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vertov
Jun 14, 2003

hello
Directed by: Louis Malle
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet

One the best French films made between the classical era and the Nouvelle Vouge, Elevator to the Gallows is an offbeat and political story about a couple that becomes separated just before they plan their escape from a well orchestrated murder, followed by a chain of events that gets everyone involved in trouble as they try to reunite. Jeanne Moreau, who would become an international star working with Francois Truffaut, plays Florence, and Maurice Ronet is Julien. Julien gets stuck in an elevator after killing his boss, while Florence waits for him at their favorite café. When he doesn’t show up, she begins to suspect something has gone wrong, and she mistakes a pair of teenagers (who have stolen his car) driving away as Julien and another women. From there, the story wanders in every which direction, much like the confused characters. The narrative is always guided by Louis Malle’s expert direction though, and it never becomes too perplexing for the audience to follow.

Jazz legend Miles Davis provides the soundtrack for the film, creating a hip, film-noirish sense of atmosphere. All of the music was improvised as Davis first watched the film, and incredible achievement. The cool tone of his music is very similar to his work on Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain, maintaining a beautiful sense of melancholy, but never becoming melodramatic.

The style of the film hints at the imminent explosion of cinematic innovation about to happen in the French New Wave, using a lot of the same techniques and attitude that will be explored by Godard, Truffaut and others. Malle’s direction gives clues to the winding plot that develops throughout the film, always keeping the audience interested but guessing. His handling of the various interweaving plotlines is expert as well, keeping the narrative clear and readable despite the complicated timing and relationships between individual stories.

Like Melville’s Bob le Flambeur, Elevator to the Gallows is a fresh take on the film noir genre, playing with the conventions used in its American predecessors. The subject of Algeria is constantly hanging over the film, a matter that will be addressed with more express criticism in the New Wave films that follow. It makes fun of youths apathy towards bloodshed and nationalism, contrasting the foolish teenagers with an older couple they meet up with, as one of the kids pretends to be a soldier when he learns the older man is a veteran. It also features one of the best policemen characters from any film, who is very different than the normal clichés common in crime films.

Unfortunately, this film is somewhat hard to find. It’s available on VHS, but no sign of a DVD release in future. There is a CD of the soundtrack, which is a neat album for fans of Davis’s “cool” era.

RATING: 4.5

PROS: soundtrack by Davis, good handling of complicated narrative
CONS: teenagers are annoying, even in France

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