show what the other wishes they had accomplished.  Deedee had just as much potential as Emma, would she have been a great dancer as well if she had not had a family?  And Emma is obviously lonely, but wildly successful.  Would she be happier if she gave up dancing for a family life?

When Deedee’s eldest daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne), is invited to go to New York with the dance company, Emilia realizes what a big decision it is.  The decisions her parents have made are weighing on her and she is quietly pulled between one day having a happy family life or being a great ballerina.  But she’s still very young, so she can dance now and come to those bridges later.  In New York, with her mother and brother visiting for the summer, Emilia becomes romantically involved with a Russian dancer, Yuri (Mikhail Baryshnikov).  The strain between ballet, Yuri, family and trying to learn all she can from Emma can become overwhelming for Emilia and Deedee.

Within the course of this blog, I have discovered a love for ballet on film.  Here in The Turning Point, everything is centered around the dance form.  We are shown bits of practice as well as the beautiful stage performances.  In practices, the details are key.  There are close up images of toes pointed, sliding across the floor and the barre shaking as a row of hands grip it in rhythm.  The performances take a step back and give us a view from the audience, hardly cutting away.  In the final performance, we’re given details within the program, telling us the name of the ballet, the choreographer and the character on stage performing.  These small captions do not disrupt and go a long way for those of us wanting to know more.

The whole film is like going to the ballet, with a captivating story about the dancers inserted and not having to dress up or look between heads to see the stage.  The film was nominated for eleven Oscars, but sadly didn’t receive any.  If you don’t appreciate ballet, mother-daughter relationships or a strained friendship between aging women, this may be a stretch for you.  But between the thoughtful story, the thrill and beauty of ballet, I really enjoyed The Turning Point.

“Dancers have such ugly feet.  Ugh.  If I was a man, I could have all the feet… I mean, children I wanted to… and still danced.”

Terms of Endearment

The summery on this little Netflix slip began with something cheesy like daughters are from Mars and mothers are from Venus.  I groaned, realizing I was in for mother-daughter weepy feelings time, where most people reach for the tissues, I grab a bucket.

Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) are very close.  The father died when Emma was still a little girl, so they’re instantly closer than your average only child family.  In those first few minutes where we watch Emma grow up, it seems that Aurora is sometimes more of a friend than a mother, but maybe that’s just what happens as a single parent.  The night before Emma is going to marry Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels) Aurora puts her mother face back on and tells her straight that marrying Flap will be a mistake.  “You are not special enough to overcome a bad marriage.”

Well, with that whole Mars-Venus thing Emma doesn’t listen and the main story is her and Flap’s married life from kids, Flap’s crappy job moving him across the country, money problems, marriage problems and all the juicy stuff Emma shares on the phone to her mother every day.  Emma’s life makes for some good gossip, if it were less quirky and didn’t have any good hearted laughs it would be daytime television material.

Jack Nicholson plays the retired astronaut who lives next to Aurora.  The character’s name is Garrett or something like that, but it doesn’t matter because this is Jack’s usual character and he quickly became the entire reason I started to enjoy the film.  He enjoys getting drunk, hitting on inappropriately young girls and driving too fast in his silver Corvette, so obviously prim and propper Aurora thinks he’s horrible.  One day Jack asks Aurora out on a casual lunch date, but doesn’t accept it until a few years later, during her third 50th birthday party.  Sounds to me like Jack is just a little lonely and Aurora wants to feel young again.  These two are much more interesting than Emma and her pile of dumb decisions.

So that’s basically it; mother-daughter long distance relationship, issues with their men and then some tragedy.  Throw in some laughs and Jack Nicholson to keep those who don’t sponge up the dripping estrogen entertained and this movie isn’t half bad.  I wasn’t moved or enlightened and no, I did not cry.

Even before considering the slew of Oscar noms (11) and five wins (Jack Nicholson, Shriley MacLaine, and James L. Brooks for Director, Writing and Picture), I understand how this film can work into one’s heart and into the Best Picture slot.  But it just felt too conventional to me.  Maybe it’s a generational thing where I found the music cheesy and reminiscent of an afternoon special.   Perhaps I’m just a cold-hearted fool who thought Emma was an idiot for marrying Jeff Daniels in the first place.  And I couldn’t believe that there was anyone in the world who wouldn’t enjoy getting drunk with Jack Nicholson and driving that Corvette along the beach.  Seriously, I’d put a brick on that pedal and climb up top with him.

I think you can tell what my favorite scenes from Terms of Endearment were:

“-You’re just going to have to trust me about this one thing. You need a lot of drinks.
–To break the ice?
-To kill the bug that you have up your ass.”