What I Learned Reading Billy Wilder’s THE APARTMENT Screenplay
It’s such a playful screenplay and the movie mix of more than just one or two genres. And even it exceeds all of them.
The movie is a kindhearted, warm and genuine experience all throughout. It doesn’t try hard to be a comedy and it doesn’t try hard to be a romance. Billy Wilder and his favorite collaborator I. A. L. Diamond know their characters, their worlds, and they know whose and what kind of story they are telling. They just play with it, laugh-wise, love-wise and otherwise-wise. What I learned reading is that sometimes you have to throw out the ‘rules’ and just play with your story, writing-wise.
Plot
If you write something like this today, I’m sure the first note you’ll get would be “This guy Bud is our protagonist, right? He does it all for this girl. So, why don’t we introduce her sooner? And the main conflict, it comes very late in the script.”
The script introduces her on page 20, and it’s just a casual conversation. Then, for ten pages, Bud tries to make arrangements calling three different people to just to get a good night sleep in his own apartment. Next encounter with her is on page 32, right before Bud gets his first promotion. And he asks her out. At that moment, we know Bud is into her, and maybe he’s doing everything for her. But of course, she doesn’t just say yes right away. Bud goes to talk to Mr. Sheldrake, and Sheldrake takes the key to his apartment. Bud loses his good night sleep, again. But it’s okay. He somehow manages to get Fran to say yes to a date. He waits for her, but she never comes. Because she’s with Sheldrake in Bud’s apartment. This is the main conflict in the story, and it introduced on page 47.
The script uses over 30 pages to introduce us to the main character, it sets up the apartment situation. Scene after scene, we’re on Bud’s side, out of his own apartment, sick, sleepless. We feel for him. We connect with him. He gets the promotions but he’s not happy anyway.
Internal and External Conflicts
On the surface, Bud uses his apartment situation and gets his promotions quickly. And he seems happy until he learns that it’s Fran who Mr. Sheldrake takes to his apartment. And the revelation comes on page 68. We feel his loneliness since page one but he seems and acts happy until that point. After realizing that, his world falls apart. Not his promotions, not the New Years Eve can make him happy after that.
He gives it all up but finds Fran in his apartment and she has taken sleeping pills to kill herself. And other internal conflicts are introduced in these process, Dr. Dreyfuss wants Bud to be ‘a mensch/a human being’. He’s a good guy but he can’t say no. And he clings to his apartment situation and promotions. He is a good guy, he tries, does so many things for her but everything seems to fall apart in the end. They take everything from him. Because he’s not ‘a mensch’ yet. But after he loses her, he quits the big fat job and steps into his true self. And with that, he wins her heart too. She rushes to his apartment before he moves out. And they continue their gin game.
Setups and Payoffs
There are tons of them in the screenplay. Bud raising four fingers and saying he had three drinks, Fran making the same thing later. Bud takes the razors out and later while he’s shaving he notices there are no razors. Dr. Dreyfuss saying “Mildred, he’s at it again.” and later on the second time he only says “Mildred, …” and we don’t hear the rest but complete it in our minds. These are the first three that comes into my mind. Most of them are not that big of a setup and payoff. Mostly because this is a comedy too. Most of the payoff are punchlines.
There are not only two or three setups and payoffs that advance the plot or something like that. There are lots of them, advancing the plot or not. And having lots of them gives the story and the movie another depth, another dimension. It feels more authentic.
And on the certain beats, I noticed little things that I like the most about this movie. While Bud drinking on the New Year’s Eve he gathers the olives there and we see that he’s drunk. On Bud learning about Sheldrake and Kubelik’s affair, he sees the broken mirror. It’s visual storytelling.
And about their date, it’s the gin game. Fran goes to him in the end and wants to finish the game, Bud tells how much he loves her, and she only smiles back and says “Shut up and deal.”
The story is filled with good characters, drama, comedy, romance and many more. Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is not only telling one thing. Okay, they are telling Bud and Fran’s love story but there are more to that world. They dug deep into their story and came out with good ideas. And because they dug deep, they’re armored about their knowledge of their world, their characters, and their story. So, all that’s left is to throw out all the conventions and rules and start playing. Stay true to the characters and to the story. And that’s about it, screenwriting-wise.
The Apartment Screenplay [PDF] by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond — for educational and research purposes only.
