"Anything's good
for an alibi. Wives, girlfriends, bartenders, childhood friends, deceived
husbands - but not an elevator. That's ridiculous. It's totally
harebrained."- Commissaire de police
The most succinct way to express
how I feel about Elevator to the Gallows, Louis Malle's feature length
directorial debut, is to say that it exudes the essence of cool. It can often
be difficult for a director, especially a new director, to innovate within a
strict genre such as that of Film Noir. Often such directors will simply rest
on the easy and clichéd conventions inherent to the "noir." However,
Malle seems to have effortlessly skirted the traps of the genre and created one
of the most brilliant and beautiful noir films of all time (I know, I know, a
very bold statement, however it's true...).
Within the first 15 minutes of the
film a few very specific events occur and choices are made that trigger all of
the dark events to follow. Thrown into the middle of our story, the film opens
on Florence Carala (stunningly portrayed by Jeanne Moreau) as she professes her
love for Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet). Through reading the clues left for
us we discover that the two are lovers, and they have concocted a plot to kill
her husband (Simon Carala, played by Jean Wall), who also happens to be an arms
dealer and Tavernier's boss. After they get off the phone Tavernier leaps into
action, stealthily making his way to his boss’ office under the guise of giving
him a report. He then pulls a gun (Carala's own gun) and kills him, staging the
scene to look like a suicide and sneaks back into his office just in time to
leave with the only other two people left in the office. In the moment that he
is about to be home free and drive to meet up with his love, he notices that
he's left the hook and rope that he used to scale the wall to get into his boss’
office, thus negating the carefully left suicide scene. He rushes back into the
building, leaving his car running, to try and grab the evidence, only to be
trapped in the elevator as the attendant shuts down the power. Just as he is
being trapped, a small time thief, Louis (Georges Poujouly), and his girlfriend
Veronique (played by Yori Bertin, who has a bit of a crush on Julien/Mr. Tavernier)
hop in his car and take off, running away to their own absurd sequence of
events, but not before Florence sees Julien's car driving away with a young
girl in the passenger seat.
In that brief few minutes three
separate yet surreally tied narratives commence; Julien Tavernier stuck in the
elevator frantically working against time as it seems to stand still,
Louis/Veronique as they descend madly into their criminal downward spiral, and
Florence as she walks sullenly through her desolate thoughts and fears. The
future of all of them is uncertain, the only certainty is the inevitable
passage of time. I won't spoil the suspense for you, you'll simply have to
watch to see what comes of these three intertwined stories.
In the end, this is a film that
screams to be seen. I can't fully provide a sufficient description of why you must
see Elevator to the Gallows so I will simply wrap up this edition of
I'd Love To Turn You On-At The Movies. I implore you to take the time to watch
this important film!
-
Edward Hill
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