‘Lift to the Scaffold’ is one of the greatest French crime thrillers and a precursor to the emergence of the New Wave generation of filmmakers.
Louis Malle’s feature debut is a dazzling, tautly plotted tale of infidelity and murder. Echoing classic film noir, Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet play Florence and Julien, a pair of young lovers. They conspire to kill Florence’s wealthy industrialist husband, but things don’t quite go to plan and a suspicious detective is soon on their tale. Featuring an atmospheric improvised score by jazz legend Miles Davis and shot in gorgeous black and white, Malle’s film is so enjoyable it’s criminal.
★★★★★ “A brilliant, preposterous slice of noir-suspense realism and Highsmithian mistaken identity” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
★★★★★ “Few debuts come punchier, cooler, and more influential than Louis Malle’s” - Tim Robey, The Telegraph
