FEBRUARY 22, 2008 - VOL. 1, ISSUE 3

Billy Wilder drew his inspiration for The Apartment after watching David Lean’s film of restraint, Brief Encounter. A couple meet on a train platform and develop a relationship. Eventually, they need a place to spend the night, and a friend passes off the key to his apartment for use. It is this aspect that intrigued Wilder. Who is this man that lends out his apartment? What drives him to do it?

These questions inform The Apartment, and I cannot help but ask similar questions of the main character in Tanghi Argentini. Who is this inhumanly altruistic man? What drives him to do it? These unanswered questions are better suited for a minor character, as in Brief Encounter. For our oafish man, who tries his heart out to make the people around his office happy, it is criminal we do not know his psyche or personality.

His character feels utterly constructed, as if the human element was completely removed and replaced by one segment of our personality. We have moments of good, tendencies to act selfless, but simultaneously we act in self-interest and immediate need. The main character is a saint, delivering his sour coworker an extraordinary act of selflessness steeped in humiliation, which really becomes a fairly ordinary act of poor writing. Who is this man? I have never met such a person.

While there is a blatant advertisement for Coca-Cola, and its emblem rolls by at the end of the credits, it is the style and overall tone of the movie that actually brings the commercial feeling to mind. Curiously, it is not so far removed from a Coke ad: Give the world a Coke, give the world a smile- can’t we all just be happy? We watch our man deliver himself up wholesale to his coworker, going through a montage of tango lessons, leading up to the date, all to stumble and let his instructor take over. Our poor man, we think. But no, he relishes in how happy the coworker is and crosses his name off a list, looking at the next grump to make happy.

It is a delightful twist that makes us smile out of gut reaction. We associate the good feeling with the film as we would a brand name. I feel like Coca-Cola’s ads are made to entertain me, to manipulate my emotions and uplift me so that I retain the experience when faced with the soda giant’s million dollar question, Coke or Pepsi? We are a generation of cynics and we know how ad culture works and I buy on taste.

This film is no different. Tanghi Argentini is manipulative and quite simply does not ring true. We experience art to gain a new understanding of ourselves and our culture. A film does not have to be depressing (ex. At Night) to move. It can thoroughly uplift, happy ending and all, and still bring new meaning. These are the higher intentions, not just for short film but for all film.

Mr. Duszynski’s point that a film does not need to be deep to satisfy is one well taken. However, “deep” is a relative term, and going an inch under the surface is better than not going under at all. A catchy pop song is often nothing more than its infectious beat, which is as hollow as a film being nothing more than its twist. Being the best out of a bad bunch of films still makes it bad, and that should not be what decides an award.