I do love rock, but I also love classical music.

2.) Tony hits the bullseye with this statement:
“I find little meaning behind the chic facade and ennui that I cultivated as a 20-something.”

This reminds me of our musical taste when we were in our 20′s as opposed to now. rock, which now seems juvenile has yielded to opera and classical. Truth is, there are some things that never age, but others are trapped in a specific time frame.

Lindgren’s piece was fascinating but a tough one to process.

And that is probably where Elevator to the Gallows most fundamentally fails. Despite Malle’s almost precocious assuredness and craftsmanship, an emotional component seems to be absent. The film functions more emphatically as a construct of time-testing paradigms and plot points.

However, I will say that the finale packs a punch, partly because of the pungent way in which Malle concludes the final scene.

“It should perhaps be made clear… that although the source of unity in a fiction film lies in its central action, and not in the theme underlying it, this is not to say that the theme can be dismissed as unimportant. Not all films have an explicit moral purpose, but they have an implicit one. Because the author of a story is concerned with human behaviour he inevitably expresses certain social attitudes. Sometimes he does so deliberately and consciously as his main object: sometimes he does so only by implication or even by omission; but he cannot escape from the necessity and neither can his audience. A complete appraisal of any film must take account at some point of its underlying purpose, and must attempt to assess its value. When all that can be said of its structure and craftsmanship has been said, we still have to relate it to the life which it mirrors, and of which it is a part.” (pp. 51-52)

Thanks MM for visiting. Moreau looks fat in a dark 50′s twin-set and her face in close-up reveals that the flush of youth has faded. The scenes at night as she wanders the streets were shot without make-up, and it is only the next day wearing make-up and her hair tied-back does she look less ravaged by age. Her infatuation has the mark of the desparate older woman.

Sam, thanks for pointing out that this was Malle’s first feature – it is a very assured effort. I have great respect for Malle as a film-maker, and Lacombe Lucien is one of my favorite movies, but Gallows despite its acknowledged strengths leaves me cold. Thirty years ago I may have been wowed, as I generally was by the French new wave. When I revisit these films in late middle-age, I find little meaning behind the chic facade and ennui that I cultivated as a 20-something. You rightly acknowledge the contribution of cinematographer Henri Decaë. But the characters apart from the cops, who are solidly portrayed, are not involving and hardly worthy of our sympathies. Julien and Florence are utterly selfish and without remorse, and the teenagers are but ciphers for some nebulous critique of I don’t know what.

Thanks Alexander for your views and feedback. It is interesting to note your observation on memory and what you recall from a film. Perhaps age is starting to take its toll, but after 20-30 years I recall only certain films with clarity – and they are the ones that involved me emotionally. I am pretty sure in my dotage when all old men can do is just sit and think, recent movies like Monsieur Ibrahim will remain vivid while a film like Before the Devil Knows Your Dead will be largely forgotten.

For me, all of the superfluous stuff–of which there is a great quantity, unfortunately–gradually withers away after a while in the mind, and what remains is what the film should always have been about. I appreciate the film a great deal, and it’s an absorbing piece of cinema in a way few directorial debuts are. Yet I agree that it feels overstretched by itself, and becomes better once the somewhat useless parts are largely forgotten.

Splendid review, in any event, Tony.

Wow.

Tony, you are hereby relieved of your duties as Chairman of the “Louie Malle Cinematic Appreciation Society.” LOL. But you are still the ever-viligent proponent of umitigatedfilm noir, for which you (admittedly)raise some very valid points that I happen to agree with you on, even if I like the film a bit more.
The film is strange for sure, and has it share of narrative contrivances. It is boosted by the fantastic cinematography of Hneri Decae, as well as Miles Davis’s core, which admittedly is not used as succintly as it should have been. It was Malle’s first feature film, and the efforts that followed were far better: THE LOVERS and LE FEU FOLLET. In Malle’s oeuvre, this is strictly an ‘experimental’ effort, and is largely unever.

Voila, Tony D’Ambra!