Just watch The Apartment

I have seen the Apartment well over 20 times. One of my all time favorites. But comparing Care Society to the Apartmnet??? Sorry I do not see it nor agree with it at all.

~~the coins in the jar are for charity,~~
~~the coins in the tray are for sharing~~

Many points are well taken! But, aren't there a few huge differences, most importantly that Baxter and Fran end up together, whereas Bobbie and Vonnie don't? And, of somewhat lesser importance, Steve Carrell's character is actually honorable, whereas McMurray's is most definitely not. In fact, those may be reason enough for the movie - a riff on The Apartment with a different ending.

Billy Wilder's The Apartment was a knock off and a total re-imagination of a plot point in Brief Encounter. Some guy had an apartment that might be available to another guy (Trevor Howard) for a tryst. Wilder is on the record about this, was always interested in the guy who was letting his apartment or flat, be used for this purpose: what was HIS life like, what were HIS interests etc. Woody Allen knows all about this story, and a lot of other stories. The fact that this kind of detail makes it into one of his films is pretty meaningless. Does Café Society work or not on its own terms, not whether it seems like something that might have been dome before. BTW same thing was said about Match Point's similarities to A Place in the Sun. Yes there were similarities, but Woody's tale was its own reality and worked in its own way.

With all due respect to all the intelligent posts in the thread... When hasn't Woody borrowed liberally? Half his oeuvre references specific films or the mise en scene duplicates his favorite auteurs of whom he is an epigone. The unkinder among us call these ripoffs, the more charitably inclined hommages, lol.

Woody wasn't satisfied making his wildly creative if slapdash earlier films, which included some fairly original near-masterpieces like Sleeper (even there the slapstick recalled Keaton and Sennett). Love and Death was the first major foreshadowing of his career "plagiaristic" arc, borrowing heavily from Russian literature.

He then gave us two unquestioned masterworks, Annie Hall and Manhattan. The latter IMHO is a sublime achievement and the best thing he ever did. And very original, even with the occasional echoes of others' work. Arguably there were three more quintessentially "serious" Allen films that showcased his unique artistic concerns: Hannah and her Sisters (despite the Chekhov nod), Crimes & Misdemeanors and Husbands and Wives. There's one utter Pirandellian delight, the criminally underappreciated Purple Rose of Cairo. And several other pleasurable pieces like Zelig and Bullets over Broadway (the latter a fond pastiche, as is Radio Days).

Everything else? The horrifically overrated, hilariously solemn Interiors (Bergman). The underrated Stardust Memories (Woody at his bitterest in this Fellini imitation filled with savage insight into the cult of celebrity, far more so than his later film of that name). Another Bergman misfire (Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy). The truly God-awful UFA/German Expressionist embarrassment Shadows & Fog. More gloomy Bergmanesque studies like September and Another Woman (crossed with 50s kitchen sink realism).

Frankly, while I appreciate the incidental pleasures of some later Allen, I feel he's been creatively stagnant for two decades (Everybody Says I Love You is gorgeously shot and features some deliriously lovely scenes; Match Point is suspenseful and taut though as someone pointed out a clone of Place in the Sun -- also borrowing heavily from Hitchcock, specifically Dial M and Strangers on a Train; Blue Jasmine is elevated by two ferocious powerhouse performances; Midnight in Paris is too cutesy by half but appealing).

Which is a long-winded way of writing that every film buff knows Woody borrows. The question is whether or not in retrospect he'll be considered a great artist in his own right, given that stylistically he morphs into some of his influences (far more disturbing from a creative standpoint than merely mimicking plot points). I'd argue that since he does put his own uniquely urban neurotic spin on everything, he is. Just wildly uneven.

Phew.

Watched it on a flight a week or so ago and this struck me right away.

The Apartment is my favourite movie but it didn't particularly bother me, felt like more of an homage than a rip-off.
Though this was an average movie, at best.