(Pyramide/Aztec)

Three French classics

Before going to America to make movies like My Dinner With Andre, Louis Malle directed several classics in his native France. His first three features are collected here. In Lift To The Scaffold (1957), Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet plot a murder, but the combination of random chance and their own stupidity lays traps for them. Though it’s not played for laughs, Ronet’s getting stuck in a lift at the scene of the crime is part of a string of goofs that make it feel like a comedy of errors and stop it from quite working as the tense noir thriller it almost is. The sad Miles Davis trumpet that soars throughout various scenes is a nice touch, though. The Lovers (1958) again stars Jeanne Moreau, this time as a woman who splits her life between a rich country husband and a glamorous Paris boyfriend until the worlds collide. At the time it was shocking enough to be labelled obscene on its American release, but by today’s standards it’s pretty tame. Zazie In The Underground (1960) is Malle’s first colour work, a children’s comedy about a girl staying in Paris who runs away to see the city on her own, every chance she gets. The sight gags are madcap and include Benny Hill chase scenes, bomb-tossing straight out of a Warner Bros cartoon and the kind of experimental surrealism you can get away with in a kid’s movie without explanation. Like all his films they’re quite different, suited to the subject rather than developing a personal style. Malle once said that movies should be disposable since celluloid would decay and old film be lost; it looks like time has proved him wrong.

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JODY MACGREGOR

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