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From DVDACTIVE:

[quote]MGM Home Entertainment has announced a collector's edition of The Apartment which stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. This Billy Wilder directed film will be available to own from the 5th February, and should retail at around $19.98. Extra material will include an audio commentary from Bruce Block, Film Producer, UCLA Professor and AFI Member, an “Inside the Apartmentâ€

sounds promising...although that cover is extremely dodgy !

filmyfan wrote:sounds promising...although that cover is extremely dodgy !

Srsly. Why can't every movie be released by WB so they can have proper covers?

Utterly fantastic news! The transfer of the current version is not great (lots of shimmering). That cover art leaves a lot to be desired (especially knowing that a Warner version would look like this), but the new transfer, commentary, and documentary more than make up for that!

Great news. Shitty cover - highly innappropriate font and color of letters. It would give the first-time-viewer the impression that it's a light, bright and breezy screwball comedy shot in color.

The cover also makes Shirley Maclaine look totally strange. Was there any more delightful an actress working in the late 50s and early 60s (just look at her performance in Artists and Models!)?

Shirley was a doll in her day. Today, she may have lost her looks, but she's still awesome. Anyone who thinks that the Earth is hollow and is inhabited by an ultra-advanced people is okay with me.

Somebody really needs to contact MGM about that abomination that is the cover art... it's by far the most repulsive packaging I've seen on any film of this quality! I really hope it gets changed.

Other candidates for this award are Hawks's TWENTIETH CENTURY (which has actually stopped me from buying it) and Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON.
Ugh.
Ack.

Both are terrible, but neither as horrendous as this thing!

DVD Beaver comparison shows a terrific improvement over the previous release.

souvenir wrote:DVD Beaver comparison shows a terrific improvement over the previous release.

Thanks. I wasted more time today than I'd care to admit trying to find a site to confirm that the transfer is improved. Excellent news, and now a necessary purchase.

This bodes well for the upcoming 12 ANGRY MEN disc.

A substantial improvement, definitely. But I'll never, ever, ever warm to that cover. That was an abysmal lapse of taste by MGM/Fox.

Somebody needs to make an alternate cover that we could print out as replacement!

I've been into HMV about six or eight times with half a mind to pick this up, but every time I pull it off the shelf and see that cover, I just can't bring myself to have something that hideous in the house. An alternative cover would be welcome.

I received my copy today.

On rewatching The Apartment, it deeply sank into me how masterful this film is. The pacing, the tone, the length of takes, the uncluttered mise en scene; it all seems so perfectly executed. For a mainstream American film from 1960, it really is quite something in its seriousness. But that seriousness is coupled so deftly with humour that I find it quite extraordinary overall. A hell of a film. Without question, a towering landmark in American Cineama. Hail to Izzy, Billy and Jack. How radically different an age we now live when one sees what was once possible.

Rose likes it too.

Watching it again last night what struck me was how like a play it is. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, necessarily.

Person wrote:The pacing, the tone, the length of takes, the uncluttered mise en scene; it all seems so perfectly executed.

I've always felt that Wilder is underrated in this regard. He gets a lot more credit as a writer than a director, but he has such control of tone and pace, and I think that he is responsible for some of the most beautifully framed shots in cinema (some of my favorites anyway).

Jeff wrote:

Person wrote:The pacing, the tone, the length of takes, the uncluttered mise en scene; it all seems so perfectly executed.

I've always felt that Wilder is underrated in this regard. He gets a lot more credit as a writer than a director, but he has such control of tone and pace, and I think that he is responsible for some of the most beautifully framed shots in cinema (some of my favorites anyway).

I completely agree, and ... call me madcap, but, I felt Rose McGowan also made a nice point when she said that she can enjoy the movie when she "feels lonely and blue, or happy and upbeat." More profound than it sounds - I often choose movies based on the mood I'm in - this one seems to transcend that.

I've always loved, loved, loved it - and especially (now that I'm older) the sly, profound smile Shirley gives Jack while shufflin' at the end. It's the smile of a woman not in love, but emotionally way above the shmuck she's currently with, making do, until A. he grows up a little, or B. a better Wilder script for a (normal) woman comes along (which in a way it did with Avanti!). 'Cause there's no way in hell is she going to be baking cakes for Christmas.

WOWOWOW Holy fuck. Just finished watching Apartment a few minutes ago. I'm left totally speechless. So in awe of that movie. Where to start?!

Watched this for the first time ever last night, just one of those films that's eluded me until now. Obviously, I have to give this one a bit of time to digest before I make any bold statements...

Eh, fuck it. I think it's instantly become my favorite film.

mfunk9786 wrote:Watched this for the first time ever last night, just one of those films that's eluded me until now. Obviously, I have to give this one a bit of time to digest before I make any bold statements...

Eh, fuck it. I think it's instantly become my favorite film.

Every so often I rewatch the film and find myself wanting to rewatch a lot of other Wilders as well and play catch up with those I still haven't seen.

For a while, I think Wilder was using Lubitsch a lot to play with paramours (Major and the Minor and Love in the Afternoon come to mind) and while there is Lubitsch in The Apartment, it mixes incredibly with with Wilder's cynicism. Kiss Me, Stupid does this brilliantly as well, but The Apartment stays lighter on its feet when it dances around these subjects.

The dialog is also top notch.

What's Bruce Block's commentary like?