Louis Malle

Lacombe Lucien

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Close up of Pierre Blaise as Lucien

En route to winning the Nobel prize for literature in 2014, Patrick Modiano co-wrote Lacombe Lucien with Louis Malle, not only a pitiless study of sociopathic human behaviour but a rebuttal of the dearly held notion in France that amost everyone during the Second World War was in the Resistance. It did not go down well with French critics when it came out in 1974, who saw Modiano and Malle’s portrait of young Lucien Lacombe for what it was – a barely coded indictment of the motherland. It’s massively immersive, as no one ever said back then, and invites audiences to slip into its world as if into a great novel. Against a … Read more

Elevator to the Scaffold

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Julien with knife trying to escape

Lean, spare and elegant, Elevator to the Gallows isn’t so lucky when it comes to titles. It also turns up as Elevator to the Scaffold, Lift to the Scaffold (particularly in the UK) and even Frantic (says the IMDb, though this must be vanishingly unusual). Or, in the original French Ascenseur pour l’échafaud. It’s Louis Malle’s debut. He was only 24 at the time. And the plot is simple but fiendish. A man seen in opening shots on the phone arranging to meet his lover Florence (Jeanne Moreau) first has to deal with some business at work. Namely, killing his boss and making it look like suicide. Murder most foul accomplished, Julien (Maurice … Read more

Spirits of the Dead

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Jane Fonda as the cruel Contessa de Metzengerstein

The film equivalent of the collateralised debt obligation, the portmanteau movie generally bundles together stuff of questionable quality then sells it on using a big name or a big star to help it achieve a decent credit rating. In Spirits of the Dead (aka Tales of Mystery and Imagination), three adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe tales, there are plenty of big names – Federico Fellini, Roger Vadim and Louis Malle as directors. Stars such as Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda and Terence Stamp. But no matter how glossy the name, or even how polished the product, the rule of the portmanteau movie applies here as everywhere else – the finished product is less … Read more