Elevator to the Gallows [2 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The feature-film debut of famed director Louis Malle is an interesting, modern film noir with the classic theme of lovers plotting to kill the husband and make it look like suicide (reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice). Jeanne Moreau, as Florence Carala, gives an astonishing performance, perverse but naive as she leads her young lover down a path that can only lead to doom for both of them. Malle and his cinematographer Henri Decae make extensive use of Paris at night, giving the film the feel of claustrophobia and desperation reminiscent of the classic noir films. The excellent score by Miles Davis adds to the entire effect of this mystery thriller. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Subtitle: Eng
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • New interview with actor Jeanne Moreau
  • Archival interviews with director Louis Malle, actors Maurice Ronet and Jeanne Moreau, and original soundtrack session pianist Rene Urtreger
  • Footage of Miles Davis and Louis Malle from the soundtrack recording session
  • New video program about the score, with jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis and critic Gary Giddins
  • Malle's student film Crazeologie, featuring the title song by Charlie Parker
  • Plus a booklet featuring a new essay by critic Terrence Rafferty, an interview with Louis Malle, and a tribute by film producer Vincent Malle

AWARDS

• French Film Critics Circle

•     Won Prix Louis-Delluc - 1957 (Louis Malle)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Jeanne Moreau - Florence Carala
       Maurice Ronet - Julien Tavernier
       Georges Poujouly - Louis
       Felix Marten - Subervie
       Yori Bertin - Veronique
       Charles Denner - Inspector Cherier's assistant

• Director:

  Louis Malle

• Producer:

  Jean Thuillier

• Screenwriter:

  Louis Malle

• Book Author:

  Noel Calef

• Cinematographer:

  Henri Decaë

• Composer (Music Score):

  Miles Davis

• Editor:

  Leonide Azar

• Art Director:

  Jean Mandaroux, Rino Mondellini

• Makeup:

  Boris de Fas

• First Assistant Director:

  Francois Leterrier, Alain Cavalier

• Production Manager:

  Irenee Leriche

REVIEW:

• The first feature of the 24-year-old Louis Malle, this assured film was one of the earliest rumblings of the Nouvelle Vague, a more conservative precursor to Godard's Breathless. Claiming a desire to combine the disparate styles of Bresson and Hitchcock, Malle's film is less a noir than a low-key meditation on the genre, as shots of a disconsolate Jeanne Moreau walking the streets of Paris in search of her lover (Maurice Ronet) are intercut with the adventures of the young couple who have stolen their car. Taking the familiar plot of homicidal lovers, Malle skips past the customary heavy breathing, beginning in medias res as the murder of Moreau's husband is carried out with clinical detachment. Ironically, Malle's older lovers are separated from each other for nearly the entire film, with Ronet's frantic efforts to get away from the scene of the crime almost a parody of the prisoner's calm demeanor in Bresson's contemporaneous A Man Escaped (1956). As the dominoes begin to fall, Moreau is reunited with Ronet, at least on paper, in one of the most elegant busts on celluloid. The melancholy of Miles Davis' improvised score underlines the film's tone of stoic fatalism. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi