ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
***1/2
A pulpy noir masterpiece with a surprising number of twists and surprises for an 88 minute film, Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows has been given the Criterion Collection treatment with a pristine restored high-definition digital transfer, as well as a new and improved English subtitle translation, new interviews, and several other great special features. Once again, Criterion, we salute you.
The film’s opening is a true thing of beauty - Jeanne Moreau, sultry smooth as ever, stares directly into the camera, whispering passionate words to an unseen lover. Her character, Florence, is married to industrialist Simon Carala; his employee, Julien Tavernier, is the recipient of her affections. Florence and Julien share a telephone call where they make plans to meet, after which Julien, seemingly out of nowhere, pulls a grappling hook and gun out of his desk, scales the exterior wall of his office, sneaks into Simon’s office, and shoots him dead. After getting away with it long enough to get out to his car, he realizes he left some potentially incriminating evidence behind, goes back inside, and steps into the fateful elevator of the film’s title…
Mix in a hip young couple of street teens, a smoky score by Miles Davis, and some mesmerizing narration by the incomparable Moreau, and the twists come down like dominoes as one ironic ripple of fate after the other befalls pretty much every character in the film. It borders on absurd, to be sure, but the film seems content to go in that direction - forty years later, Joel Coen’s Fargo would follow its “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong” footsteps, and execute that delicate balance of pathos and humor that only such a series of catastrophes can provide. As in Fargo, Elevator to the Gallows presents Karma as an uncompromisingly vicious force, not stopping to spare those innocently stepping into the scenery in its effort to vanquish the guilty.
French New Wave at its best, Elevator to the Gallows is an unearthed gem, worthy of inclusion in the canon of celebrated pulp masterpieces like Double Indemnity and Leave Her to Heaven. Thrillers this concise, entertaining, and truly jazzy - both to the ears and eyes - are truly rare.
- Logan Crow
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