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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 star-crossed 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 to ever grace the screen.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Interview from 2005 with actor Jeanne Moreau
• Archival interviews with Moreau, director Louis Malle, actor Maurice Ronet, and original soundtrack session pianist René Urtreger
• Footage of Miles Davis and Malle from the soundtrack recording session
• Program from 2005 about the score featuring jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis and critic Gary Giddins
• Malle's student film Crazeologie, featuring Charlie Parker's song "Crazeology"
• Trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Terrence Rafferty, an interview with Malle, and a tribute by film producer Vincent Malle

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I am EXTREMELY excited about this release. I get excited at all new Malle that comes to DVD. Now if Criterion could just re-release Damage on DVD... But first The Fire Within DAMN IT!

from http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.as ... on=feature

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New, restired high-definition digital transfer
- New and archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet, and original soundtrack session pianist René Urtreger
- Footage of Miles Davis improvising the film's score
- New video discussion about the score with jazz critic Gary Giddins and musician Jon Faddis
- Theatrical trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Essays by critic Terrence Rafferty and producer Vincent Malle

criterionsnob wrote:SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New, restired high-definition digital transfer

But not re-shaken?

Speaking as someone who is awful at both spelling and typing, I have to say that Criterion really needs to proof-read these things before making them public.

Hmm, another overpriced disc. Don't get me wrong, I love the film, but the lack of the extras doesn't justify a $39.95 price tag.

The specs seem a little light on the surface, but I imagine the actual length of these various interviews is extensive enough to require the second disc. Not to mention, the release is a good three months off, and they could always have a little more planned.

Saw the film in its Rialto run last September, with my father. He talked about it all the way home, and I'm sure he's just as excited to see it again as I am.

Criterion really needs to proof-read these things before making them public.

But it's not public yet.

I was realling hoping for a 2-disc or a commentary to justify the $39.95 price. Perhaps, they are still editing it.

39,95 is IMO too steep for this one, with these specs. Just compare them with Masculin Feminin: (videodiscussion, 4 interviews and footage of JLG: more or less identical, there could be 3 more interviews on it, but still only director/actor so little extra info it seems). At this point it almost seems like they are trying to get some extra cash out of it.

I supporse Jon Faddis has been on some OK recordings, but I'm surprised they would turn to him and not include any other musicians. As long as they were choosing a trumpeter from outside the Miles Davis school I would have much rather heard from innovators like Dave Douglas, Wadada Leo Smith, Baikida Carroll, and so on. And Gary Giddins? That "Ken Burns Jazz" nightmare is starting to come back to me.

I'm sort of a Lee Morgan man myself.

oldsheperd wrote:I'm sort of a Lee Morgan man myself.

Would be tough to get comment from Lee Morgan though, real tough.

it's a crime that this doesn't have a commentary.

domino harvey wrote:it's a crime that this doesn't have a commentary.

It is, but I like the focus on the music. And watching Miles Davis record the music might be worth the price.

I always thought that the intended ratio was 1.37 - were theatircal screenings 1.66:1 ?

I'm getting the boxed set, which seems almost-fairly priced, but I agree that even $27-30 for this disc seems a bit steep. It really ought to have a commentary; Criterion have denied many landmark films a commentary recently: The Wages of Fear; Le samourai; Viridiana and it seems strange that none of these Malle films have full scholarly analyses. But hey, it will be more than enough to have this amazing film on disc finally in a hopefully gorgeous transfer. I like the cover, too.

cinephrenic wrote:But it's not public yet.

Go to the "Browse the Collection" section at the Criterion Collection website. It's up on their website.

It is still under editing and not on the coming soon page.

cinephrenic wrote:It is still under editing and not on the coming soon page.

Yeah, but they have a link on their site to the webpage, so anyone could access the page if they want. It's not like this is some hidden URL that they haven't provided any link for.

Wasn't there a recent interview recorded with Jeanne Moreau for a Criterion release? Could one infer that if this interview recorded for Criterion didn't appear on the ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS disc, then it could it appear on a different release, such as LA NOTTE?

Nice work, leech. I would love to see that, but I think it more likely that the recording was made for Le Feu Follet---which would be pretty wonderful, in itself.

It could be for any number of releases. I remember Raoul Coutard showed up on a couple of releases wearing the same shirt. Contempt and Band of Outsiders, maybe something else.

To all of you who think the Lift to the Scaffold disc is too expensive,


it's up to you whether you want to buy it...I am certainly going to buy it!

There are some good vintage posters from this release--I would like to see some of the promotional artwork included.

Amazon has a (2pc) next to the title pn their site. Could Criterion not be telling us it is 2 discs?

LightBulbFilm wrote:Amazon has a (2pc) next to the title pn their site. Could Criterion not be telling us it is 2 discs?

That's the most likely case, especially since Image Entertainment's site also lists the release as a double disc set.

I think the only reason there are complaints about the supplements, so far, is that we assume too much, and Criterion's listing is a little vague. We have four specimens for interviewing...Criterion does not specify how many times they are interviewed; they only state that there are new and archival interviews, and they don't list the sources for the archival interviews. They also, obviously, haven't listed the running time for these supplements, or the others on the set.

Moving away from that discussion...has anyone noticed that Criterion's editions of Rialto releases rarely include audio commentaries?

LightBulbFilm wrote:Amazon has a (2pc) next to the title pn their site. Could Criterion not be telling us it is 2 discs?

The Miles Davis soundtrack would be nice. Wishful thinking, I know.