Elevator to the Gallows (İdam Sehpası)

In Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows), Louis Malle's 1958 feature debut, made when he was only twenty-six, former paratrooper Julien Tavernier murders his employer Simon Carala and stages it as suicide so he can run away with the man's wife, his lover Florence (Jeanne Moreau). When he returns to the office to erase a small oversight, he gets stuck in the building's elevator, and the seemingly perfect scheme begins to collapse. With no word from Julien, Florence roams Paris through the night in search of him, while a young couple who stole his car and gun commit a second killing that points the police straight at the trapped Julien.

Adapted by Malle and Roger Nimier from Noël Calef's 1956 novel of the same name, the black-and-white film is celebrated for Henri Decaë's high-contrast night photography and for the cool jazz score Miles Davis improvised while watching the footage. Awarded the Louis Delluc Prize, it is counted among the forerunners of the French New Wave and turned Moreau into an international star.