Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Louis Malle

Writers:

Noël Calef (novel)
Louis Malle (writer)

Release Date:

23 June 1958 (Uruguay)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A self-assured business man murders his employer, the husband of his adulterer, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Rope | Famous Score | Fake Suicide | Carjacking

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Jeanne Moreau	...	Florence Carala
Maurice Ronet	...	Julien Tavernier
Georges Poujouly	...	Louis
Yori Bertin	...	Véronique
Jean Wall	...	Simon Carala
Elga Andersen	...	Frieda Bencker
Sylviane Aisenstein	...	Yvonne
Micheline Bona	...	Geneviève
Gisèle Grandpré	...	Jacqueline Mauclair
Jacqueline Staup	...	Anna
Marcel Cuvelier	...	Le réceptionniste du motel
Gérard Darrieu	...	Maurice
Charles Denner	...	L'adjoint du commissaire Cherrier
Hubert Deschamps	...	Le substitut du procureur
Jacques Hilling	...	Le garagiste

Also Known As:

Elevator to the Gallows
Elevator to the Scaffold
Frantic (USA)
Lift to the Scaffold (UK)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | West Germany:12 | Norway:16 | Netherlands:12 (re-release) (2005) | Finland:K-16 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

26 Rue de Courcelles, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Trivia:

Miles Davis recorded the music with a quartet of French musicians in a few hours (from 11pm to 5am one night), improvising each number and sipping champagne with Jeanne Moreau and Louis Malle.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the watchman briefly turns on the power, the elevator with Julien starts going down. It got stuck, however, going up.

Quotes:

Julien Tavernier: How many billions did the Indochina War bring you? And now Algeria, how much?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#20.2)" (2007)

Take The Stairs

Classic French man-trapped-in-an-elevator movie. Maurice Ronet plots to murder his arms merchant boss and run away with his beautiful wife (Jeanne Moreau), but then things go horribly awry...With ugly German tourists, James Dean-wannabe juvenile delinquents, and a great jazz score by Miles Davis. Under the guise of a commercial thriller, Melville perfectly captures the existential despair of a France suffering first from German occupation then humiliating defeat in Indochina and Algiers. Moreau never looked more lovely wandering the streets of Paris in the rain or getting hauled in with the working girls.