Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows)
1958
****½
Director: Louis Malle
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Lino Ventura, Ivan Petrovitch, Félix Marten, Elga Andersen, Gérard Darrieu, Charles Denner, Hubert Deschamps, Jean-Claude Brialy, Micheline Bona, Robert Porte
Florence and her lover Julien plan the murder of her wealthy husband, who is also Julien's boss, and intend to make it look like suicide. The murder is successful, but it is followed by a catastrophic chain of events. Louis Malle's directorial debut, adapted from Noël Calef's 1956 novel, is a terrifically twisty crime thriller cum film noir. Malle's seminal work of the French New Wave combines striking black-and-white images with a jazzy score by Miles Davis.
