Elevator to the Gallows

This first film from French director Louis Malle, who went on to make ‘Les Amants’ and ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants’, is a contained, pulpy crime story from 1958 that plays out over one night in Paris. Julien (Maurice Ronet) has planned the perfect murder: he’ll kill a tycoon and make off with his wife, Florence (Jeanne Moreau). But things go wrong when a young hoodlum steals his car and another parallel murder unfolds instead, while Julien finds himself stuck overnight in a lift. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s slick and tense, and the camerawork has something of the in-the-moment, on-the-ground immediacy of the French New Wave films. The late-night and early-morning shots of Paris, coupled with the improvised Miles Davis score, are reasons enough to catch it.