Sun 20 Feb 2011
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FRANTIC (1958).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[14] Comments
FRANTIC. Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF), 1958, as “Ascenseur pour l’échafaud.” Aka Elevator to the Gallows. Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall. Based on the novel by Noël Calef (Paris, 1956). Director: Louis Malle.
Frantic is a typically French Crime Drama, filled with clever turns that kept me guessing right up to the end. Ronet is an ex-war hero, Moreau the wife of his wealthy bastard of a boss, and they’re so magnetic together I kept rooting for them to get away with that pre-doomed plot-hook of the genre, the “perfect murder.”
To tell anything at all about how their well-planned crime works out would be to spoil a genuinely ingenious piece of work. Indeed, watching it, I thought for a moment that the writer or director (or both) had taken leave of the story to pursue a hodge-podge of irrelevant detail — only to have everything tied together in a finish that left me gasping.
February 20th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Dan,
Don’t remember gasping after I watched this flick over twenty some years ago but it’s as good a film noir as anything ever produced in the U.S.A., subtitles not withstanding!Anyone not familiar with it should track it down and watch it. I’m sure Steve is already on AMAZON looking for it!
Thanks for the very good review.
February 20th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
You know me, Paul. Criterion has released this in (I think) a two-DVD set with lots of extras and a booklet. Couldn’t resist.
February 20th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
This is a good review!
This film is famous and highly prestigious among lovers of French cinema. It helped establish the reputation of director Louis Malle.
I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen, at the Detroit Institute of Arts around seven years ago.
February 21st, 2011 at 1:48 am
Like RIFIFI, DIABOLIQUE, and BOB LE FLAMBEUR this is one of those French noir classics that still keeps your eyes rivited to the screen. I remember this one for the nerve wracking suspense and the almost Woolrichian presence of fate.
I didn’t quite gasp at the end, but I did have to remind myself to shut my mouth.
Whenever anyone starts in on how they hate foreign films this is one I always suggest to them — and if they watch it, it invaribly changes their minds.
Sadly today it too often gets confused with the Roman Polanski Harrison Ford film of the same name. The latter isn’t bad, but it is nowhere near this classic.
February 21st, 2011 at 11:08 am
Excellent movie! Saw it a few years ago on DVD for the first time. I’m one of those people who gasps when reading books that take me by surprise and I’m sure I probably said something like “No way!” when I was watching the ending.
The Criterion DVD uses the original title Elevator to the Gallows. I’ve never heard of this movie under the title Frantic.
Steve – the Criterion version is excellent. They always find prints in near perfect condition for their DVD transfers.
February 21st, 2011 at 1:13 pm
John
It was originally released here as FRANTIC, but after the Polanski film it was retitled ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS for American release and as such played on cable and was on VHS and now DVD.
Some older reference books still have it under FRANTIC.
February 22nd, 2011 at 6:48 am
I made a mistake in this review: FRANTIC is singular for this genre in that the plotters Moreau & Ronet HAVE NO SCENES TOGETHER!
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:06 am
I thought the first half of the film with the scenes in the elevator are excellent and very tight, but then it bogs down to pretty mediocre stuff. As is case with almost every film Malle made.
And I don’t think this is overlooked in any way. Most Finnish film buffs have seen it, be they over 60 or just above 30.
February 22nd, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I suppose one criterion for a film to qualify as not being “overlooked” is that it’s been remastered and released by Criterion.
Nonetheless I don’t think the movie’s well known in this country. It’s probably been seen only by the buffest of fans. In general, moviegoers in this country don’t take kindly to having to read subtitles.
Until getting our large screen TV, I didn’t watch them on DVD either. Things have definitely changed, thanks to technology!
February 22nd, 2011 at 10:58 pm
The film is certainly known to cineasts, but compared to RIFIFI or DIABOLIQUE or even BOB LE FLAMBEUR it is “overlooked” and under appreciated. If you extend the time period to include films like Truffaut’s BRIDE WORE BLACK or MISSISSIPPI MERMAID you could even make a case for calling it semi-obscure.
It tends to get lost in the shuffle a bit among some of the better known and bigger French films of the period, included on most of the lists, but as an afterthought. It’s nice that Criterion has brought out a really good edition.
And in all fairness a film can still be overlooked and have been generally seen by most film buffs, though I would hazard it is likely better known by European film buffs than American.
Here it is better known and appreciated for the Miles Davis score, with many critics holding Juri’s opinion that it doesn’t ‘hold up’ all the way through. It certainly isn’t held in the same regard as some of the other big French suspense films of the era.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:52 pm
I should explain where Juri was coming from when he suggested that FRANTIC was not am “overlooked” film. I failed to do so earlier. As you may remember from my mentioning it last Tuesday, over on Todd Mason’s blog he’s been doing a series of weekly posts in which he collects other bloggers’ input as to Films that have been Overlooked.
This week I sent him the link to Dan’s review. Dan didn’t write up his review to fit the format, but since I hadn’t seen the movie myself, nor did I know anything about it, I was intrigued, even before I learned about the Miles Davis score. The film had indeed been overlooked — by me, if no one else!
Here’s the link to the rest of this week’s nominees:
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2011/02/early-links-tuesdays-overlooked-films.html
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:59 am
Steve
I looked at the list in question, and the only film I would argue with being on the list is OUT OF THE PAST. It’s probably on most critics list of the top ten film noirs and certainly the top twenty, and has a sort of cult status.
At one point I might have said THE BIG STEAL or THE BIG COMBO were overlooked, but they have been reevaluated and discussed endlessly by critics and fans.
In general any film that has been defined as noir has been pretty much picked clean by critics, film students, and viewers for any nuance or quality that is presnt.
However, if you are talking general audiences then half the films ever made are probably overlooked.
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:23 am
Well, gentlemen, you’re very kind to help publicize the list-exercise, and I’m very happy to include the suggestions that Steve sends along…OUT OF THE PAST is included perhaps as much out of propinquity as anything else, as it was discussed in Bill Pronzini’s post on its source novel posted between the time Steve passed along the suggestion and my taking a look at the link…but, certainly, many of these items have a certain resonance and most have at least some sort of following…but many don’t quite have the following they deserve, and OUT OF THE PAST might Just Barely fit in there, too…the Davis score for ELEVATOR does, perhaps, elevate it (it was the first reason I’d heard of it), but Dan isn’t the only person I’ve read to praise it thoroughly in other aspects, and I hope eventually to catch it…
As I mentioned on Brian Arnold’s blog (as he was reviewing the Westlake adaptation COPS AND ROBBERS last week), another Malle film, CRACKERS, is almost a Westlake pastiche, down to having the Dortmunderesque protagonist named Weslake (sic), and I wonder how much has been made of that…
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:27 pm
This may be a SPOILER! but I don’t think it is:
I commented above that this film is unique in that the two lovers who scheme out and execute the murder have no scenes together, a plot device whose thematic extensions dazzled me. Actually, there is one shot where they appear together and it is this shot that brings the plot crashing down about their heads. I can but swoon at the ingenuity of it!