Day 29:The Apartment

The Apartment: 1960: 33rd Winner of the Academy Award

Starring:

Jack Lemmon as C.C. "Bud" Baxter

Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik

Fred MacMurray as Jeff D. Sheldrake

Ray Walston as Joe Dobisch

Jack Kruschen as Dr. Dreyfuss

David Lewis as Al Kirkeby

Hope Holiday as Mrs. Margie MacDougall

Joan Shawlee as Sylvia

Naomi Stevens as Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss

Johnny Seven as Karl Matuschka

Joyce Jameson as the blonde in the bar

Willard Waterman as Mr. Vanderhoff

David White as Mr. Eichelberger

Edie Adams as Miss Olsen

This movie was pretty decent and it was also kind of unexpected. It's a romantic-comedy film and it stars comedic legend: Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Firstly I would like to say that I was irked by it at first. The premise is that 'Bud' lends his apartment out to the head honchos of the company he works for so they can have their flings with secretaries and the lot. However he himself is trying to associate with Fran (MacLaine), she is an elevator girl who has a secret, she is sleeping with the boss. Now this is standard rom-com formula. They fall in love, something stands in the way, they figure it out , boy losses girl, girl figures out and looks for the boy, and happy ever after. However the inter-plot is great, there’s a sense of a lost girl in Fran, that just translates really well onto the screen. I have never seen any of MacLaine's earlier work, I believe from 1980 to now. I never knew her voice was so high up there and that she was way pretty when she was younger. Like super pretty! As for Lemmon well I also had a teensy bit of a crush on him, but didn't like how mean he was to Marilyn Monroe. Which brings me right back to point one, the irk. So the first ten minutes of the movie, I assume this is a teamwork between Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon who had worked with Monroe before, one of the honcho's girl not only sounds like Monroe but is doing the “Marilyn”, it kind of irked me because, well because you don't fuck with Marilyn! However something quite interesting is that in the first 5 minutes a commercial for “The Grand Hotel” another “Best Picture”, winner. It was fun to watch this movie, maybe not something I’d get but I’d watch it again.

It also won awards for:

Best Director :Billy Wilder

Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen :I. A. L. Diamond and Billy Wilder

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Black and White):Edward G. Boyle and Alexandre Trauner

Best Film Editing: Daniel Mandell

Day 15: Ordinary People

Ordinary People: 1980: Winner of the 53rd Academy Award

Starring:

CastDonald Sutherland as Calvin Jarrett

Mary Tyler Moore as Beth Jarrett

Timothy Hutton as Conrad Jarrett

Judd Hirsch as Dr. Tyrone C. Berger

Elizabeth McGovern as Jeannine Pratt

M. Emmet Walsh as Coach Salan

Dinah Manoff as Karen Aldrich

Fredric Lehne as Lazenby
 

Ordinary People , was only a book when I read it. I never thought it could be a movie, of course I was 13 and what the hell did I know. Anyways I have sort of been putting off watching this movie because I didn’t want to shatter any illusions I had when I was reading the book. However I was remarkably pleased, they delivered the story like the book and the emotions I had only read about were now being acted and with such simplicity that I fell for it. This is one of the movies I want to own. I have already added it to my to get pile. It made me cry. I don’t know if it’s because I just had my cousin die, and kinda compared my godmother’s reaction to Mary Tyler Moore’s character but it just hurt when she couldn’t love Conrad. It hurt that she never tried to love him and that she cared only of herself and called everyone out on their selfishness. Truly liked this, must watch, with a box of Kleenex.

It also won awards for:

Academy Award for Directing - Robert Redford


Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Timothy Hutton

Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Alvin Sargent