The elevator is one of the most used “sets” in the history of cinema. It is certainly a non-place that “forces” to meet, compare and create situations that have always been the object of the attention of screenwriters from all over the world.
As early as 1926, the elevator made its appearance on film: in fact, think of the scene with which the famous “Metropolis” opens, a masterpiece by the master of german expressionism Fritz Lang. Even the famous Laurel and Hardy succumbed to the temptation of a cabin sketches as evidenced by two films: ” Come Clean” and “Double Whopee”.
Over the years and with technological growth, the lift has increasingly been a protagonist, rather than a supporting actor. The examples to cite are truly boundless: from “Mister Hula Hoop” in which the young lift operator Buzz submits one of his inventions, the folding straw, to Norville up to the classic: “Pretty Woman” in which a seductive Julia Roberts embarrasses the wealthy man business, Richard Gere, always strictly in the lift.
Over time, the films in which it was chosen to shoot a scene (often become legendary) in the mobile location have literally proliferated: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (the appearance of Frank-N-Furter with the shot lingering on the 12 heels beating time), “Working Girl” (with Melanie Griffith saying to Harrison Ford: “I might not like you!” and him: “Who, me?? Noo”), “The Devil Wears Prada” (the dreaded director’s arrival in the elevator), “Ghostbusters” (in which the Ghostbusters admit that they have never checked the functioning of the equipment), “Matrix” (in which the protagonist in one scene is even on the cabin)…
And in Italy? Here too the list would be very, very long, so much so that it is enough to mention just one, the mythical “Febbre da Cavallo” (Montesano-Proietti who exploit a fake broken elevator to carry out a small scam)…
