Rated 4.3 out of 5, this comedy has been a genre staple for 64 years in theaters.

We owe him one of the classics of film noir (Assurance on Death). The drama about alcoholism was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture (The Poison). Biographical film (The Odyssey of Charles Lindbergh). A successful adaptation of Agatha Christie (Witness for the Prosecution). One of the most amazing adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Or one of the greatest feature films about the world of cinema, with a narrative that had little impact at the time (Boulevard du crepuscule).

But we especially remember Billy Wilder for his comedies, and that’s not surprising. Because he wrote two of Ernst Lubitsch’s most famous films (including Ninočka), another specialist in the genre. But, above all, because he, as a director, owes us such opus as 7-year-old reflection, kiss me, idiot, Irma sweet or even some like it hot, still considered one of the masterpieces of the 7th art.

Like La Garçonnière, which came out a year later in France. Who probably doesn’t have the famous line that it is “Nobody’s Perfect” Its predecessor, but still remains a model of comedy. Besides being a reminder of the place romance occupies in Billy Wilder’s cinema, where feelings are often the driving force behind the plot.

Not only feelings, in the case of La Garçonnière, whose French title leaves less room for mystery than the original, Apartment. It’s about an employee of a large insurance company (Jack Lemmon, in the second of seven films with the director) who, in order to promote himself, regularly lends his house to bosses so that they can take their mistress there, while he patiently. Walking down the street is waiting, even if it means braving the cold.

Until the day the chief of staff, informed of these arrangements, asks him for the same favor to take to his apartment the woman with whom the hero is in love and who tried to end his life. Obviously, because nothing is simple in Billy Wilder’s world. And, at the same time, everything is crystal clear. From the accuracy of the situations, the lines and the actors who deliver them, to the way the staging gets straight to the point. Including such an opus, which exceeds two hours.

But what strikes us most when rewatching La Garçonnière , aside from its effectiveness and the tenderness for its two main characters, is how relevant the film is today. Because it has not lost any of its modernity, form and content. 64 years ago, Billy Wilder satirized capitalist America, pointing out the gap between superficial right thinking and sexual morality, between male and female relations on the brink of development and corruption among the powerful. And to say that things haven’t really changed on that front is an understatement.

As often (always?) with Billy Wilder, acidity is essential. Associated, here, with melancholy. One that emerges from its protagonists, captives of others’ gazes and chimeras of the American dream. The fact that his characters are an ordinary gentleman and a workman who attempted suicide allows him to illustrate the expression that “Humor is the courtesy of despair”And the strength of the feature film is in its nuances.

Funny and biting when it tries to be, La Garçonnière also knows how to be tender. sad. heavy. And the way he manages to find the balance between his tones is almost miraculous. Or not, when we know the precision of Billy Wilder’s writing, who created the role of CC Baxter for Jack Lemmon after their collaboration on Some Like It Hot.

5 Oscars and almost no wrinkles

Opposite her, future Irma La Douce Shirley MacLaine plays the very attractive Fran Kubelik. What remains, even today, is a model of comedy, awarded with 5 Oscars (film, director, original screenplay, decoration and editing). Because he knows how to go beyond humor, which makes him more human, especially in his bittersweet ending.

In addition to showing us even more energetic and hypnotic black and white and making certain staging effects even more visible, this re-release in a restored version allows us to see that La Garçonnière is almost without wrinkles.

And that it’s not just a brilliant comedy or one of the pinnacles of Billy Wilder’s career, but one of the greatest films of the Golden Age of Hollywood. quite easily.