315 Shoot the Piano Player

[matrixschmatrix]

I love this movie, it's one of the highlights of the New Wave for me- all the formal playfulness and incorporation of gangster movie elments of something like Breathless, with the wit and humanism that seem peculiar to Truffaut. To me, at least, it's a gorgeous extension of the noir form, using the contrasting elements to highten more than to deconstruct the experience- which makes it one of the most compulsively watchable films of the whole movement.

[Gregory]

Just saw this for the first time, and I must say, I didn't find it as "incredible" as I was led to believe everything Truffaut does would be...

Eh, with the exception of his children movies I think that's really the case of all his movies. He doesn't (in my experience) have any tried and true stinkers, but he generally comes across more enjoyable and light than any of his contemporaries.

The notion of everything Truffaut did being "incredible" is strange, but what knives said is even stranger to me. Is "children movies" to somehow group films as different as 400 Blows, Antoine and Colette, Wild Child, and Small Change? I do realize Truffaut's valuation is often contentious... Anyway, a lot of his work is extremely dark and brooding. Stolen Kisses was certainly light considering it in the context of the year 1968, but is in its own way every bit as much about the time as more "militant" French cinema of the period, and I feel it's an underrated film, especially vis-a-vis 400 Blows. The Story of Adele H is an even more underrated masterwork of amazing insight and intensity.
Shoot the Piano Player shows an impressive understanding of some of the best work to come out of Hollywood in the decade prior, from whose influences Truffaut makes something new.

[knives]

I simply meant movies where children are the protagonists. He seemed to work better with that psychology than with an adult one. I was actually considering mentioning his last film too, but I suppose it also is more a nice film to watch than a masterpiece.

[Gregory]

Okay.

???

[warren oates]

I love this movie, it's one of the highlights of the New Wave for me- all the formal playfulness and incorporation of gangster movie elments of something like Breathless, with the wit and humanism that seem peculiar to Truffaut. To me, at least, it's a gorgeous extension of the noir form, using the contrasting elements to highten more than to deconstruct the experience- which makes it one of the most compulsively watchable films of the whole movement.

I agree with matrix. I love this movie too and think it of it as one of the quintessential works of the New Wave. I'm not a huge Truffaut fan, but this one's a close second to The 400 Blows for me and the only other one I have a copy of. The playful pastiche of the genre elements in this film and its unique tone -- more melancholy than Breathless, but no less fun -- make you wish Truffaut had found a way back to some of this energy with his later Hitchcock stuff.

[movielocke]

I finally caught up with this film, and my overriding thought is one of frustration. I absolutely adored the film (it's absolutely one of his best, giddy and near flawless), but then you delve into the special features and the booklet and Truffaut goes out of his way to piss on the film to denigrate it and declaim the marvelously inventive modernist style and approach of the film. It's a shame he didn't continue with this sort of lively work.

Dammit Truffaut, your first three films are so fucking vibrant. they sizzle with energy, unique creativity and a passionate love of cinema, you were really synthesizing something great, then you decided your style wasn't along the bent of this film and none of the other films of yours I've seen have ever measured up to this first trio.

granted, that comment is made after watching all the Doinel sequels, which seem much more turgid than this, so it's probably a little unfair.

[ellipsis7]

What happened to Truffaut was Hitchcock - his series of interviews with great man that became Truffaut's 'Hitch-book' an influence which changed forever the French director's atttitude & approach to filmmaking, IMHO to the detriment of much of his subsequent work... SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is so crisp, sharp and original, totally post-modern in its non-linear structure & fragmented approach and quintessential New Wave, probably Truffaut's best film...

[cinemartin]

I think also Truffaut was very trusting in the audience and Shoot the Piano Player was a commercial failure when first released. I think he attempted to retool his process after that.

[Black Hat]

What happened to Truffaut was Hitchcock

Can you elaborate more on what makes you say that?

[ellipsis7]

Becoming such a wholehearted admirer of Hitchcock, Truffaut absorbed and was influenced by the older director's work methods, not least his meticulous, precise and thorough preparation of all aspects of a film thus leaving nothing to serendipity, the moment, or chance... This actually flies in the face of many of the principles of the French New Wave that Truffaut previously espoused, and tends to turn him away from the more post-modern, deconstructed films he started with, pushing him back towards a more classical approach to narrative structure and filmmaking technique...

[knives]

I'm half tempted to think Aznavour was cast here because he is such a look alike to Truffaut. They could be brothers. As to the film itself I'm in the unfortunate situation of having read Goodis' book which the film follows just faithfully enough to make annoying when some plot element doesn't work. The big problem arises with the flashback which Truffaut handles very awkwardly and gives a real short shrift to. The feelings of guilt and advantage are severely reduced and turned into this absurd thing on shyness. It plays like Hollywood dumbing down already infecting the man. I'm also not sure what the additions with Fido are supposed to accomplish.

Despite this many of the individual moments are handled well and I like how Truffaut deals with Lena who Dubois gives this wonderful seriousness to particularly in her eyes. The fight with the manager is also really well done with the changes fitting the overall concerns of the film far better than any of the other ones present. It's a real serious moment of greatness in a film that otherwise seems content to be okay. The reunion with the brothers in the snow is also great. Admittedly this is where the film hews the closest to the book so a lot of it is Goodis' greatness, but having the camera rest on Aznavour an extra beat as the music builds up is such a beautiful touch that fully comes from the movie. The conclusion is dealt with such a great hand it almost forced me to revise my lackluster opinion of the preceding hour. The addition of that callous final scene, which some above seem to have been frustrated by, seems a perfect way of converting to image the book's final thought of no wasted tears. Also, as expected, it's really beautiful being one of the few films to genuinely look like a classic noir rather than the shadowy facsimile that has become the norm. It looks like a Burnett Guffey shot film.