The Apartment

A literally coded satire on modern US society in the post-war period: on the one side is manager Sheldrake, on the other a gallery of Jewish characters, of whom Dr Dreyfuss sums it up: "Live now, pay later ... Diner's Club!" He warns the little employee Baxter: "Be a mensch!" while his wife, who looks more like a shtetl than Manhattan, cooks chicken soup. Baxter is torn between these two cultures: the amoral, manipulative larger society, where material success beckons, and "back home", where ethical behaviour and tradition (the chicken soup) count. At the climax of the film, he makes his choice and gives Sheldrake back the key to the executive washroom. The key represents all the privilege and sense of belonging that Baxter has desired. It's the defining moment for our hero. Baxter is going through his own epiphany: "I have decided to become human."