Jeanne Moreau

Jeanne Moreau, who plays “Florence Carala”, and Miles Davis, who composed the music for the film, are photographed here recording the music for Louis Malle’s French Film Noir crime thriller ‘Elevator to the Gallows' (1958), (French: ‘Ascenseur pour l'échafaud’), also known as ‘Frantic’ in the United States and ‘Lift to the Scaffold’ in the United Kingdom. The screenplay was adapted from the 1956 novel of the same name by Noël Calef.

In the film, the restless ‘femme fatale’, “Florence Carala” (Jeanne Moreau), recruits her lover, “Julien Tavernier” (Maurice Ronet), to murder her wealthy husband, “Simon Carala” (Jean Wall), in his office and make it appear like a suicide. Tavernier does the dirty deed eagerly, but becomes trapped in an elevator when he returns to remove a key piece of evidence he had accidentally left behind. Tavernier's unfortunate oversight sets into motion a dark ripple of events that unravels in the cold Paris night.

The film also features, in supporting roles, Georges Poujouly as “Louis”, Yori Bertin as “Véronique”, Lino Ventura as “Police Commissaire Cherrier”, Félix Marten as “Christian Subervie”, Iván Petrovich as “Horst Bencker”, Elga Andersen as “Frieda Bencker”, Micheline Bona as “Geneviève”, the secretary, Gérard Darrieu as “Maurice”, the daytime security guard, Charles Denner as ‘Commissaire Cherrier's Deputy’, and Hubert Deschamps as the ‘Deputy Prosecutor’.

The film is considered an important work in establishing the ‘French New Wave’ and the ‘New Modern Cinema’. The improvised soundtrack by Miles Davis, and the relationship the film establishes among music, image, and emotion, were considered ground-breaking.