User Reviews

(Possible Spoiler!)

The atmosphere of 1950's Paris, a truly beautiful actress, a well-balanced plot and the ultimate Jazz soundtrack, recorded in one go by Miles Davis.

The 1958 Louis Malle masterpiece, more than 40 years later, is still one of the best police films ever, Hollywood included. If only more films could seek inspiration from it!

Every moment, from the time the nearly perfect crime is committed to the end, oozes with elegant Parisian sophistication and beauty, and artful camera work. The silences, punctuated with Davis' magnificent trumpet playing, gives the audience time to breathe without reaching boredom. The overall relatively slow pace is actually enthralling. Tension rises as the main protagonists gradually travel to their scaffold. As they finally are arrested and led to their cruel fate, one cannot but feel pity and even sympathy for the killer couple, for such is the sense of involvement that Malle manages to pass on to the audience.

The absence of the now necessary action scenes is also wonderfully refreshing, and the plot is thorough and intelligent.

"Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud" is masterpiece and reference in "Film Noir" type films. It is, along with "Aurevoir les Enfants" undoubtedly a Louis Malle "Chef d'Oeuvre".

"Ascenseur pour l'echafaud" was Louis Malle's first film. It's strange that the man that showed a natural talent for telling a crime story in a somewhat unusual way, didn't go back to the genre in his interesting and distinguished career as a director. The timing was right, the film came out in 1958. It was followed by "Les Amants", which proved he was a force to be reckoned with.

The director adapted a novel by Noel Calef that presented a classic situation for these types of crime films. A young and beautiful woman married to an rich older man who finds herself passionately in love with a younger man that works for her husband. The old man has to be eliminated if the lovers are to aspire to a life together.

Julien Tavernier, the young man, plans and executes the crime that appears to be flawless. Stupidly, he overlooks a piece of rope he has left hanging from an the upstairs floor. As he does that, he is about to leave to meet Florence Carala, his lover, at a cafe on Boulevard Hausmann. As he goes back to take care of his mistake, the janitor stops the elevator that is carrying him upstairs. What to do? In the meantime, a young punk and petty criminal, Louis, who is picking up his girlfriend, Veronique, sees Julien has left the keys in the convertible car, plus his raincoat. He decides to take a joy ride. Florence, who happens to be looking to the street sees the car go by, but she notices there is a woman on the passenger's side. Florence decides to look for him.

This intensely satisfying crime film was given a great treatment by an inspired Louis Malle and he was blessed to have Jeanne Moreau to portray Florence. Louis Malle, like the directors that were arriving on the scene of the French cinema were impressed by the American crime and film noir genre, they discussed in magazines. These crop of new directors wanted to revolutionize the narrative and create a different way to present their stories. The streets of Paris became the backdrop to the movies that will follow.

What Louis Malle created was a moody film that tells a lot about the mind of the criminals as they are going through the anxieties of knowing what they had done and thinking how they would get away with the horrible crime they had committed. On the one hand, Julien, is the victim of Louis and Veronique, as they steal the convertible, only to get into trouble themselves. Florence's state of mind is right there on the screen, in front of us, as she roams the streets of Paris trying to make sense of what happened to Julien.

Jeanne Moreau gives an impeccable performance as Florence. We watch her as she goes from being sure of herself, to suddenly realizing she is defeated. What's more, in a ironic twist, her confession to the police will work against Julien, instead of helping him. She also incriminates herself in ways she never suspected when the candid pictures on a forgotten camera are developed. Jeanne Moreau is nothing short of fabulous.

Maurice Ronet, doesn't have the flashy opportunity in which to shine as does his co-star. His Julien is a man that wants to have it all, but he makes serious mistakes along the way. Georges Poujouly is seen as the petty criminal Louis who passes himself as Julien Tavernier. Charles Denner and Lino Ventura, who will go to bigger and better things later on in their respective careers are excellent, especially Mr. Ventura as the inspector Cherier, who figures the whole mystery.

This film was the debut of a man who went to do great work in his native France and have a second career in America. What distinguishes this film from others of the genre is the jazzy score by Miles Davis, whose music blends perfectly with the images one sees. The cinematography by Henri Decae shows us a nocturnal Paris far from the touristy places most directors love to present. Paris, as a backdrop, is what makes this film the joy it is to watch.

Ever since hearing a number of critics widely praise films from the French New Wave I have always gotten a feeling of intimidation and inaccessibility from the wide group of films due to how most of the mainstream critics seem to constantly try and put the New Wave films in a special box just for themselves.

After having become completely fascinated by tremendous "genre" films from Italy and Sweden,I started to look over at the New Wave films from France and began to feel that I should completely tear down the wall of intimidation around them by jumping straight into one of the first ever French New Wave films made that also starred one of the most famous (and most loved) actresses from the period

View on the film:

For his eye-catching directing of what is one of the first French New Wave films, Louis Malle (who also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Noel Calef's novel with Roger Nimer)starts the new era off with a "bang", as the film opens on a extreme close up of a beautiful Jeanne Moreau.

One of the very best decisions that Malle made was to show Moreau's face with no make up on at all,which along with allowing Moreau to give Florencea a real femme fatale edge, who is more than ready to walk through the shadows of the city to catch the smallest glimpse of her murdering lover,which is linked by Moreau in an elegant performance, as she shows Florence to go from being self assured of her and Julian's murder plot,to shivering with fear as Florence realises that the situation has gotten completely out of her control.

Whilst Moreau unforgettable face does open this fantastic film,the rest of the cast easily deserve equal praise,with the sadly under rated Maurice Ronet giving a terrific performance as Julian Tavernier who along with showing a chilling precision of executing the murder is also able to show an increase feeling of dread as the walls of the lift start to close in on him as his fear of getting found really starts to take its toll on him,and also gives the audience of great sense of isolation.

After opening his New Wave Film Noir on a stunning shot and a rolling score from Miles Davis, Malle brilliantly creates a world of darkness as he goes from a truly edge of the seat,gripping murder sequence to making the city filled with wonderful characters who go from an edgy teenage rebel who steals a car from under everyone's nose,to a cop,who like the audience finds the activates of Florence and Julian something that he will never forget.

At the risk of sounding flippant, this film looks like something Hitchcock and Serling might have come up with had they collaborated. But the idea that a twenty four year old Louis Malle directed it makes me wonder how such a young film maker could have been so knowledgeable and worldly to pull it off. There's a lot of fine tension and irony in the picture, and the Miles Davis score has a way of hooking the viewer into a world that's furtively dishonorable.

Yet there are some bothersome elements as well. The business with leaving the rope behind was just too big a blunder and struck me as completely out of character for a veteran like Tavernier (Maurice Ronet). Seeing it dangle from street level only added to the mystery of how Tavernier could possibly have remained unnoticed as he made his way to the upper floor in full view.

Interestingly, what Malle does best here is the way he telegraphs the next twist in the story while making the viewer feel good about figuring it out. Tavernier leaves the car running so someone could take off with it, and sure enough, Louis does. Veronique uses the Tavernier name and the Benckers wind up with a murderer who makes the front page for one he didn't commit. Each step of the way you can pretty much figure out what will happen next, but at the same time it seems like a revelation when it occurs. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

So, for a picture I'd never even heard of before, this turned out to be quite the find at my little town library this evening. The cinematography is gorgeous and Jeanne Moreau seduces the screen with all the noir fatalism one could ask for. With all the bad luck these characters created for themselves, I would have been disappointed if there were no black cat.

(Spoilers) This movie lost my attention in the first act. I continued watching only because of the good reviews. The setup has Julien killing his boss (faking a suicide) in order to run off with the boss' wife. Julien executes the murder at his work where his boss has an office one floor up. Telling his secretary not to disturb him, he goes outside on a ledge and, employing the old hook and rope trick, scales up to the upstairs floor and does the deed. Climbing a rope on the exterior of a building over a crowded Paris street in broad daylight did not convince me that Julien had thought things through very well or, more to the point, the screenwriters had not done their job. But then Julien climbs back down the rope to make his escape. My immediate reaction was, "Wait, you left the rope there." It's not until Julien exits the building and gets in his car that he realizes how stupid he has been and goes back in to remove the rope. It was not at all clear how he was going to do that, but then he got stuck in an elevator on the way up so we don't see that.

Unfortunately this rather implausible set-up establishes the tone for the rest of the movie. A young couple steals Julien's car and in one of the most absurd scenes they dent the Mercedes of a wealthy German couple. The German's reaction is, "Hey, what a hoot, come on in and have some drinks with us." Murders, attempted suicides, mistaken identities, and unbelievable coincidences ensue, leading to a scripted ending.

As much as I like Jeanne Moreau, she does little here beyond walking around in existential despair, occasionally vocalizing how much she loves Julien. She can also walk through a downpour without mussing her hair.

A nice jazz score provided by Miles Davis accentuates the mood of ennui.

I was bored by this film. I got it on DVD, an excellent print, and as a Louis Malle fan I was expecting something really intriguing. But in fact it was just boring. Yes, I know there were lots of good things about the way it was made: the music is truly sensational; the photography is outstanding. But it goes off the rails quite early. Others have mentioned the mystery of the hook; but what about the improbability of a man in a suit climbing up the outside of an office building in central Paris, in full view of neighbourhood cafés, apartment blocks and pedestrians, with nobody noticing -- although the dangling hook was plainly visible to Tavernier from the street below?

Then there was the fact that Tavernier was trapped in the elevator from Saturday afternoon until Sunday – or perhaps Monday – morning, during which time he felt the need to smoke a great number of cigarettes, but not, apparently, to relieve himself.

The pace of the film ground virtually to a halt while we followed the florist and her no-hoper boyfriend, mainly because the boyfriend was a very tedious character. His motivation was never explained. The constant cutting to Tavernier failing to escape from the lift and Jeanne Moreau padding around Paris failing to find him did not help.

This is a film that seems to seduce a lot of people with its incidentals – musical score, photography, etc. – although it lacks the most essential ingredient of a good thriller, viz., thrills.

A man named Tavernier and his lover, the wife of his boss, decide to off the big guy and escape together for some ideal life of love somewhere else, probably in the country-side or something. After a strange and unreal telephone conversation on the matter, he gets right to work and everything seems to be going spiffy... until they don't. Then everything starts to go wrong.

Honestly the only thing that sets this film apart from other film noir-type thrillers is an astounding score by Miles Davis and the fact that the lovers are separated throughout the entire film, unless you count the photos at the end, which are still by degrees separated from us. Actually, that's the strongest moment of the film, when that ideal dream the two shared seems a lot more reasonable than the loose and eccentric ravings of the woman as she goes on and on about her slightly obsessed love.

Otherwise it's generally a pretty open guide to ineptitude. Here's where I disagree with Terrence Rafferty, writer of "Louis Malle on the Ground Floor", the essay in the booklet included in the Criterion Collection edition of this film. It's not "bad luck" to leave a rope hanging so that you have to go back to get it, it's pretty much just simply stupidity. Almost all of the characters suffer from an inability to think critically or resolve themselves to their situation, which is why everything just keeps falling apart.

It's a fun movie, but--and I hate to say it in such crass terms--it's been done thousands of times before and after, and many times better. The pulp novel influence is clear, characters that we don't care about because they don't really have personality (except those completely unbelievable) run around doing stuff pretty much because they need to only to keep the plot going. If it wasn't for the complete lack of ability to think, all we'd have is a guy trapped in an elevator for nearly an hour and a half.

--PolarisDiB

I'll admit that this film's plot is a little hard to believe. However, in some cases, such as this film, I think it's okay to suspend disbelief and enjoy the picture. How all the chain of events conspire together to create the plot is actually fascinating to watch and I found myself really pulled into the film.

The movie is sort of like film noir, though without the usual tough main characters. Yes, the two main male leads do commit murders, but they seem much less sure of themselves and smooth as the typical noir leads. In a way, the film was sort of like a noir and Hitchcock film combined. I'd say more, but it would give away the plot. Give it a try--you're bound to enjoy it.