The "Apart"-ment

Yesterday we began watching Billy Wilder's The Apartment in class and I wanted to record a few observations and reflections from the portion that we've watched so far. The theme of the film appears to be possession and ownership: C. C. Baxter owns his apartment by deed, but doesn't see enough of it to call it his property because he's always letting his supervisors borrow it for their sexual rendezvouses. This causes him distress not only out of sleeplessness, but also (though he doesn't seem to acknowledge it yet) out of a sense of belonging. He spends much of the day in his office complex, certainly a non-place by the look of it. Every desk and row on his floor is the same as the others and every person does the same repetitive tasks. Because no such environment could inspire a sense of belonging in any sane person, Baxter's apartment should be a haven for ownership and personal bearing. This is not the case, however. While his coworkers leave work for their homes, Baxter stays on at the office, sitting alone at his desk in an empty room. His sense of belonging is thrown off by both having to remain in this non-place longer than anyone else and also by often not being able to reenter his apartment when his supervisors are done with it for the night. Afterwards Baxter is left to pick up their garbage in his own place, which only further entrenches the notion that he doesn't belong anywhere. In a world where one's comfort is often determined by material means, not having this sense of ownership must be upsetting for him.