The cinetrix saw the restored Elevator to the Gallows yesterday. It is as cool and slick as today's weather is hot and sticky. Jeanne Moreau glides down the nighttime streets of Paris like a specter, a gallic Hitchcock blonde, while her lover Maurice Ronet struggles to free himself from the titular conveyance that threatens to become his coffin.
And then there is that Miles Davis soundtrack. According to director Louis Malle's brother Vincent
[M]any things have been written about the film, lots of anecdotes about the shoot, about Louis. For example the famous night when Miles Davis recorded the music with a quintet of French musicians in a few hours, improvising each number and sipping champagne with Jeanne Moreau and their jazz-crazy director. By the way, the particular sound he made on the freeway scene was not premeditated. It turns out he lost a bit of his lower lip into the mouthpiece and therefore “blew” differently.
Once again, Rialto Pictures comes through with a superlative restoration. Do check it out, or at the very least watch the trailer. [That way, you can see how cute new cinetrix crush Yori Bertin, a perfect ye-ye ingenue, is.]
