Elevator to the Gallows

Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour L'echafaud)

Having recently discovered the magnificent Call my Agent, one of the scenes I loved was when the marvelous character Arlette was sitting happily in her office listening to Miles Davis's score for Ascenseur pour L'echafaud.  Arlette was a young woman during the new wave in French cinema and so holds a preference for the films and jazz music of the era (she had an affair with Chet Baker).  This piece of music takes her back to that moment in time in Paris. 

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I first saw Ascenseur pour L'echafaud on a hot summer night in 2014. I had seen several films of La Nouvelle Vague and had seen Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants. This film however, felt different. It was visually sophisticated, modern in its depiction of fatalistic romance and displayed a cynicism with the politics of France at the time. All this is underlined of course by the searing sound of Miles Davis' trumpet- a soundtrack that literally broke the mold for the future of film scores. Of course, the image that sticks in the mind is of Jeanne Moreau's magnetic face dominating the screen as she walks through the back-lit streets of Paris, abandoned by her lover; while Davis's blistering trumpet plays in the background. 

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The script was adapted by Malle and Roger Nimier from a novel by Noel Calef.  Set in Paris, an adulterous couple, Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) and Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) conspire to kill Florence's husband (Jean Wall), a middle-aged business man and arms dealer- who happens to be Julien's boss. Julien succeeds in climbing over to the boss's office and kills him, staging the death to look like a suicide. However, once he leaves the building, he notices that he has left a rope on the balcony. Going back up to the office, he gets stuck in the elevator. This sets in motion a chain of events in which fate is clearly not on the lovers' side.  Whilst Julien is stuck in the elevator, two teenagers: Veronique (Yori Bertin) and Louis (Georges Poujouly) drive to a motel outside the city and register as Mr and Mrs Tavernier. Louis ultimately shoots dead a German couple who they meet at the hotel. Julien is therefore framed for murder and his face is on the front page of the morning newspapers. When Julien does not return, Florence becomes frantic and searches the city by nightfall- visiting all the bars where they met.  After she frantically searches these places in vain, she then seems lost in her own thoughts as she wanders the streets of Paris assuming Julien has abandoned her.   Julien finally escapes from the elevator, but is tracked down by the policeman ( Lino Ventura ). They are ultimately given away by a set of photos developed from Julien's camera that Georges and Veronique took and developed at the motel.  Florence turns up at the motel and scene of the crime to see the photographs. The final shots of the film are of photographs developing and revealing images of Florence and Julien embracing as the policeman explains her fate. She seems lost in these images and mutters to herself. Though she knows it's over, she cherishes their love.

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Critics have argued that this film was a precursor to the French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague. In fact, elements of this film do predict the revolution that was to come.  It has been argued that while Malle identified the need for modernity, he did not possess the originality or creativity of Godard or Truffaut.  The film does however signal a new direction and feels modern. It mixes the police procedural sub- genre with film noir and the film language of Hitchcock.  It is imbued with a fatalistic romance and cool sophistication, almost detached in a way. This sophistication conveys a certain modernity. Watching this film is like drinking a cold Parisian cocktail on a warm evening in Montparnasse.

It isn't a new wave film exactly, but significant because it foreshadows it in its efforts toward originality and modernity.  Elements such as two young people on the run with a gun, the girl's apartment and the new jazz score even, are similar to À bout de souffle (Breathless) which came out two years later.

There is present a particularly French notion of fatalism; of love through destruction. Both Julien and Florence, and Veronique and Louis are passionate and proclaim that they can't live without each other. Louis also faces the death penalty for murdering the German. This is underlined when the police officer at the crime scene of the murdered Germans, compares the murders to Romeo and Juliet and Shakespearean tragedy. It could be argued that the film explores the need to romanticise destruction.

Malle is quoted as saying that with Elevator to the Gallows " I showed a Paris not of the future but at least a modern city, a world already dehumanised". It is a modern film on the surface. The offices of Mr Carala, the new motels, technology, Juliens car and suit.  Whilst predominately about the fate of lovers, there is a melancholy underneath- almost chaos. What is modern about the film, which perhaps goes unnoticed, is the undertone of weariness and general cynicism about the role of France in the world. 

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This is most evident in the character of Julien, a veteran of France's recent wars in Indochina and Algeria. Maurice Ronet is adept at portraying the haunted and disillusioned captain. At the time of filming there were political storms ongoing. The film was released in 1958, and at the time, France was still engaged in a controversial war in Algeria. Florence's husband is effectively an arms dealer, making money from the East; which is representative of France's role in Indochina, specifically the way they left Vietnam. Julien, a former soldier, despises him. Before he kills him, Julien says "it's your heirloom". Julien himself is a well-known paratrooper in France's wars in Vietnam and Algeria and a former member of the foreign legion.  

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When Louis steals Julien's car and finds out he was in the foreign legion- he is unimpressed. Veronique is however, and patronises Louis " covered in cars and medals, you with your new ideas etc". Louis's character signifies the on-coming rebellion of French youth and how they would later confront the establishment and ideals of their parents' generation.  When Veronique and Louis have drinks with an older German, he complains about the lack of Champagne during the post-war Occupation of Germany by the Allies. This would hit a nerve with a French audience- who had of course experienced war and German occupation for five hard years. Indeed, Louis snaps back " my generation has other things on its mind: four years of occupation, Indochina, Algeria".  

Malle was experimenting with genre, and here he definitely created a film noir full of suspense, but with a sense of visual realism.  He takes from Hitchcock in terms of visual language, but also in terms of the theme of mistaken identity and the femme fatale. On the surface, this film conveys a sense of romantic despair and fatalistic attitude to life. It is   tightly controlled visual and narrative, but hints at freneticism underneath.  It foreshadows the moral and ethical concerns that Malle went on to explore in his later films.  Like other young directors- and writers for that matter- he is trying on different styles until he finds his own. He would never again return to the police, noir-thriller. All this is embodied in the sensuous face of Moreau.  In Moreau, Malle makes the femme fatale more realistic.  

Malle enhances the story by the way he films- on location in and around Paris. Having worked with Jacque Cousteau (and Jean Cocteau), he was familiar with the documentary style. His cinematographer, Henri Deacae (who filmed 400 Blows)- shows Paris and the suburbs in a harsh, realistic, grey light.  The best performance by far is that of Moreau because Malle includes extended sequences of her essentially wandering the streets of Paris at night and contemplating her troubles. He realized that Moreau by herself is absorbing.  The night- time sequences, photographed by Henri Deacae, are the movie's most modern, beautiful shots; where you can see the spirit of new wave knocking on the door.  

From the first moment of the film, we see Moreau's incredible, languorous face which steals the film. She draws us in from the first shot and it is apparent that she is the femme fatale who has persuaded Julien to murder her husband. This was also Moreau's break- out role. She would work with Malle again on the film The Lovers whilst she was in a relationship with him also.  The famous sequence of this film is Jeanne Moreau's effortless walk through the Parisian streets at night-time, her glorious face lit by the cafes and streetlights.  The blistering sound of Miles Davis's trumpet accompanies her solitary walk in the rain- creating a wholly unique sequence. It encapsulates the melancholy and frantic nature of loneliness and this score burns itself into celluloid history. Malle's style evokes a sophisticated match of images and emotion, which might have been inspired by one of his cinematic heroes- Robert Bresson. Bresson himself is known for his beauty in minimalism.

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Miles Davis's score evokes a sense of alienation one minute and chaos and madness in another.  it symbolizes something bubbling under the surface. In this, he created a classic soundtrack.   Critics argue that the film is significant because of Miles Davis's score.   It is extraordinary how evocative Davis's score is and how it seeps into the consciousness of the film. Miles Davis actually improvised this score whilst standing and watching the rushes twice, making notes. He then gathered together a quintet group of musicians for this and it was done in one session.  It was a group that included the bop drummer Kenny Clarke and three Frenchmen, all which was captured on film . It's incredible how in-step with the film his music was.  The minimalism and spareness of Malle's direction match the new minimalist style Davis was developing and his score highlights the underlying chaos of the characters. These sessions are also important because they demonstrate his new direction of a model approach to jazz, which lead to the classic album Kind of Blue.