It`s not a secret that storytelling artistry borrows a lot from ancient mythology one way or another, or fairy tales. There is a finite number of dramatic elements that exist, and like seven notes used in different combination help to create infinite amount of great musical works, those elements create endless variations of stories both in literature and cinema.
Some researchers say there are only 6-7 core plots exist, that give us fundamental structures of all fiction, some find 20-37 dramatic situations for the same. No wonder we can find the same plot elements in different narrative products.
When I watched Billie Wilder`s The Apartment, it struck me how much that story reminds me of Cinderella fairy tale. The fact that The Apartment is a fairy tale is even mentioned in one of the commentary tracks on blu-ray. Though they never specify which.
I would like to base my autopsy on the method of Vladimir Propp, who divided magic fairy tales into functional elements (he found 31 such elements all in all) and analyzing one type of fairy tales he proved that all of them consist of those elements, though the elements might go in different sequences.
To compare it to another film I chose Russian classic adaptation of 1947 (for reasons to be obvious later).
So, lets see what elements we have in The Apartment that correspond to Cinderella story. And by the way, those elements can be used directly as described by Propp and also be inverted. For instance, in my MA dissertation I dissect horror stories arguing that they are fairy tales because their elements correspond to the ones Propp found in fairy tales, except they are often inverted (well, a horror story is a fairy tale inverted). Like in fairy tales the action the character must not do in order not to get in trouble is formulated upfront: «dont drink out of a hoofprint or you become a goat», «dont open the door to the wolf», «dont leave the path in the forest and dont talk to the wolf» and so on. The characters disobedience usually gets the story started. In horror film the forbidden action is not specified before it`s actually already done by the character. Like reading from the ancient book of the dead, that raises the evil dead around. The characters learn about it after the fact.
And if a fairy tale starts with someone`s going away for a while: mother goat goes to the market to buy food, father leaves on business trip and so on, the most common beginning of any horror film is arrival: a family arrives at a new home, the main character arrives to a new destination (University campus, monastery, meeting with friends at school and so on). So, the functional element is there but inverted.
Here we also will deal with inverted functional elements or placement of those elements in different point on the timeline of the story.
Let`s look.
Cinderella story usually starts with her mother dying (thats a kind of going away, but rather a permanent one). Nothing so dramatic appears in The Apartment, well, its a comedy, not a horror film after all. Still, the functional element is inverted here.
The story of The Apartment starts not with going away, not with arrival, or rather with staying. The character of C.C. Baxter stays at work late. Because, as we learn later, his apartment is taken by one his colleague who has a date in it and he has nowhere to go.
When he comes home finally, he has to clean up his place from the actions taken by other people, like Cinderella cleans up after her stepsisters, C.C. Baxter cleans up after his… we`ll call them stepbrothers.
Above: Cinderella/C.C. Baxter cleaning up
And even at three in the morning he has to accommodate those stepbrothers who basically order him around.
Above: Cinderella/C.C. Baxter are ordered around by the evil stepmother/stepbrother
Why he is doing that? Because thats the fastest way to climb the career ladder. And he wants it badly enough (so unlike Cinderella who is good and kind throughout, this guys moral content is questionable to start with). But that is his choice, poor Cinderella on the contrary has no choice.
And when he is promoted first time he meets the main antagonist of the story — his main boss Mr. Shelldrake. Who also wants his apartment (but has much more to offer in return career wise). So, he does allow Mr. Shelldrake to use his apartment too. Mr. Shelldrake is our evil stepmother.
And those are the stepbrothers
And one day he meets his office crush — the elevator girl Fran Kubelik. She is the storys princess (not prince, ok). But we know (and our Cinderella doesnt know it yet) that the princess is wanted by our evil stepmother for himself.
And here we have the crystal shoe, one of the two. And it`s the broken mirror that Fran Kubelik left in the apartment one day.
Function of the crystal shoe is to reveal identity of Cinderella. But here it is a bit change: it still reveals the identity but that of the princess to our Cinderella. In the fairy tale the shoe is lost, found and placed back where it belongs. Here it is also lost, found and returned to its rightful owner just to appear again like five minutes later to reveal the identity of his boss lover (Fran Kubelik) to C.C. Baxter.
The fairy tale of Cinderella includes a ball where everyone meets. So, in The Apartment they also have a ball where our princess meets her Fairy Godmother — the helper. In fairy tale the Fairy Godmother helps Cinderella to meet the prince in the first place. Here she helps Fran Kubelik to realize what kind of a man Mr. Shelldrake really is (to meet the reality of the situation). She later also helps to make him pay for his behavior by telling about his affairs to his wife.
Above: The Ball and the Fairy Godmother, helping to the character realize who she really is.
Now, there is an episode that is missed in fairy tale — the communication between the Prince and Cinderella at the ball. They danced all evening and must have talked as well. That is omitted in the original story. And therefore leaves their interaction to everyone`s imagination. So, it was not omitted in Russian cinematic version of Cinderella story, when she first helps to the King to mend his costume and then talks to the Prince — and she makes everyone to fall in love with her.
Note the mirror/looking glass in his hand — a nice touch of similarities between two movies! Total coincidence here!
In the Apartment this segment is rather lengthy: offended by Mr. Shelldrake`s negligence Fran Kubelik tries to commit suicide in the apartment. But C.C. Baxter finds her just in time to save her with the help of another helper — his neighbor who also happened to be a doctor.
He nurses her back to health over the weekend and that helps them to establish relationship.
The second crystal shoe is C.C. Baxter quitting his job. And when this fact is revealed to the princess she abruptly runs away from the evil stepmother in the middle of New Year celebration to find her Cinderella. Just like in the fairy tale Cinderella runs away suddenly in the middle of the ball. Yes, the events dont happen in the same point on the stories timelines. But still they do happen in both stories.
Above: The second shoe is presented
Above: Down the stairs/up the stairs
Above: Leaving the shoe/the crown behind
Above: A happy ending