Noir City: Elevator to the Gallows
February 18, 2024
An adulterous couple’s plot to murder the woman’s husband collides with a pair of bungling teens acting out their nihilistic crime-movie fantasies. Jeanne Moreau is immortalized against Miles Davis’ improvised score. Meanwhile, Maurice Ronet’s attempts to escape a stalled elevator become a mesmerizing visual poem of entrapment.
Individual Tickets: $16 | $11 SIFF Members - Select showtime to purchase
Passes: $150 | $125 SIFF Members
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
Louis Malle’s debut film, made when he was just twenty-five, bridges classic noir and the French New Wave with peerless style. An adulterous couple’s slick plot to murder the woman’s husband collides with a pair of bungling teens acting out their nihilistic crime-movie fantasies. The great cinematographer Henri Decaë broke new ground—and old rules—by shooting at night with only available light, immortalizing Jeanne Moreau as she takes the greatest nocturnal stroll in cinema history. Miles Davis improvised his score while watching the scenes of Moreau wandering Paris streets, and his music caresses her like a night breeze. Meanwhile, Maurice Ronet’s desperate attempts to escape a stalled elevator become a mesmerizing, nearly-abstract visual poem of entrapment. Malle distills an existentialist vision of a senseless world where love and warmth exist only in memory. French noir doesn’t come any cooler than this. —Film synopsis courtesy of Noir City
- Original Language Title: Ascenseur pour l’échafaud
- Director: Louis Malle
- Principal Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall
- Country: France
- Year: 1958
- Running Time: 91 min.
- Producer: Jean Thullier
- Screenplay: Roger Nimier, Louis Malle
- Cinematographers: Henry Decaë
- Editors: Léonide Azar
- Music: Miles Davis
- Website: Official Film Website
- Filmography: Au revoir les enfants (1987), Atlantic City (1980), Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
- Language: French
- US Distributor: Janus Films