Lift to the Scaffold

Julien Tavernier plans the perfect murder of his boss. Having emerged from the scene of the crime, he returns to retrieve a vital piece of evidence but finds himself trapped in a lift, increasingly desperate to escape before the police arrive.

The brilliant debut feature of Louis Malle, Lift to the Scaffold catapulted Jeanne Moreau to international stardom and ushered in the French New Wave. A dazzling thriller, both nail­bitingly suspenseful and moodily atmospheric.

Lift to the Scaffold (known in the US as Elevator to the Gallows) won the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc, one of France’s oldest and most important film awards, for Best French Film in 1957 and has since become an undisputed classic of French cinema, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest of all films noirs.