There was an (inadvertently) amusing column in today’s Hollywood Reporter suggesting ways the Academy Awards could become a more accurate reflection of popular movie taste.
The writer believes it is disgraceful that this year’s biggest grossing picture — “The Dark Knight” — was shut out of most of the major categories in favor of much-less-popular-but-prestigious fare such as “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and best picture front-runner “Slumdog Millionaire.”
The split between what sells tickets at the multiplexes and what is deemed worthy of movie awards has grown wider as the studios have focused more of their time and money on potential blockbusters designed to appeal to today’s core theatrical movie audience — young men and women under the age of 25.
In an earlier era, there wasn’t such a wide gulf between popular and prestige fare because movies were not designed for specific demographic slices — they were meant to be enjoyed by people of all ages and all backgrounds.
The big Oscar winners of my childhood were pictures such as “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) and “My Fair Lady” (1964) that were smack in the middle of the road in terms of content and execution.
Tonight, as part of the monthly “Martini and a Movie” series at the Fairfield Theatre Company, I’m hosting a screening of the 1960 best picture Oscar winner, “The Apartment,” which exemplifies the Academy Award winners of that earlier era — it’s a solidly crafted mainstream film that was already a major commercial success when it won five Oscars.
The movie was in many ways the culmination of writer-director Billy Wilder’s career, earning him an Oscar for directing the film as well as co-authoring the original screenplay with I.A.L. Diamond. “The Apartment” opened at the beginning of a revolutionary decade in Hollywood — the film’s acidic tone and fairly frank treatment of New York City office sex life reflected the changes that were already beginning in an industry that was trying to become more “adult” in order to lure TV viewers back into theaters.
Wilder was a veteran by 1960 — with such classics as “Sunset Blvd.” (1950) and “Some Like It Hot” (1959) under his belt — but he was as open to this new era in film as his peer Alfred Hitchcock, who unleashed his frankly sexual and violent “Psycho” the same year as “The Apartment.” Both directors had squabbled with studio censors over the content of their pictures for many years and were clearly delighted to get a little more down-and-dirty than would have been possible just a few years earlier.
“The Apartment” also gave a huge boost to rising star Jack Lemmon. He had already won a supporting actor Oscar a few years earlier for “Mister Roberts,” but his role in the Wilder film as a put-upon middle class office worker became the template for Lemmon’s many Everyman performances in subsequent years.
It should be interesting tonight to compare this genuine 1960 New York corporate office life story with the popular AMC series “Mad Men” which takes place during the same era.
(The free screening of “The Apartment” will start at 8 p.m. at the Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St. The bar and the doors open at 7 p.m. For more information, call 259-1036.)
Joe's View
With Joe Meyers, entertainment writer
“Lawrence of Arabia.” Oh man, they don’t make ‘em like that any more. Same, on a smaller scale, “The Apartment.” Witty and sophisticated…and instructive…if you don’t have a colander, you can strain your spaghetti through a tennis racket.