Must See French Film - Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is a 1958 French film directed by Louis Malle. It was released as Elevator to the Gallows in the USA and as Lift to the Scaffold in the UK. It stars Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet as criminal lovers whose perfect crime begins to unravel when Ronet is trapped in an elevator. The film is often associated by critics with the film noir style.
The central characters, lovers Florence Carala and Julien Tavernier (Moreau and Ronet), plan the perfect crime — the murder of Florence's husband, Simon Carala. The murderer, Julien, an ex-Foreign Legion parachutist officer veteran of Indochina and Algeria, rappels up the office block on a rope to kill Carala in his office without being seen, but on going to his car, realizes he left the rope dangling outside the building. Leaving his expensive car unlocked and with the keys in the ignition, he returns to remove the evidence, but in doing so becomes trapped in the lift as the building closes down for the weekend.


A very Hitchcock type film. Great soundtrack by Miles Davis