Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Well, it's a classic of French cinema and it has many things going for it: debut feature of the great Louis Malle, with Jeanne Moreau —one of the most important muses of Nouvelle Vague—, and music of Miles Davis, so, this film could be perfect, but... It's a French movie of the sixties (even been from 1958)... that's mean, slow, maddeningly slow, in that case with important failures in the plot (that other reviewers have already commented), and most of the performers making unconvincing interpretations. The best, the extraordinary black and white photography and, of course, Miles' music. The worst, the hour and a half of footage, you can spare thirty minutes, that being generous.Classic cinema fans —as me— should not miss it, in any case, for Malle, Moreau and Miles.

I am a great fan of noir and thus was severely underwhelmed by this considering the glowing reviews. Jeanne Moreau looks great and the photography is suitably stylish and atmospheric but it's just that the story is so routine, so mundane, so ordinary. It looks like there might be a few clever twists but they never come, no, the clever cops work it all out and the silly chumps leave incriminating photos to seal their fate and by the way, who took the photos anyway? I hardly think they had selfies in those days, especially not on a spy camera, but rather indiscreet nonetheless considering the circumstances. However, justice is done, the bad guys get theirs and that's that. There is none of the moral ambiguity, nihilism or hopelessness that true masterpieces of the genre like Scarlet Street, Kiss Me Deadly or The Third Man have in spades. This plays out more like a routine episode of Colombo with all loose ends nicely tied up, thank you very much. A real disappointment.

Malle's career debut feature length at the age of 26, a stylized dramatization of a well-planned murder goes berserk. Florence (Moreau) and Julien (Ronet) are two lovers out of wedlock, the only barrier is Florence's senescent but wealthy husband Simon (Wall), for whom Julien works as a corporate clerk, they diligently hatch a plot to get rid of Simon and make the pretense as a suicide scene. The scheme is executed according to the schedule until a last-moment hiccup (Julien forgets the damn rope on the roof), a black cat is always ominous, just when he returns to the company building to fetch it, Julien is accidentally left alone in the elevator. Meanwhile, a pair of youngster Louis and Véronique (Poujouly and Bertin) lift Julien's posh car for a wild ride, en route, a harebrained Louis shot a German couple in a motel using the identity of Julien. The same night, Florence is aimlessly roaming around the streets of Paris, looking for her absent lover! Things will get messier the next morning when Julien gets out of the elevator, he is wanted by the police and Florence starts to get a grip on the entire misidentified situation, after a concise confrontation with Louis and Véronique, a few developed photographs reveal the real culprits of both homicides, the star-crossed lovers meet their comeuppance as well as the hotheaded Louis.Logically speaking, its 88 minutes running time seems a bit sketchy for clarifying the police's investigation procedure and there are a flew negligible plot holes dangling (e.g. how the rope without a trace appears at the entrance of the building is never explained), obviously they are not Malle's first choice. The picture is mostly preeminent for the bounteous close-ups to examine his then lover Moreau's emotive visage (under a plain make-up free naturalism) with her inner voice-over, equally impressively is the Black & White shots of the night view on the expressway and in the interrogation part under a pitch-black background, it is a conflation of Film-Noir with a budding La Nouvelle Vague. My personal recommendation is a heart-in-the- mouth set piece for the acrophobic when Julien tries to scale down from the elevator when it abruptly descends, Ronet is solely in his prime and later his mojo would be evoked unconditionally in Malle's THE FIRE WITHIN (1963, 9/10). Two thumbs up to Malle for his immense dexterity in such an incipient stage of his career. One can also find some scattered fun in the film, such as the chic vehicle or the gizmos of a spy camera or the telephone-cum-pencil-sharpener, certainly for me they are eye-openers. Let's not forget Miles Davis' saxophone-heavy score, downright impromptu, but tallies with the film impeccably! A more on-topic note is the alert message "never leave photos around", if only everyone could have watched this film before we reached this epoch of selfie fever, the world would be a bit less tumultuous indeed.

Ever since hearing a number of critics widely praise films from the French New Wave I have always gotten a feeling of intimidation and inaccessibility from the wide group of films due to how most of the mainstream critics seem to constantly try and put the New Wave films in a special box just for themselves.After having become completely fascinated by tremendous "genre" films from Italy and Sweden,I started to look over at the New Wave films from France and began to feel that I should completely tear down the wall of intimidation around them by jumping straight into one of the first ever French New Wave films made that also starred one of the most famous (and most loved) actresses from the period The plot:Finishing his latest phone call by arranging a meeting with his secret lover Florence Carala,Julien Tavernier goes back to his office and tells all his staff that he is not to be disturbed for any reason.Gathering up a rope,gloves and a fully loaded gun,Julien quietly grapples his way to a building on the opposite side where Tavernier plans to stage an I'm prov meeting with his boss,who is also Florence's husband.Succeeding in getting the short meeting to take place,Tavernier shoots his soon to be ex-boss in a style which will make it look like a suicide.Feeling that he should get back to his office before anyone gets suspicious,Julien picks up everything and quickly glides back to his office.Getting set to finally spend the rest of his life with the now-widowed Carala,Tavernier walks past two rebellious looking teenagers and jumps straight into his gleaming car.Just as Julien is about to set off ,he has a look back at the building Tavernier gets a feeling of terror running down his spine when he notices that during the rush to get back to safety he had accidentally left the grappling rope hanging outside the room where the murder had taken place!.Leaving the car still running,Julian makes a dash for the lift in the building so that he can correct his dangerous mistake.As the lift starts nearing the all important floor,Tavernier is suddenly left trapped and with no where to run when the buildings lift is shout down as the staff close the office block down to get set for all having the weekend off work.Meanwhile outside,the two teenagers start to take a real interest in Julien's abandoned car and soon decide that they will steal it so the they can use it for some wild weekend travailing.Driving down one of the cities main roads,the teens inadvertently drive past lady in waiting Florence Carala,who due to mistaking one of the teens for Julien begins a long furious search for him all over the city which will lead to her and Tavernier discovering that their troubles are far from being confined in a shut down lift. View on the film:For his tremendous directing of what is possibly the first ever French New Wave film, Louis Malle (who also wrote the stunning screenplay adaptation of Noel Calef's novel with Roger Nimer)starts the new era off with a "bang", as the film opens on a proto-Segio Leone extreme close up of a beautiful Jeanne Moreau.Checking for any info about the making of the film,one of the very best decisions that I feel Malle made was to show Moreau's face with no make up on at all,which along with allowing Malle to show Florence as a real femme fatale who is more than ready to walk through the shadows of the city to catch the smallest glimpse of her murdering lover,also allows Jeanne to give an elegant performance as she shows Florence to go from being self assured of her and Julian's murder plot,to shivering with fear as Florence realises that the situation has gotten completely out of her control.Whilst Moreau unforgettable face does open this fantastic film,the rest of the cast easily deserve equal praise,with the sadly under rated Maurice Ronet giving a terrific performance as Julian Tavernier who along with showing a chilling precision of executing the murder is also able to show an increase feeling of dread as the walls of the lift start to close in on him as his fear of getting found really starts to take its toll on him,and also gives the audience of great sense of isolation.After opening his New Wave Film Noir on a stunning shot and a rolling score from Miles Davis,Malle brilliantly creates a world of darkness as he goes from a truly edge of the seat,gripping murder sequence to making the city filled with wonderful characters who go from an edgy proto-James Dean teenage rebel who steals a car from under everyone's nose,to a cop,who like the audience finds the activates of Florence and Julian something that he will never forget.Final view on the film:A stunning,unforgettable and extremely moody New Wave Film Noir,with an astonishing cast,a fantastic tension building screenplay and artful directing from an amazing Malle.