Jean Luc Godard once said that all you need for cinema is a gun and a girl – well Louis Malle’s classic embraces that philosophy expertly. Romance, eerie silences, murder, suspense and with a wildly whipped up score by Miles Davis – Lift to the Scaffold is an unforgivably overlooked masterpiece of the no wave movement.

Dark and full of despair it poetically weaves the narrative of a clockwork precise plan that falls out of beat. With four narratives interspersed we switch back and forth between Julien’s jail cell of an elevator, Florence floating through the streets, the florist and boyfriend on their wild night of young romance and chaos, all of them pursued by detective Cherrier.

 

 

What’s so special about it?

The black and white cinematography is sublime, the acting is classically film noire and the story combines paced tension with a delicate elegance. You feel claustrophobic in the escalator, the sense of despair in the streets and the panic as the walls close in on the protagonists.

As well as its style, the film also defines itself strongly within its political surroundings. The post war youth struggling for identity, the backdrop of arms trading and the winding of French colonialism. The characters are caught in the hangover of larger wars as well as their own desperate battles, all within 24 hours that the film plays out.

 

 

Final Thoughts?

The film is an important step in cinematic history, but more so, it is a wonderfully woven tale, beautifully shot and grippingly told. The film which launched Louis Malle’s storied career and arguably began the Nouvelle Vague, definitely has to be one of the greatest films you’ve never seen.