![Elevator to the Gallows (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/715hRrO695L._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
This title existed (in its original French) in my consciousness for over half a century only because it was the flip side of the Miles Davis album on Columbia entitled "Jazz Track." The title in itself suggests that Miles Davis' soundtrack for the French film noir was originally intended as the A side of the album and that the B side, opening with the exquisite introduction by pianist Bill Evans to another movie song, Bronislaw Kaper's "On Green Dolphin Street," was seen as secondary by the Columbia execs. In the immediately following years, then, it was the B side that "took off," a seminal recording by the Miles Davis Sextet that soon became a jazz standard as well as one of the most popular instrumental tunes of all time.
More than half a century after the release of the album "Jazz Track," it's clear that whereas "On Green Dolphin Street" is superior movie music, "Elevator" ("Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud") is the better movie. It's both an example of "film noir"--the murky, high anxiety, atmospheric Hollywood product admired and emulated by the French--and of "decoupage classique"-- the smooth, seamless Hollywood style of editing and shot selection. The plot can be taken seriously or, if the spectator chooses, seen as a send-up of the genre--a dark comedy version of the prototype investigating motives and results of human greed and passion, violence and treachery.
As tempting as it is to retell the chain of events that lead to the convictions of the "wrong kilers" (who are killers all the same), any such summary would spoil the fun for a new viewer. Suffice it to say that the film, from the very first frame establishess a fast pace that's guaranteed to engage the most hostile viewer to films that are : 1. foreign (perhaps, above all, French); 2. photographed in black and white; 3. require the use of sub-titles (for the non-French spectator).
In response to the above objections, "Elevator" is definitely NOT like the cerebral, subtle satire of French film classics such as Renoir's "Grand Illusion" and "Rules of the Game." By comparison, "Elevator" is an "action movie" that tells its story viscerally, or cinematically, with minimal use of subtitles. It reduces film to its essence--sight and sound--with little reliance on "literary" devices such as dialogue. Moreover, Miles Davis' score is simplistic yet representative of the trumpet player's emergent brilliance. The limited mid-register, generic sound of his horn on the late '40s Charlie Parker recordings has been replaced by a technically accomplished musician whose range, power, and expressive control of individual notes--bending, shaping, half-valving, "sculpturing" of pitches--will arguably make his the most identifiable, respected instrumental voice in modern jazz. He uses two phrases--a minor scale in D with occasional relief from a suspended C7sus chord--played slow or fast, depending upon action and characterization. But it's Miles' steely, "lonely" sound, especially in the upper register of the horn, that prove sa perfect complement to story, theme, and characterization. No other trumpet player could have fallen into character as perfectly, as inimitably as Miles.
As a 1958 film (not 1968, as reported in the Amazon description) "Elevator" compares favorably with the more acclaimed, contemporaneous French "new wave" films of Godard, Truffaut and Resnais. In many respects it's a better-made, more satisfying movie than the usual films used in the classroom to illustrate French contributions to the history of cinema--"Breathless," "Shoot the Piano Player," "Last Year at Marienbad." I confess I enjoyed "Elevator" more than any of the these proclaimed classics. Unlike the comparatively neglected "Elevator to the Gallows," all of these familiar, iconic French titles have stretches that are tedious and confusing.
And none of them has Miles Davis, whose very sound is like a 5th leading character in the film, guiding us from the emotions of one character to the next.. So why does this film remain so anonymous? Many reasons, one being the last five minutes of the movie, which present audience-pleasing closure that is tight, tidy and moral. That part of the film is so unoriginal and unlike real life, that neither followers of French movies nor cineastes can forgive the director for "selling out" with an unnecessary, unwanted moral sermon.. (Hitchcock could get away with it at the end of "Psycho" because of his well-established reputation.)
Regardless, I maintain that "Ascenseur" deserves admittance to the same cinematic halls of glory as the aforementioned French films. Why? Because it's not only a well-made, perfectly balanced mix of film noir and black comedy, but it's also a mirror of America! More specifically, the film reflects how America is seen by foreigners and how they respond to our movies--in and outside of their own films. For a fast 90 mintues we're allowed to see ourselves through the revelations of the French lens.
Malle knows that America is defined by two objects--the automatic handgun and the stylish, full-powered automobile, the symbol of status and of speed. Just as F. Scott Fitzgerald took those two symbols and showed us their effect on a misguided American dreamer by the name of Jay Gatsby, Louis Malle does the same in "Ascenseur"--but with a difference. The person who dreams the most and who has the most to lose is French! and she's a woman! (Our consolation: Jeanne Moreau's character does, in fact, lose more than any of the other hapless characters in the movie. But Jeanne Moreau the actress would, largely on the strength of her performance in this film, be propelled to the front stage of female actors in world cinema. At the age of 88 she is today one of the true shining stars of the cosmopolitan silver screen.)
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