Ascenseur sur l'échafaud - Synopsis and trailers - Festival de cinéma Bonjour India

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is a 1958 French film directed by Louis Malle. It stars Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet as criminal lovers whose perfect crime begins to unravel when Ronet is trapped in an elevator. The film is often associated by critics with the film noir style.

The score by Miles Davis has been described by jazz critic Phil Johnson as "the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since. Hear it and weep"

Synopsis:

The central characters - lovers - Florence Carala and Julien Tavernier (Moreau and Ronet), plan the perfect crime — the murder of Florence's husband, Simon Carala. The murderer, Julien, an ex-Foreign Legion parachutist officer veteran of Indochina and Algeria, rappels up the office block on a rope to kill Carala in his office without being seen, but on going to his car, realizes he left the rope dangling outside the building. Leaving his expensive car unlocked and with the keys in the ignition, he returns to remove the evidence, but in doing so becomes trapped in the lift as the building closes down for the weekend.
(As described in Wikipedia)

The rest of the movie is a series of unforeseen events in which things go wrong not just for the clandestine couple, but for several other characters that are introduced into the plot. A gripping tale of treachery, suspense and drama, Louis Malle's first film surprised audiences when it was first released and continues to do so even now.