Cinema
Elevator to the Gallows
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Louis Malle · 1958
Synopsis
Julien Tavernier, a former paratrooper, and Florence Carala are lovers. One evening, Julien kills his boss, Florence's husband, in his office and disguises the murder as a suicide. But when he comes back for a rope he left behind, he gets stuck in the building's lift. Meanwhile, two young people steal his car, and Florence, waiting for him in vain, wanders through Paris all night.
Context
The film adapts a novel by Noël Calef published in 1956; Malle shot it at twenty-four or twenty-five, depending on the sources, after his documentaries with Cousteau. Jeanne Moreau, whose nocturnal wanderings were filmed without additional lighting, and Maurice Ronet play the lovers. Miles Davis improvised the music in December 1957, at the Poste Parisien studio, with Barney Wilen, René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke, watching the images unfold.
Who it is for
A film noir of an hour and a half, tense as a trap; Miles Davis's music counts for as much as the images.
Prizes and reception
Prix Louis-Delluc 1957; the Criterion Collection released it in a 2K restoration under the title Elevator to the Gallows.
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