The Apartment 4K 1960

What's the great thing about great old movies? Each episode is so full that nowadays they make a whole series out of such an idea. Back then, the screenwriters sought to fill the plot with twists and contrivances so that there was no room for "water" and banal speeches.

Plot: C.C. Baxter is a clerk in an office. But he's about to be promoted! The thing is, he's renting out his apartment to some of the bosses who can put in a good word for him with the big boss. So the poor guy stays late at work, freezing on the street. But the opportunity to get a separate office with a view of the street warms him up.

At first the hero is not pitied in the least. If Woland was talking about the apartment issue, here the poor guy is spoiled by the general background of striving for a successful career. That's the way society works: you have to plow to get your scrap of happiness and a vacation pension in Florida. You have to plow a lot if you're talentless. It turns out Baxter has no talent. All he has is an apartment.

Looking at him, the viewer realizes that Baxter possesses qualities that are inappropriate in the world of business and money: he is suave, caring, modest, and hopelessly in love. Who are they, these small, inconspicuous people? Why is it often easier for them to become invisible? Baxter is eking out an existence for the sake of a dream. But it only seems to him.

Baxter will have to become insane to realize just how wasteful he is. To stop apologizing for other people, to do things for other people without expecting favor in return. Baxter's adventures suggest a thousand choices after the title "The End." All because the director injected feeling into the film's hopeless gloom.

When Baxter sees Fran's cracked mirror for the second time, the world loses its outlines. I wouldn't want to create spoilers; it's better to see everything for yourself: the Christmas party, the spaghetti on the tennis racket, and Fran's deft fingers shuffling a deck of cards. But most importantly, both the viewer and the hero closer to the finale can answer the question, "What kind of man are you, Baxter?" That's a lot for one movie, believe me.