335 Elevator to the Gallows
- Cinephrenic
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- numediaman2
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- ellipsis7
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Is up on CC's Coming Soon page... No mention of 2 discs...
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=335
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=335
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- Jeff
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- What A Disgrace
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- What A Disgrace
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- justeleblanc
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- Caligula
- Carthago delenda est
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It would appear Mr Herzog's shoe is safe: the disc is now listed as an anamorphic release.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.
- Gordon
- Waster of Cinema
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Aww. I wanted to see him eat Werner's shoe.Caligula wrote:It would appear Mr Herzog's shoe is safe: the disc is now listed as an anamorphic release.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.

- LightBulbFilm
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- Gordon
- Waster of Cinema
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- What A Disgrace
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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
- 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
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- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:27 pm
- Location: London, UK
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.
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.
- david hare
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:01 pm
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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.
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.
- Jeff
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
- Location: Denver, CO
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
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