Double Feature
Elevator to the Gallows
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. (Janus Films)
- Director
- Louis Malle
- Composer
- Miles Davis
- Starring
- Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Ivan Petrovich, Felix Marten, Lino Ventura
- Year
- 1958
- Country
- France
- Format
- English subtitled 35mm
- Running Time
- 92 minutes
The Lovers
Louis Malle unveiled the natural beauty of Jeanne Moreau in his breakthrough, Elevator to the Gallows. With his follow-up, the scandalous smash The Lovers (Les amants), he made her a star once and for all. A deeply felt and luxuriously filmed fairy tale for grown-ups, perched on the edge between classical and New Wave cinemas, The Lovers presents Moreau as a restless bourgeois wife whose eye wanders from both her husband and her lover to an attractive passing stranger (Jean-Marc Bory). Thanks to its frank sexuality, The Lovers caused quite a stir, being censored and attacked for obscenity around the world. If today its shock has worn off, its glistening sensuality and seductive storytelling haven’t aged a day. (Janus Films)
- Director
- Louis Malle
- Starring
- Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory, Judith Magre, José Luis de Vilallonga, Gaston Modot
- Year
- 1958
- Country
- France
- Format
- English subtitled 35mm
- Running Time
- 90 minutes