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Genre : Crime, Drama, Thriller | Original Language : French | Country : France
Directed by : Louis Malle Cinematographer : La Poursuite Du Bonheur, Le Pays De Dieu, Le Monde Du Silence Editor : Léonide Azar
Producers/ Co- Producers : Jean Thuillier
Elevator To The Gallows is director Louis Malle''s 1957 masterpiece of suspense and film noir starring Jeanne Moreau, in the role that catapulted her to international stardom. The story focuses first on illicit lovers Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau), the restless wife of a corrupt arms dealer, and Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet), a former war hero working for Florence''s husband. The pair plots her husband''s murder, and almost pull it off to make it look like a suicide. But things go awfully wrong. Tavernier climbs on a rope up the office block to kill the husband in his office without being seen, but on going to his car, realizes that he has left the rope dangling outside the building. Rushing to retrieve it, he leaves behind a running car ready to be taken. An amoral young couple, sullen and resentful Louis (Georges Poujouly) and free-spirited Véronique (Yori Bertin), enter the scene tangentially by stealing Tavernier’s car, and get caught up in their own deceptions with a boisterous German couple whom they meet through an accident. The plot strands eventually come together in a climax that has all the characters confronting the harsh reality of their past actions.
Shot by Henri Decaë, who also shot the first films of François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol, Elevator To The Gallows was a stunning debut for 24-year-old director Malle, winning him the Prix Delluc, France’s most prestigious film award. It also made an international superstar of cool beauty Moreau, delivering perhaps the most iconic performance of her career. A seminal as the film itself is its legendary Miles Davis music (largely improvised by Davis and his band)—one of the most famous film scores in cinema history.
