The Apartment · reception & legacy

How The Apartment has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A hit that won five Oscars including Best Picture in 1961, though some contemporary critics sniffed at its 'dirty' premise and cynicism about corporate life; today that bittersweet sourness is exactly why it's revered, routinely ranked among the greatest American comedies ever made.

What's debated

Film fans endlessly debate whether the ending is a genuine happy one or something more ambivalent — and, every December, whether it counts as a Christmas movie, a New Year's movie, or both.

Its footprint

'Shut up and deal' is one of the most beloved closing lines in movie history, and 'that's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise' still gets quoted; its vision of soul-crushing office life echoes through everything from Mad Men to The Office, and straining spaghetti through a tennis racket became an iconic image.

Where it stands

A stone-cold canon entry and a Letterboxd darling — the annual New Year's Eve rewatch of choice for cinephiles, and many people's answer to 'the perfect film.'

Named by the director

Influences Billy Wilder has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Brief Encounter (1945) — Wilder said the idea came from wondering about the offscreen friend who lends his flat to the adulterous couple in David Lean's film — a note he kept for years until the Production Code loosened enough to make it.
• Ernst Lubitsch — Wilder's lifelong lodestar — he kept a sign in his office asking 'How would Lubitsch do it?' and cited Lubitsch's blend of elegance and innuendo as the standard he was chasing.