← Back to Reviews
in
Elevator to the Gallows -
This fine-tuned Swiss watch of a noir recalls one of my favorite lines from Kicking and Screaming: "how do you make God laugh? Make a plan." Julien Tavernier and lover Florence think they have all the I's dotted and T's crossed - as does everyone in their plan’s trajectory - but there's always just that one little thing, isn't there? Watching our anti-hero #1 learn this lesson firsthand is the most tense plotline to me; after all, it is in the title. This is not just due to its clever machinations, but also Ronet's performance, who makes Tavernier out to be one smug guy for how he assumes nothing bad could ever happen to him. As for the more comical story of interlopers Louis and Veronique, it could be labeled as a B one, but it's anything but. While tempered by his efforts to stick it to the man, Poujouly's Louis ends up being just as annoyingly smug as Julien, perhaps even more due to how petulant he makes him. There's also Bertin's adorable naivety and free-spiritedness, which might as well have set the standard for so many similar female characters of the French New Wave. That most of everyone's collective string of bad luck occurs in the coolest block of Paris with its jazz clubs and cafes makes it all the more enjoyable to watch all of this play out. Speaking of jazz, Miles Davis's score may be the coolest one I've heard in this genre, which also deserves credit for adding the right touch of fatalism.
One of my favorite things about noir is how it lets you show what happens if you followed through on the devil on your shoulder’s advice. Besides succeeding at laying out the consequences, this movie goes further for how it shows that your plan would still occur in the real world, inconveniences and all. For these reasons and for how elegantly it all plays out - without lacking grit or humanity, I might add - it's a noir classic, French or otherwise. Oh, and it has all this and Lino Ventura as the police commissioner, too!
This fine-tuned Swiss watch of a noir recalls one of my favorite lines from Kicking and Screaming: "how do you make God laugh? Make a plan." Julien Tavernier and lover Florence think they have all the I's dotted and T's crossed - as does everyone in their plan’s trajectory - but there's always just that one little thing, isn't there? Watching our anti-hero #1 learn this lesson firsthand is the most tense plotline to me; after all, it is in the title. This is not just due to its clever machinations, but also Ronet's performance, who makes Tavernier out to be one smug guy for how he assumes nothing bad could ever happen to him. As for the more comical story of interlopers Louis and Veronique, it could be labeled as a B one, but it's anything but. While tempered by his efforts to stick it to the man, Poujouly's Louis ends up being just as annoyingly smug as Julien, perhaps even more due to how petulant he makes him. There's also Bertin's adorable naivety and free-spiritedness, which might as well have set the standard for so many similar female characters of the French New Wave. That most of everyone's collective string of bad luck occurs in the coolest block of Paris with its jazz clubs and cafes makes it all the more enjoyable to watch all of this play out. Speaking of jazz, Miles Davis's score may be the coolest one I've heard in this genre, which also deserves credit for adding the right touch of fatalism.
One of my favorite things about noir is how it lets you show what happens if you followed through on the devil on your shoulder’s advice. Besides succeeding at laying out the consequences, this movie goes further for how it shows that your plan would still occur in the real world, inconveniences and all. For these reasons and for how elegantly it all plays out - without lacking grit or humanity, I might add - it's a noir classic, French or otherwise. Oh, and it has all this and Lino Ventura as the police commissioner, too!