129 - Elevator to the Gallows, 1958, France. Dir. Louis Malle.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

129 - Elevator to the Gallows, 1958, France. Dir. Louis Malle.

Two words: Miles Davis.

That is reason enough to watch this movie.  Or listen to it, as it were.

Julien Tavernier did not kill the German tourist couple.

We know he did not.  We saw who did.

It was Romeo and Juliet.  Louis and Veronique.  The star-crossed lover kids who tried to commit suicide by poison together after having committed the real crime.

But his car was found at the scene.  And his raincoat.  And his signature on the motel guest book.

So he needs an alibi.

It just so happens he has the perfect alibi.  He was trapped in an elevator shaft at the time, and someone else stole his car and committed the murder.

He is innocent!

The only problem is no one saw him trapped in the elevator shaft who can corroborate his claim.

So he does not have a witness.

That, and the reason he was trapped in the elevator in the first place.

Which is that he was going back up to remove evidence of another murder, which he did commit.

Oops.

What a predicament.

I absolutely did not commit this murder, and I can prove it because I was stuck somewhere else after having committed a different murder.

Explain that one to the jury.

Julien is sleeping with his boss's wife.  He made his boss rich during the wars.  Indochina and Algeria.  Julien is a paratrooper.  Simon Carala, his boss, is a good old-fashioned war-industrialist.

They have traveled the road together.

But Julien is in love with Florence.  Florence Carala.  And she is in love with him.

She says so.  Over the phone.  In the opening shot.  As she encourages him to do the deed.  So that they can run away together.  Into the sunset.

And he does commit the perfect crime.

Until he makes a mistake.

(Don't they always?)

He leaves the rope hanging in broad daylight which he had used to climb from one floor to the other to get to his boss's office without anyone knowing it.

He had just told his secretary he wanted to hole up in his own office and be left alone.  She saw him enter his office and lock the door.  Later she sees him exit.

No one knows he climbed out his window, went up the rope to the floor above, entered his boss's office, made it look like suicide, and used his knife to trip the door lock so that the boss's office will be found locked from the inside.

He returns to his own office and walks out the door for all to see.

And goes down the elevator in his haste to pick up Florence and sees the rope from his car below.

So he goes back up the elevator.

The elevator to the gallows.

And the maintenance man shuts down the building's power as he closes up for the night.

Leaving Julien stuck in the elevator.

Louis Malle began his career working for Jacques Cousteau.

The diver.

The marine biologist.

Filming underwater!

Then he worked for Robert Bresson.  Whose films we have recently seen.

And now he begins his illustrious career with this gritty crime drama.

We want to ask if the character Julien Tavernier was named for the filmmaker Betrand Tavernier, but this film came out in 1958 and Bertrand's first film as a director came out in 1964.

Will Julien be prosecuted for a crime he did not commit?

Will he be caught for the crime he did commit?

Will he and Florence end up together?

Or will their next stop be the gallows?