DIRECTOR: Louis Malle
PRODUCER: Jean Thuillier
PRODUCTION CO: Nouvelles Éditions de Films
SCREENPLAY: Roger Nimier, Louis Malle. Based on the novel by Noël Calef
PHOTOGRAPHY: Henri Decaë
EDITOR: Léonide Azar
MUSIC: Miles Davis
WITH: Jeanne Moreau (Florence Carala), Maurice Ronet (Julien Tavernier), Georges Poujouly (Louis), Yori Bertin (Véronique), Jean Wall (Simon Carala), Lino Ventura (Inspector Chérier), Iván Petrovich (Horst Bencker), Félix Marten (Christian Subervie), Elga Andersen (Frida Bencker), Gérard Darrieu (building porter), Sylviane Aisenstein (secretary), Charles Denner (assistant inspector), Hubert Deschamps (assistant district attorney), Jean-Claude Brialy (chess player at motel)
​
AWARDS: Prix Louis Delluc (Louis Malle) 1957

REVIEWS

“For his feature debut, twenty-four-year-old Louis Malle brought together a mesmerizing performance by Jeanne Moreau, evocative cinematography by Henri Decaë, and a now legendary jazz score by Miles Davis. Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry, setting off a chain of events that seals their fate. A career touchstone for its director and female star, Elevator to the Gallows was an astonishing beginning to Malle’s eclectic body of work, and it established Moreau as one of the most captivating actors ever to grace the screen.”

— Criterion.com

“Unforgettably shot by Henri Decaë... The cherry on top is the smoky, melancholic score by jazz titan Miles Davis and crew, recorded in a single session just two years before he would drop Kind of Blue. Newly restored, the film's alchemic blend of Bressonian rigor, Hitchcockian suspense, and overall proto–Nouvelle Vague cool more than compensates for its straightforward plotting… Though hardly as humanistic or naturalistic as Malle’s later work, it’s undeniably crackling entertainment that’ll have you reaching for a pack of Gauloises.”

— Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Nelson     
Tuesday, 30 August, 6:00pm

Timaru
Monday, 12 September, 6.00pm

New Plymouth
​Wednesday, 28 September, 6pm

Wellington  
Monday, 17 October, 6:15pm 

Find more FRENCH CONNECTIONS >> 
French Connections is presented in
co-operation with the Institut Français and the Embassy of France