Artist Elevator To The Gallows

Always set apart from his French New Wave contemporaries, director Louis Malle (Au Revoir Les Enfants) nonetheless wowed audiences at age 26 with his 1958 feature debut Elevator To The Gallows, a noir-ish thriller about two French couples who commit murder on the same night. It's really three films, following two romantic young outlaws, one corporate thug trapped in an elevator, and the thug's wandering lover (Jeanne Moreau). The clever plot, melancholy Miles Davis score, expressively naturalistic Henri Decaë cinematography, and iconic performance by Moreau cover up Malle's intermittently slack storytelling, and also partly obscure the way Malle subtly commenced a career-long contemplation of what happens when killing becomes an intellectual choice. 

Updated 02/03/2010