Elevator to the Gallows - Criterion Collection
by Louis Malle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Georges Poujouly, Jean Wall, Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Yori BertinDirector: Louis Malle
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Elevator to the Gallows - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: jazzy, cool French noir sits on the cusp of the New Wave
Summary: 4 Stars
The perfect murder....is there another basic theme that has been done so often in film? And in particular in American or French films in the immediate post-war era? Here's a French example, Malle's first, released in that same great year as VERTIGO and TOUCH OF EVIL, certainly owing a debt to Hitchock particularly in the opening sequences, though not for my money quite on a par with either of the American masterpieces. Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) plots to kill the wealthy husband of his mistress, Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) but leaves one crucial tool in the accomplishment of his plot behind; upon going to retrieve it he becomes stuck in the elevator as the electricity for the building is turned off for the weekend. He races desperately to escape, as his girlfriend becomes desperate with jealousy and paranoia when he doesn't meet her at the appointed hour, and a younger couple becomes embroiled in their own equally violent plot that all stems from their theft of his car.
Meanwhile, the music of Miles Davis plays coolly throughout, and we get an early look at Parisian suburbs and a 50s motel, with endless stretches of open road....this is an international Paris, with an innocent German couple eventually and fatally caught up in the mess, and many evocations of American genre films alongside the great music. If the film ultimately is more an exercise in style than anything else, it's a powerfully successful one and it manages to do as much in spinning its spidery webs of crime in an hour and a half as any American B-noir of the period. The performances are generally good, though they don't necessarily resonate except perhaps for Moreau -- there's little in the way of showboating here, the players are as cool as the music -- and the Criterion DVD is top-notch in quality, both sound and picture, and the extras look enticing.
Summary of Elevator to the Gallows - Criterion Collection
In this, his debut feature film, director Louis Malle captures the hidden beauty of Jeanne Moreau, the brilliant camerawork of Henri Deca?, and the musical force of Miles Davis in a tightly constructed film noir experience that launched his and Moreau's careers.Elevator to the Gallows is many things: A tight, delicious crime thriller; the debut of director Louis Malle (Zazie dans le metro, Atlantic City, Au Revoir, Les Enfants, and many more works of subtle genius); a movie with perhaps the greatest jazz soundtrack of all time, created improvisationally by trumpeter Miles Davis; but above all, Elevator to the Gallows is the blooming of Jeanne Moreau to the status of true movie star, launching her on a career that included Jules & Jim, La notte, and La Femme Nikita. After killing his lover's husband, Julien (Maurice Ronet, Purple Noon) gets trapped in an elevator, forcing him to miss his rendezvous with Florence (Moreau) and allowing his car to be stolen by a joy-riding young couple. From there, the movie splits into three directions: Julien's efforts to escape; Florence wandering the streets, trying not to believe that Julien has abandoned her; and the car thieves, who get caught up in a murder of their own. The movie skillfully fuses Hitchcockian suspense with intimate psychodrama. As she stalks through the night, Moreau is a vision of tortured heartbreak, her woeful eyes and lush, sensuous lips illuminated by neon signs and baleful streetlamps. This is pure cinematic pleasure, visual beauty fused with taut, edge-of-your-seat storytelling.
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