MovieChat Forums > Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) Discussion > Black Comedy

Black Comedy

posted 13 years ago by Cimmerian_Dragon
7 replies | jump to latest

I adore "Elevator to the Gallows", but I am puzzled by the fact that very few people acknowledge the absurd comic sensibility of the thing. Among my circle of friends (including several professors of the Humanities), the dialog on the film has always assumed this was intentional. The stupid mistakes of Travernier, the bizarre coincidences with the young hoodlum stealing his car and committing murder, the comic way in which our protagonist only just misses the police as he is freed from the elevator, and the dumbfounded look on his face as he gazes upon his photo in the newspaper, all seemed like perfect sardonic humor. This film reminds me of nothing so much as darker version of Jim Kouf's "Disorganized Crime".

I was surprised to come to this board and find no real discussion of the inherent humor of the narrative.
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If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 13 years ago

I agree with you. This is definitely a dark comedy.

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Ellery Queen(Jim Hutton) == G E O R G E O U S

[–] PoppyTransfusion 12 years ago

There are moments of comedy my favourite being the police telling Julien that a lift is not an alibi! I liked the scene where little girl finds the rope and walks away with it quite nonchalantly.

Btw Julien meant to avoid the police after he escaped from the lift because he thought they were there to check on Carala and not to search his office. But it does make for great irony that he realises shortly afterwards that they are loing for him and if only they had found him in the lift.

Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...

[–] gerrywos 10 years ago

I couldnt agree more.I mean first of all Travernier is an idiot for leaving the grappling hook there,I copped this straight away and thought "is he Frances dumbest criminal or what",what even made it more funny was the young girl kept saying that he must be a secret agent.
Yes a secret agent will leave his car double parked while he commits a murder.
getting stuck in a lift is pure comedy gold.The part where he is trying to escape by climbing down the shaft and at that exact moment a security guard just happens to come and turn on the lifts for some reason was ridiculous but hilarious.
O yes and the guard gets into the building by just sliding open a gate/rail,didnt even use keys.
I could go on,there are many more examples.sort reminds me of Fargo,just a lot on inept people doing extremely stupid things

O and one of my favorite lines was when the cop said "you cant tell a jury you got stuck in a lift,youll have them in stitches"

[–] sleepybone 10 years ago

Good points! It was a case of one ridiculous irony after another. How about that goofy suicide attempt- "We'll be famous! The newspapers will call us the tragic lovers!"

[–] JavierBoredom 10 years ago

I've always felt this film must have been an influence on the Coen Brothers. Definitely black comedy.

[–] prplayer 8 years ago

yep a true black comedy, reminded me alot of Pulp Fiction

so many movies, so little time

[–] mackjay2 8 years ago

I also agree. This film has a definite element of black comedy, in the dialog and in the sometimes absurd plot developments. The mixture of serious drama and dark comedy is just about brilliant. A terrific film