335 Elevator to the Gallows

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Cinephrenic · #26 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:52 pm

I'm hoping they didn't downgrade this one. I hope they will add more extras as info becomes available to them. It happens all the time, but it seems unlikely. Since this is Malle's milestone, I would think they would go all out on the extras with a commentary.

numediaman2 · #27 Post by **numediaman2** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:27 pm

Annie Mall wrote:
LightBulbFilm wrote:Amazon has a (2pc) next to the title pn their site. Could Criterion not be telling us it is 2 discs?
The Miles Davis soundtrack would be nice. Wishful thinking, I know.

I hope not, the soundtrack is already commercially available -- no reason to include it here.

ellipsis7 · #28 Post by **ellipsis7** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:13 am

Is up on CC's Coming Soon page... No mention of 2 discs...

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=335

#29 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:16 pm

if there's no commentary and it's still $39.99 then Criterion is truly just milking the large fanbase that's been waiting for this movie's release forever.

kekid · #30 Post by **kekid** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:54 am

In their description, the Criterion website states the aspect ratio as 1.66, but the DVD will be non-anamorphic. What could be the reason for this decision?

Doctor Sunshine · #31 Post by **Doctor Sunshine** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:12 am

I'm gonna go with, the ditzy intern hired to update the website was cute...?

Caligula · #32 Post by **Caligula** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:31 am

I would dearly hope this is an error.

I'm certainly not buying a non-anamorphic disc of this film.

What's next? Pan & scan?

daniel p · #33 Post by **daniel p** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:54 am

before you all get too excited, think back, and you might remember how initial specs are often changed... and unusual errors like these are fixed up.

#34 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:01 pm

this is turning out to be quite the contentuous release.

#35 Post by **Jeff** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:31 pm

Relax. Non-anamorphic is just the default response for that field, and they forgot to change it. Criterion has made this same mistake literally dozens of times over the past few years. If Elevator to the Gallows is released in non-anamorphic 1.66, I'll eat Werner Herzog's shoe.

What A Disgrace · #36 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:56 pm

In any case, I've emailed Mulvaney, requesting a confirmation on the number of discs in the release.

What A Disgrace · #37 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:53 pm

...and while waiting for his response...Elevator to the Gallows is now up at CriterionDVD.com, and they also have it pegged for a two discer.

As well as having a newly "restired" transfer.

justeleblanc · #38 Post by **justeleblanc** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 2:54 am

What A Disgrace wrote:As well as having a newly "restired" transfer.

10-4 on restirring it, all the alcohol was on the bottom.

Caligula · #39 Post by **Caligula** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:18 am

Jeff wrote:Relax. Non-anamorphic is just the default response for that field, and they forgot to change it. Criterion has made this same mistake literally dozens of times over the past few years. If Elevator to the Gallows is released in non-anamorphic 1.66, I'll eat Werner Herzog's shoe.

It would appear Mr Herzog's shoe is safe: the disc is now listed as an anamorphic release.

Gordon · #40 Post by **Gordon** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:38 pm

Caligula wrote:
Jeff wrote:Relax. Non-anamorphic is just the default response for that field, and they forgot to change it. Criterion has made this same mistake literally dozens of times over the past few years. If Elevator to the Gallows is released in non-anamorphic 1.66, I'll eat Werner Herzog's shoe.
It would appear Mr Herzog's shoe is safe: the disc is now listed as an anamorphic release.

Aww. I wanted to see him eat Werner's shoe.

LightBulbFilm · #41 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:33 pm

So, what's the final count on this one? Is it 2 discs... as Amazon orignally had it listed as... Or is it 1 disc... Like Criterion has it listed as now.

Gordon · #42 Post by **Gordon** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:21 pm

$40 for a 1-disc with no commentary or book/thick booklet (like Burden of Dreams) would be unjustifiable, so those interviews and the footage of Miles Davis must be fairly extensive. But then again, there is that Divorce, Italian Style, as a precedent.

What A Disgrace · #43 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:26 am

Updated specs since the site's return.

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet, and original soundtrack session pianist René Urtreger
- Footage of Miles Davis and Louis Malle from the soundtrack recording session
- New video program about the score with critic Gary Giddins and jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis
- Malle's student film Crazeologie, featuring the title song by Charlie Parker
- Theatrical trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Terrence Rafferty, an interview with Louis Malle, and a tribute by film producer Vincent Malle

Narshty · #44 Post by **Narshty** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:14 am

I know this is a much-anticipated title here, and I do consider myself a fan of Louis Malle's work, but the film came a pretty big disappointment. Not wanting to go into too much spoiler territory before its release, but I found it a rather deflated mix of bungled cross-narrative plotting that keeps grinding the movie to a halt, almost non-existant characterisations (Jeanne Moreau has virtually nothing to do all movie), preposterous logic (the initial 'incident' is so breathtakingly incompetent it kills any tension stone dead because you know there isn't a hope in hell of him getting away with it) and annoyingly silly coincidences (why does the janitor come back in the dead of night to switch the elevator on for 20 seconds then leave again?).

One of my favourite things about Louis Malle is his prioritisation of character and setting over plot, but that certainly isn't the case here. Much of the problem lies in the essential weakness of the story and that Malle is all too visibly still finding his feet directorially. He'd never resort to voiceover inner monologues to portray a character's mental state in his later works as he does here and in Les Amants, and the moral and psychological ambiguity with which he portrays his protagonists is, for me, one of his chief attractions. But in Elevator the characters are stitched into the plotting so tightly there's no room to breathe and it's not even that good a story in the first place. They do what the plot tells them to do and nothing more. A pity.

scotty · #45 Post by **scotty** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:08 am

I don't think Malle wants us to believe the guy is anything but a screwup. A caper of the incompetent--just not played for laughs.

david hare · #46 Post by **david hare** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:35 pm

I agree with Narshty's appraisal.

I had remembered the film fondly as one of the only two or three Malles I like (the others le Feu Follet and Atllantic City.)

And the new transfer from NEF (at least on the R4 disc) is so breathtaking it reminds me how much a DP like Decae took our breath away in the 60s, with his images of Moreau, and Paris particularly. And there's the Davis score, minimally used (as is the Satie in Feu Follet, without doubt Malle's best film, singular and focussed and without distraction.)

But the cross cutting to the teenage couple almost totally undermines the tension of the principal narrative. And he sentimentalizes them in a really offensive way, an early sign of this tendency in virtually all his work, to manipualte audiences with a morally dubious petit bourgeois feelgood component. But it looks great. And the framing is close enough to 1.66 (and anamorphic) to guarantee a shoe-eating display from our fellow poster.

#47 Post by **Jeff** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:28 pm

davidhare wrote:And the framing is close enough to 1.66 (and anamorphic) to guarantee a shoe-eating display from our fellow poster.

Ah, but I said that if Criterion released a non-anamorphic 1.66 transfer I would consume the aforementioned accessory. I'm glad to know that Criterion has come through as usual, and Mr. Herzog will be able to retain his footwear.

david hare · #48 Post by **david hare** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:34 pm

Rats! I was inviting people over for the viewing. (Of course I'm talking about the R4, but obviously Criterion is using the same transfer.)

What A Disgrace · #49 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:30 pm

The updated (yet again!) specs list a new interview with Jeanne Moreau (specified by the April newsletter as a "nice, long chat"), and finally cement the release as a two disc set.

Schkura · #50 Post by **Schkura** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:42 am

I'm unfamiliar with Malle's work, but I'm buying this blind because I heart Miles. If I'm introduced to a a great new (to me) director in the process, all the better.