PART I: French New Wave (1958-62) - Tirez sur le pianiste/Shoot the Piano Player, 1960
Tirez sur le pianiste/ Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960) Disillusioned musician Charlie Kohler (Charles Aznavour) playing the piano in a rundown bar has never been lucky in life. But then he falls in love again. Happiness, however, can only be temporary, when he and his lover are drawn into a conflict between gangsters. In this homage to American cinema of the 1930s and 1940s, Francois Truffaut clearly represents the quest of New Wave directors for authenticity but also their rejection of the idea of real originality. Like Godard’s Breathless, it reinvents but also continues the rigid rules of the genre picture by closely relating to American Film Noir and especially the latter’s ambiguity towards the possibility of individual freedom.-Heiko Stang
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Runtime: 92
Director: François Truffaut Cast: Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger, Michèle Mercier |
shoot the piano player, 1960
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Tirez sur le pianiste/ Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960) Disillusioned musician Charlie Kohler (Charles Aznavour) playing the piano in a rundown bar has never been lucky in life. But then he falls in love again. Happiness, however, can only be temporary, when he and his lover are drawn into a conflict between gangsters. In this homage to American cinema of the 1930s and 1940s, Francois Truffaut clearly represents the quest of New Wave directors for authenticity but also their rejection of the idea of real originality. Like Godard’s Breathless, it reinvents but also continues the rigid rules of the genre picture by closely relating to American Film Noir and especially the latter’s ambiguity towards the possibility of individual freedom.-Heiko Stang