Product Description A French war hero plots to kill his lover's husband. Directed by Louis Malle. Music by Miles Davis. .com Elevator to the Gallows is many things: A tight, delicious crime thriller; the debut of director Louis Malle (Zazie dans le metro, Atlantic City, Au Revoir, Les Enfants, and many more works of subtle genius); a movie with perhaps the greatest jazz soundtrack of all time, created improvisationally by trumpeter Miles Davis; but above all, Elevator to the Gallows is the blooming of Jeanne Moreau to the status of true movie star, launching her on a career that included Jules & Jim, La notte, and La Femme Nikita. After killing his lover's husband, Julien (Maurice Ronet, Purple Noon) gets trapped in an elevator, forcing him to miss his rendezvous with Florence (Moreau) and allowing his car to be stolen by a joy-riding young couple. From there, the movie splits into three directions: Julien's efforts to escape; Florence wandering the streets, trying not to believe that Julien has abandoned her; and the car thieves, who get caught up in a murder of their own. The movie skillfully fuses Hitchcockian suspense with intimate psychodrama. As she stalks through the night, Moreau is a vision of tortured heartbreak, her woeful eyes and lush, sensuous lips illuminated by neon signs and baleful streetlamps. This is pure cinematic pleasure, visual beauty fused with taut, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Set Contains: As usual, high-end dvd distributor Criterion has fantastic extras for Elevator to the Gallows--in this case, an abundance of interviews. A 1975 interview with director Malle reveals a manic chain-smoker, animatedly discussing the political context of the film. A 2005 interview, shot for this dvd release, demonstrates that Moreau's charisma is undimmed; her smoky voice will lure you in as she discusses how she was cast, working without make-up, her affair with Malle, and kissing with tongues; then, in a 1993 interview with both at the Cannes Film Festival, Moreau gives more insight into how this film allowed her to find her artistic freedom as an actress. Footage of Miles Davis is hypnotic, and an interview with pianist Rene Urtreger and a critical discussion of the score expand on the music's crucial role. Malle's student film Crazeologie is an amusing tidbit and the essays and interviews in the accompanying booklet give more valuable background. But the unexpected gem of the extras is an interview conducted with Ronet in 1957, before the movie was even made; the interviewer needles Ronet with snide questions about the manliness of acting as Ronet affably, gracefully fends him off. It's impossible to imagine a contemporary star like Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford coping so genially with a combative journalist, or even allowing such a spontaneous interview to take place. While it may not tell us more about Elevator to the Gallows, this interview reveals a jarring gulf between that era and ours. --Bret Fetzer See more
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