Shoot the Piano Player

Based on the novel Down There by David Goodis, Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) is the story a washed-up piano player who finds himself entangled in a world of crime after his brother gets himself in trouble with gangsters. Directed by Francois Truffaut and screenplay by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy, the film is a unique take on the crime genre where it involves this piano player who is mourning the suicide of his wife as he also gains the affections of a waitress. Starring Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger, Michele Mercier, and Albert Remy. Tirez sur le pianiste is a witty yet engaging film from Francois Truffaut.

The film is about a once revered piano player who finds himself in a mess caused by his brother who had cheated a couple of gangsters. While he is trying to remain content with his life, the waitress at the café he works at wants to help him make a comeback as he also tries to sort out the mess his brother has made. It’s a film that could’ve had a typical scenario that is expected in a crime film but what Francois Truffaut and co-screenwriter Marcel Moussy do is inject with some humor as well as some moments of drama. Notably as the life of Charlie Kohler (Charles Aznavour) is one that is complicated as he was once the famed concert pianist Edouard Saroyan who was playing in grand halls until the suicide of his wife Therese (Nicole Berger). Kohler refuses to go back to that world as well have anything to do with his brothers until he learn about their troubles as he reluctantly decides to help them.

The script features a lot of voiceover narration as it’s largely told by Charlie as he tries to figure out his own life and how not to get into any trouble yet the presence of the gangsters has him uneasy where he finds himself gaining the affections of the waitress Lena (Marie Dubois) who knows who he was once. While Charlie also has some liasons with a prostitute named Clarisse (Michele Mercier) who lives next door, he prefers to live alone yet the presence of Lena and her plans to help him gain a comeback does intrigue him. Still, the chaos his older brothers Chico (Albert Remy) and Richard (Jean-Jacques Aslanian) cause has Charlie realizing that he might be the one to save them as well as their youngest brother Fido (Richard Kanayan).

Truffaut’s direction is definitely very stylized in not just his compositions with the use of close-ups and wide shots but also in the way he creates a scene. Notably as he creates something loose and lively in the café that Charlie works at where Truffaut spends part of his time seeing what the people are doing while men stare at the ladies with Charlie contently playing his piano. Much of the direction is often shot on various locations around Paris where much of the camera work is hand-held where it’s also filled with these images that are very entrancing in the style that he creates. Even as Truffaut would also include some very risqué moments of sex where it’s obvious what he is implying in the way Charlie conducts his life. The scenes involving the gangsters do have some moments of suspense but also some offbeat humor that includes a scene where Fido is in a car with the gangsters where they just talk casually. It’s among these little moments that Truffaut does where he puts his own spin in the crime film but also find a way to pay tribute to those films. Overall, Truffaut creates a very lively and exciting film about a piano player dealing with his past as well as the trouble his brothers have caused.

Cinematographer Raoul Coutard does fantastic work with the film‘s black-and-white photography where it does play into a sense of style for much of the film‘s exterior scenes in day and night where much of those scenes in the latter have great usage of the city lights. Editors Claudine Bouche and Cecile Decugis do amazing work with the film‘s editing where it does play into a sense of style from its use of jump-cuts, dissolves, and montages that is used in the film. Production designer Jacques Mely does nice work with some of the set pieces in the film such as the apartments that Charlie and Lena lived in as well as the café they work at. The sound work of Jacques Gallois is excellent for the sense of atmosphere that occurs in the location as well as some of the sound effects in the gun fights. The film’s music by Georges Delerue is brilliant for its sumptuous yet somber film score with its orchestral flourishes while containing lots of classical piano pieces as its soundtrack.

The film’s superb cast includes some notable small performances from Daniel Boulanger and Claude Mansard as the two gangsters tailing Charlie over his brothers’ antics, Serge Davri as Charlie and Lena’s smarmy boss, Albert Remy as Charlie’s older brother Chico who comes to Charlie for help, Richard Kanayan as Charlie’s younger brother Fido whom he takes care of as he has a thirst for trouble, Jean-Jacques Aslanian as Charlie’s older brother Richard who hopes Charlie returns to the family to make them strong again, and Claude Heymann as the music impresario that discovered Edouard yet made a deal that would affect Edouard’s life and success. Michele Mercier is excellent as the prostitute Clarisse that Charlie occasionally sleeps with as she deals with the chaos that the gangsters create.

Nicole Berger is amazing as Edouard’s late wife Therese as she only appears in a flashback sequence as this woman who has trouble dealing with Edouard’s success while revealing a secret that plays into her guilt. Marie Dubois is fantastic as Lena as this young waitress who knows about Charlie’s true identity as she wants to help him get a comeback while dealing with the chaos over his family. Finally, there’s Charles Aznavour in a remarkable performance as Charlie Kohler/Edouard Saroyan as a pianist who is trying to live a quiet life as a loner only to deal with the chaos in his family’s activities as well as his past and the effects that it caused in his own troubled life.

Tirez sur le pianiste is a phenomenal film from Francois Truffaut. Thanks to its unique take on the crime genre as well as it’s amazing cast, the film is definitely one of Truffaut’s finest films. Particularly as it has a sense of energy and style that is just intoxicating to watch. In the end, Tirez sur le pianiste is a sensational film from Francois Truffaut.

Francois Truffaut Films: The 400 Blows - Jules & Jim - Antoine & Colette - The Soft Skin - Fahrenheit 451 - The Bride Wore Black - Stolen Kisses - Mississippi Mermaid - The Wild Child - Bed and Board - Two English Girls - Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me - Day for Night - The Story of Adele H. - Small Change - The Man Who Loved Women - The Green Room - Love on the Run - The Last Metro - The Woman Next Door - Confidentially Yours

The Auteur #40: Francois Truffaut (Pt. 1) - (Pt. 2)

© thevoid99 2014

The 400 Blows

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 6/27/05 w/ Additional Edits.

Throughout the emergence of cinema, international cinema has always been dominated by Americans. After World War II, that all began to change as Europeans began to take over. The Italians begin to a new wave of neo-realism while Sweden found a hero in Ingmar Bergman. In France meanwhile, French cinema was going under a new re-emergence since the end of the World War II but amidst the numbers of American films that were coming, only a small group of film critics from the magazines Cahiers du Cinema were starting to feel oppressed by not just the lack of quality in American films but the lack of personal introspection in their native films. Thus, a new wave was about to emerge and leading the pack was Francois Truffaut.

Born in February 6, 1932, Truffaut along with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Jacques Demy, and Eric Rohmer were writing serious, scathing reviews that attacked the farcical of American cinema with their mentor Andre Bazin. Though Truffaut left the magazine over tastes with Bazin, his reviews and knowledge had made him notorious to the point that the Cannes Film Festival would ban him because of his reviews. After making a few shorts, Truffaut was ready to make his feature film, an autobiographical story of a young boy who is misunderstood by the world as he rebels against authority in Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows).

Written with Marcel Moussy, Les Quatre cents coups is a drama about a misunderstood child named Antonie Doinel. Feeling troubled by his bickering parents and tormented by an insensitive teacher, Doinel rebels and tries to live life on his own terms through watching films and getting into trouble. Playing the troubled kid is Jean-Pierre Leaud who brings a youthful study of a kid who isn’t sure why he does all the things he does and why he defies his parents. Based on Truffaut's own life, the film is one of the first of many landmark features of the French New Wave that would change the face of not just French cinema but also International cinema in the years to come. Also starring Robert Beauvis, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Guy Decomble, Patrick Auffay, with guest appearances from Jeanne Moreau and Jacques Demy. Les Quatre cents coups is a brilliant, whimsical drama from one of French Cinema's most enduring figures.

For the young Antoine Doinel, he is really a misunderstood child only understood by his best friend and schoolmate Rene (Patrick Auffay). In school, Doinel often gets in trouble, even if he hadn't done anything in front of his insensitive, strict teacher (Guy Decomble) who Antoine often calls Sourpuss. Even one of Antoine's schoolmates would often get him in trouble as Rene often calls that kid a rat. At home, Antoine's life isn't any better since the behavior of his parents would often shift from love to hate. On this particular day, it's his mother (Claire Maurier) that would be mean to him for not getting flour for dinner and love from his father (Albert Remy).

With Rene, Antoine skips school to go to the cinema and go to a funfair where they would be seen by Antoine's mother with another man and the rat kid who often wears goggle-like glasses. Antoine and his mother never said anything until the kid tells Antoine's father that he missed school and Antoine got into trouble. Forced to be out of the house, Antoine would live in a printing plant for the night where he would go out to steal milk or help a woman (Jeanne Moreau) to find a dog. Antoine returns to school where his mother takes him home after making a deal with the schoolmaster (Robert Beauvais). Antoine's mother asks him to be good by writing an essay for his class and if it makes it to the top 5, she gives him 1000 Francs. Antoine gets an idea while his father cools down a bit as he takes the family to the cinema.

Antoine seems to make good but his teacher claims the essay he wrote is a copy of the works of Balzac which Antoine denies. Antoine runs away again with the help of Rene as he lives secretly in an unused room of Rene's home. The two decide to cause more trouble and Rene has an idea to steal something that would make them a lot of money. Antoine suggests his father's typewriter but after a sale falls apart, Antoine tries to return the typewriter only to be caught by his father. Being taken to a policeman (Jacques Remy) and the commissioner (Folco Jacques Monod), Antoine goes to jail as the commissioner suggests that he is to be taken to a detention center for young juveniles. Antoine tries to understand his own behavior through a psychiatrist while revealing a dark family secret as his mother makes a brief visit with Antoine pondering his own destination.

While most coming-of-age stories seem to have some formula of a child growing up, in Truffaut's approach, it's more of a study of behavior and motives as he is trying to figure out what he did wrong in his own life. It's Truffaut commenting on his own childhood with the help of a confidant in Marcel Moussy as they try to figure out what good is in young Antoine Doinel and why does he do all of these bad things to his parents. The story from Truffaut and Moussy is very realistic in how a kid can be affected by bickering parents, an insensitive teacher, and everything else with only another kid at his side to find some answers and trouble. It's a very powerful story with an ending that really leaves things hanging but that is another story.

If the script that Truffaut and Moussy has concocted is the source of the film, there’s also Truffaut's directing style which is a bit documentary-like but also featuring some of the traditional frameworks of modern-day cinema. Using his script as a source, Truffaut goes for shots as if he is another person watching while there's some great shooting sequences including the famous scene of Doinel in the spinning ride where the camera moves in circles. There's also that final shot that is often imitated with that final freeze-frame shot and the word Fin (The End) appearing.

Helping Truffaut in the directing is cinematographer Henri Decae for bringing a natural, somewhat grainy black-and-white look to the film. With art director Bernard Evein, the film has a very realistic look on the locations and street life of Paris while editor Marie-Joseph Yoyette gives the film a rhythmic, jump-cut editing style on some sequences with traditional dissolving cuts. Finally, there's Jean Constantin's playful, innocent score that gives the film a sense of youthful vibrancy and melancholy in the dramatic sequences.

With a wonderful cast that includes standout performances from the children plus memorable cameos from Truffaut, Jacques Demy, and Jeanne Moreau, who would star in Truffaut's 1962 film Jules & Jim. The performances of Claire Maurier and Albert Remy as Antoine Doinel's bickering parents are wonderfully complex as loving yet flawed parents who don't understand their son while are desperate to make him good only to be destroyed by a family secret. Maurier gives the more memorable of the two, especially in the film's final moments when she confronts her son. Robert Beauvis and Folco Jacques Monod are memorable in their appearances as the respective authority figures of schoolmaster and commissioner who aren't mean but are trying to understand Doinel. The two best supporting performances come from Guy Decomble as the insensitive teacher with his cruelty to the children and Patrick Auffay as Rene, the only confidant that Doinel has who too has an affinity for trouble and rebellion but unlike Doinel, he seems to come from a more comforting home than the one that Doinel has in a wonderful, calculating performance.

Finally, there's the young Jean-Pierre Leaud who gives a brilliant performance in the complex role of Antoine Doinel. Leaud gives the kid a bit of sympathy but also a bit of sleaziness. Leaud makes sure that Doinel isn't a good kid or a bad kid but he's a bit of both. He makes Doinel someone many kids can relate to, he hates school, his parents are a mess, he has an awful teacher, and he can’t stand authority. Yet, he has dreams and escapes that every kid has. By the time the film goes, we see Leaud trying to understand this kid as he is playing him and wondering, why is he unhappy, why does he do all of these things. It's truly a mesmerizing performance.

When Les Quatre cents coups came out at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, removing the ban off of Truffaut, the film was an international hit as Truffaut won Best Director while the film helped open the door for brand new, introspective films to come as part of the French New Wave. With Truffaut also contributing to Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout de Souffle, The film's wide acclaim would help get across to America where Truffaut and co-writer Marcel Moussy both received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay.

Truffaut would create many more films to come including Jules & Jim, Shoot the Piano Player, Day for Night, Wild Child, The Last Metro, and Two English Girls while appearing in Steven Spielberg's 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind before his death in 1983. Truffaut would continue the story of Antoine Doinel with Leaud in the role including the 1962 short Antoine et Colette, 1968's Stolen Kisses, 1970's Bed & Board, and 1979's Love on the Run. Leaud meanwhile continues to find success as an actor appearing in films for Bernardo Bertolucci and Jean-Luc Godard while being an icon in French cinema when in 2003, he played himself in the recreating of a speech in Bertolucci's tribute to French cinema in The Dreamers.

While a bit more conventional but less stylized than Godard’s debut film A Bout de Souffle, Les Quatre cents coups is still a landmark film from the French New Wave. Thanks to Francois Truffaut's mesmerizing directing and storytelling and the performance of Jean-Pierre Leaud, this film is a wonderful introduction to French Cinema and the works of Truffaut. More than 40 years since its release, this film still holds up for its approach to storytelling and character study as the movie still resonates with an audience, notably its idea of youth. With Les Quatre cents coups, it's a great place to start for those interested in French Cinema.

Francois Truffaut Films: Shoot the Piano Player - Jules & Jim - Antoine & Colette - The Soft Skin - Fahrenheit 451 - The Bride Wore Black - Stolen Kisses - Mississippi Mermaid - The Wild Child - Bed and Board - Two English Girls - Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me - Day for Night - The Story of Adele H. - Small Change - The Man Who Loved Women - The Green Room - Love on the Run - The Last Metro - The Woman Next Door - Confidentially Yours

(The Auteurs #40: Francois Truffaut (Pt. 1) - (Pt. 2))

© thevoid99 2011