Incredibly chilling. in my opinion, Louis Malle's best. the way the film moved was like a Tarantino film and probably inspired him. It took place primarily in real-time which i absolutly love. everything is about consequence; what happens if: he did not go back to get the rope, or his car didn't get stolen, if she knew what was going on, if they did not have the gun... the use of dramatic irony makes you squirm. and what i love is how Malle shows all of it and in detail. he ahows several types of people. young couple: the guy is an asshole with a big head, the girl sees right through that and is incredibly naive. the wife who has dark plans for her unwanted husband and her adulterer who has no problem doing anything she wanted. a fun-loving German couple who have a nice car and so on. the way it is shot is revolutionary. how they did the scenes within the elavator shaft is still a mystery to me. And remember ladies and gentlemen-NO CGI. most everything was done for real, like a Hitchcock film. This may be one of my favorite French films.
So the woman, played wonderfully by the gorgeous Jeanne Moreau, wants her husband dead because she is cheating on him. Maurice Ronet plays the adulterer and employee of Moreau's husband who will complete the deed of killing the husband and doing a good job. After he kills the husband he gets out and remembers that he left the rope up on the roof. he goes back with his car already started. but it's closing time and while he rides the elavator up to the top floor, the electricity is shut off and the elevator stops. a young man and his girlfriend decide to steal the car and return it at the end of the day. Ronet was supposed to meet Moreau after he did the deed. but he cant because he stuck in an elevator. so when she sees his car with the young man and woman, she thinks that he did not kill her husband and moved on with someone else. but seeing as how she is madly in love with him, she decides to do some investigating around town. meanwhile the young couple is off on an adventure and decide to stop at a hotel where they meet the German man and his wife. and thats when it all begins. I love how the film cuts back and forth between the three stories. itr goes to Ronet and ironically to Moreau who is wandering the city in the rain convinced that she did not see Ronet's car and that he is still driving around somewhere. then it shows the stupid young couple lying to about everything in sight.
I am still stunned at the elevator shots. the camera that they used was so big and to position is correctly and still get the desired shot shows much maturity in filmmaking. the score by Miles Davis was amazing. i loved the jazzy, modern, film-noir feel that really worked perfectly. i loved the locations and the performances were just so organic. i saw another French film called "Quelques jours de répit" at Sundance and it had that exact natural feel to it. the characters were not historical figures, wealthy buisness men or some con man who never gets hit. they were people with unusual delimmas but those delimmas are theoretically what we face everyday AND THIS WAS IN THE 50'S!! that's why i love forgein cinema; the different perspectives on what we face in life. and it's this film that the Criterion Collection continues to save (godbless'em). this is the reason that i love film: this peice of cinematic art.
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