There are so many reasons to admire this cleverly intertwined tale of tragic lovers, yet I’d scarcely know where to start praising Louis Malle’s evocative cornerstone of the French New Wave were this post not focused on its trendsetting score.
Narrative revelations among flawed characters, a tightly woven web of twists and mysteries cribbed from films noir of the ‘40s — that’s what takes up the bulk of its 91 minutes; to share too much, even about a picture eligible for Social Security benefits, is to sully it for virgin eyes. What isn’t plot, however, is instead what I consider one of cinema’s most sublime sights: Jeanne Moreau, distraught and forlorn, wandering the Champs-Élysées, her captivating face filling in blanks for us. Just as the attractive delinquents Véronique et Louis lead us straight to Godard’s ‘Breathless,’ so too must Antonioni have studied sequences from ‘Ascenseur’ before replicating it Italian-style in ‘La Notte’ three years later. His moody Moreau shots were equally masterful, but what the maestro lacked was Malle’s milieu-maker: Miles Davis. During a three-week European escape shortly after sacking his heroin-addled first great quintet, the future legend brought in his touring band (none of whom had seen the film) and improvised across four hours, trimming tracks into usable segments. Results were doubly groundbreaking: Not only did its sexy, threatening, sometimes ominous slink become a template for decades of similar flicks, French or otherwise, it also set the stage for Miles’s modal jazz triumph ‘Kind of Blue’ in ‘59. Still works brilliantly in the movie; sounds every bit as startling on its own.
#SoundtrackSunday 028
‘Ascenseur pour l’Échafaud’
aka ‘Elevator to the Gallows’ (US) / ‘Lift to the Scaffold’ (UK)
Nouvelle Éditions de Films, 1958
d: Louis Malle
#elevatortothegallows#jeannemoreau#milesdavis#soundtracks
#nouvellevague#louismalle#frenchcinema#filmnoir#jazzvinyl
#soundtracksonvinyl#50svinyl#vinylvault#igvinyl#vinyl#33rpm