How controversial was The Apartment? (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

Why that film was considered so controversial when The Apartment, One Two Three, Irma La Douce and others weren't is frankly a bit beyond me.

I think the biggest reason is that of all of Wilder's films, Kiss Me, Stupid is the one that most strongly depicts infidelity as acceptable.

Here we have the two protagonists both being willing and comfortable to commit adultery, even as far as saying that such an action actually HELPED both their lives and others (the waitress gains both self-esteem and the cash to move on, and the song writers get the chance they deserve).

In the other films the final goal seems to be anti-infidelity. In Seven Year Itch the final lesson is to appreciate the wife and the protagonist makes such a choice, very similar to the outcome in One, Two, Three. In Irma the goal is to settle down and have a proper monogamous relationship. And The Apartment is the tamest of all because the only people being unfaithful are the ANTAGONISTS, so in that case it's depicted as a negative trait rather than an acceptable option.

And to show that such thinking was going on just look at the alternate ending to Kiss Me in which Wilder gives the audience the chance to think the wife might have remained faithful.

For all the sex talk in Wilder films, most of them still fall back to the ideal that true love means being faithful and his protagonists are in search of such an ideal. Kiss Me ends with exactly the opposite action by the couple that is in love and supports their decision.


But I love all of Wilder's films from this era.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Wilder's attitudes are sometimes paradoxical. I'm no fan of The Apartment, but it, like so many of his works just seems to be trying at times to be shocking for the sake of being shocking. Frankly, I find it tiresome and it doesn't improve my opinion of the film. Rather, it puts his works on the level of an Italian Mondo movie showing someone eating monkey brains for pure shock value. Granted, there's obviously more artistry going on in Wilder, but the effect isn't all that dissimilar.

At the same time, despite this apparent desire to shock and push the social boundaries, frequently Wilder comes back to a very traditional and conservative place, such as the denouement of The Apartment. Hence the paradox. What really is Wilder trying to say with this somewhat schizophrenic approach? I'm not entirely certain. Of course, we also have the blatantly bisexual conclusion of Some Like It Hot, which runs counter to that thesis. So I don't think it's possible to pigeonhole Wilder's work, but there are contradictory threads running through it, some of which beg for a controversy, and some of which are purely traditional values.