Elevator to the Gallows (1957) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

In his mesmerizing debut feature, twenty-four-year-old director Louis Malle brought together the beauty of Jeanne Moreau, the camerawork of Henri Decaë, and a now legendary score by Miles Davis. A touchstone of the careers of both its star and director, Elevator to the Gallows is a richly atmospheric thriller of murder and mistaken identity unfolding over one restless Parisian night.

Cast

Florence Carala	Jeanne Moreau
Julien Tavernier	Maurice Ronet
Louis	Georges Poujouly
Véronique	Yori Bertin
Simon Carala	Jean Wall
Inspector Chérier	Lino Ventura
Chess player at motel	Jean-Claude Brialy

Credits

Director	Louis Malle
Producer	Jean Thuillier
Screenplay	Roger Nimier and Louis Malle
Based on the novel by	Noël Calef
Cinematography	Henri Decaë
Music	Miles Davis

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE DISC SET:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New interview with actor Jeanne Moreau
Archival interviews with director Louis Malle, actors Maurice Ronet and Moreau, and original soundtrack session pianist René 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
Theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Terrence Rafferty, an interview with Louis Malle, and a tribute by film producer Vincent Malle

From the Current

Gallows Goes Live

Nov 12, 2009

Louis Malle’s shadowy Paris comes to our nation’s capital on November 12 and 19, when the HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz & Blues in Washington, D.C., will host special live performances of Miles Davis’s evocative music for Malle’s moody 1957 noir, Elevator to the Gallows.

ELEVATOR’S TURNING JAPANESE

Oct 8, 2009

Louis Malle’s noirish French New Wave forerunner Elevator to the Gallows is getting a surprising new lift. The Japanese producer and distributor Kadokawa Pictures (once upon a time known as Daiei Motion Picture Company) is currently in production on a remake of the shadowy, stylish thriller...

Need a Lift?

Nov 12, 2008

Philip French rates cinema’s greatest elevator scenes here, in the Guardian. Claustrophobics stay clear!

Elevator to the Gallows:
Louis Malle on the Ground Floor

by Terrence Rafferty Apr 24, 2006

François Truffaut once wrote, “All of Louis Malle, all his good qualities and faults, was in Elevator to the Gallows”—a statement that, even given French film criticism’s traditionally high tolerance...