Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud = Lift to the Scaffold

Julien Tavernier, ex-paratrooper officer and veteran of colonial wars in Indo-China and Algeria, is in love with Florence, the wife of his boss, the munitions manufacturer Carala, and they plan the perfect murder. Everything seems to be going according to plan - Julien enters Carala’s office unobserved, shoots him and arranges the death to look like suicide - but Julien finds himself stuck in an elevator. His car is being stolen by two young joyriders. Malle and his cinematographer, Henri Decae, make extensive use of Paris at night, giving the film the feel of claustrophobia and desperation reminiscent of the classic noir films. The excellent score by Miles Davis adds to the entire effect of this mystery thriller. Awards: Prix Louis-Delluc 1957. I realize now when I look at ‘Ascenceur pour l’echaffaud’ that I managed to inject - because we had a plot, but the plot was like a skeleton - a number of themes that were, probably unconsciously, close enough to me that they would reappear in my work. But I also wanted to make a good thriller. The irony is, I was really split between my tremendous admiration for Bresson (‘A man escaped’) and the temptation to make a Hitchcock-like film. In a lot of scenes, especially inside the elevator, I was trying to emulate Bresson. On top of that, I was trying to portray a new generation through the characters of the children (in those days they were called ‘blousons noirs’ because they all wore black leather, those kids from the suburbs) - a description of the new Paris. Traditionally it was always the Rene Clair Paris that French films presented, and I took care to show one of the first modern buildings in Paris. I showed a Paris, not of the future, but at least a modern city, a world already somewhat dehumanized.” Source: Philip French and Louis Malle, “Malle on

Credits: Producers, Jean Thuillier ; director, Louis Malle ; writers, Roger Nimier, Louis Malle ; photography, Henri Decae ; music, Miles Davis ; assistant directors, Alain Cavalier, Francois Leterrier ; editor, Leonid Azar.
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Felix Marten, Yori Bertin, Charles Denner, Hubert Deschamps, Jacques Hilling, Jean-Claude Brialy, Lino Ventura, Jean Wall, Jacqueline Staup, Marcel Cuvelier.