Ascenseur pour l’échafaud

English title: Elevator to the Gallows

Genre: suspense film (in black and white)

With: Jeanne Moreau (Florence Carala), Maurice Ronet (Julien Tavernier), Georges Poujouly (Louis), Yori Bertin (Véronique, Louis’s girlfriend), Jean Wall (Simon Carala, Florence’s husband), Iván Petrovich (Horst Bencker), Elga Andersen (Frieda Bencker), Lino Ventura (Cherrier)

Director: Louis Malle

Screenplay: Roger Nimier, Louis Malle and Noël Calef (based on Calef’s novel)

Release: 1958

Studio: Nouvelles Éditions de Films

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.7/10

 

 

Basic Math for Extramarital Affairs: 3 - 1 = 2 

 

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Story-line: from a phone booth somewhere in Paris, Florence contacts her lover Julien, who is still working on this Saturday evening, and tells him how eager she is to see him. ‟When it’s done, she says, you’ll come in your big car… I’ll get in next to you… and we’ll be free.” The ‟it” she is referring to is the murder of Simon Carala, her husband and Julien’s boss.

Pluses: fine acting by an ardent Jeanne Moreau, a cool and calculated Maurice Ronet and a solid cast, a deliberate, chilling screenplay that uses snippets of humour to balance out its gravity and keeps its best moments for the final act, stylish direction by a top-notch helmer, Henri Decaë’s superb monochrome cinematography, quality production values, a marvellous musical score by Miles Davis and an explosive ending.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: this stunning film recounting one eventful weekend in and around Paris is remarkable not only for its potent drama but also for its treatment of Jeanne Moreau’s status as a cinematic sex symbol. In scenes that pop up like running gags at different stages of the movie, you will notice that (1) wherever she goes, people can’t help staring at her and (2) when you see her walking, even in dire circumstances, she doesn’t seem particularly hurried (nobody rushes Madame Moreau, capisce?). The hypnotizing ASCENSEUR POUR L’ÉCHAFAUD, a masterwork by one of the main proponents of the nouvelle vague, is intriguing, arty and memorable. Love, whether adult or adolescent, can be a very dangerous thing.

 

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