Elevator to the gallows = Ascenseur pour l'echafaud
(DVD)

Title from title frame.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1958.

Based on the novel by Noël Calef, Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (pré-adaptation de l'auteur) [first adaptation by the author].

Widescreen (1.66:1 aspect ratio).

Special features: 1975 interview with Louis Malle filmed by Canadian television during the production of his film Black moon; interview from 2005 with Jeanne Moreau; Malle and Moreau at Cannes (1993 conversation with journalist Michel Feld, filmed for the French television program Le cercle de minuit); 1957 interview of actor Maurice Ronet by François Chalais for the television program Reflets de Cannes; footage of Miles Davis and Malle from the soundtrack recording session; program from 2005 about the score; Malle's student film Crazeologie; trailers; booket featuring an essay by Terrence Rafferty, and inteview with Malle and a tribute by film producer Vincent Malle.

Director of photography, Henri Decae ; editor, Léonide Azar ; original music, Miles Davis.

Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Elga Andersen, Sylviane Aisenstein, Micheline Bona, Gisèle Grandpré, Jacqueline Staup, Marcel Cuvelier, Gérard Darrieu, Charles Denner, Hubert Deschamps, Jacques Hilling, Marcel Journet, François Joux, Ivan Petrovich, Félix Marten, Lino Ventura.

Julien is a former paratrooper, who now works for millionaire arms dealer Simon Carala. He is in love with Florence, Carala's wife. They plan to murder him and make it look like a suicide, but Julien forgets a rather important detail. Leaving the engine of his sports car running, he races up to the office to retrieve it, but fate intervenes, and Julien misses his rendezvous with Florence. She spends the night wandering the Parisian streets alone. Meanwhile brash teenager Louis and his girlfriend Veronique decide to "borrow" the car, which launches a disastrous stream of coincidence with sinister consequences.

DVD format; NTSC; region 1; Dolby digital 1.0 mono; 16:9 widescreen presentation.

In French with optional subtitles in English.