Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)

Louis Malle was 26 when he made his first fictional feature, the 1958 French film noir and thriller Elevator to the Gallows (İdam Sehpası in Turkish). It is seen as a forerunner of the French New Wave and won the Louis Delluc Prize. It made Jeanne Moreau an international star and is remembered as well for its Miles Davis score.

The story begins with the plan of Julien (Maurice Ronet), who kills his employer and stages it as a suicide so that he can run off with the man's wife and his secret lover, Florence (Moreau). But Julien goes back into the building for a small trace he left behind and gets stuck in the elevator. Florence searches Paris for him through the night, while a young couple who took his car and gun commit another killing, so suspicion falls on the man trapped in the lift. Lino Ventura, Georges Poujouly and Yori Bertin co-star, and Jean-Claude Brialy plays a motel chess player.

Malle adapted the script with Roger Nimier from Noël Calef's 1956 novel. He had earlier assisted Robert Bresson. Henri Decaë's high-contrast black-and-white night photography and the jazz Miles Davis improvised while watching the footage set the film's tense mood.