The Calgary Cinematheque presents the first in a series of screenings celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the French New Wave. Bursting onto the scene in 1959, young filmmakers like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard changed the landscape of cinema immediately and indelibly. Even five decades later, independent films still reverberate with their influence. Our series of films will screen on the first Tuesday of each month, with a repeat screening and lecture the following Saturday. This series is presented in collaboration with the Alliance Française of Calgary and begins with screenings of a restored print of Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows on October 6 and 10.

In conjunction with our French New Wave series, we present a monthly series of short lectures by film experts. These lectures will take place on Saturday afternoons and be followed by a film screening and discussion. The series kicks off on Saturday Oct. 10 at Noon with "The Birth of the French New Wave" presented by Charles Tepperman (Assistant Professor of Film Studies, University of Calgary) and a screening of Louis Malle's breakthrough 1958 film Elevator to the Gallows.

Elevator to the Gallows is Louis Malle's masterpiece of suspense and film noir starring Jeanne Moreau, in the role that catapulted her to international stardom. Scheming lovers Julien (Maurice Ronet) and Florence (Jeanne Moreau) engineer the "perfect murder" of her husband. Shot by Henri Decaë, who also lensed the first films of François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol, Elevator to the Gallows was a stunning debut for 24-year-old director Malle, winning him the Prix Delluc, France's most prestigious film award. Anticipating the French New Wave, it also made an international super-star of cool beauty Moreau, here giving perhaps the most iconic performance of her career. And as seminal as the film itself is its legendary Miles Davis music (largely improvised by Miles and combo) – still the most famous of all jazz film scores.