Distinguished French director Louis Malle (1932-95) made his debut feature film at the age of 24 with this taut thriller, having won the Palme d’Or in 1956 for the documentary The Silent World, co-directed with Jacques Cousteau. The film’s narrative and editing techniques are seen as a key influence on the Nouvelle Vague movement. The innovative relationship between Miles Davis’ modal jazz score and image is also key to its impact.

The film made an international star of Jeanne Moreau, a leading Comedie Francaise actress who Malle cast after seeing her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The film brought a new, realistic cinematic gaze to bear on her extraordinary face. The pair fell in love and she went on to star in his controversial film The Lovers, leading her to be dubbed ‘the new Bardot’ (as well as to an obscenity case which famously went to the US Supreme Court). Orson Welles who directed her in Chimes of Midnight and The Trial called her “the greatest actress in the world” and she remains the epitome of French cool, receiving a lifetime tribute at the 1998 Oscars.

“a brilliant, preposterous slice of noir-suspense realism and Highsmithian mistaken identity, imbued with the poetry of romantic despair”. Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“[Davis’ score is] the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since.” Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday