Shoot the Piano Player
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Charlie Kohler is a piano player in a small Paris bar, a man who keeps to himself and lets those around him believe he is simply an accompanist. In truth he was once a celebrated concert pianist named Edouard Saroyan, and something he does not discuss ended that career. Lena, the waitress at the bar, falls in love with him. When one of his brothers turns up needing help, pursued by two gangsters he has swindled, Charlie agrees to shelter him, and the trouble follows him to the bar where he works.
The film is François Truffaut's third as director, made between The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim, and adapted from a novel by David Goodis. Charles Aznavour plays Charlie, with Marie Dubois as Lena; Nicole Berger, Michèle Mercier, Serge Davri and Claude Mansard appear in supporting roles. Pierre Braunberger produced the film for Les Films de la Pléiade, and it runs eighty-five minutes.
Released in November 1960, the film reaches a broad audience today rather than a specialized one: on IMDb it holds a rating of 7.4 from about twenty-two thousand votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from several hundred. A much smaller group of critics rated it considerably higher, at 9.1.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming took place from November 30, 1959, to January 22, 1960, in Paris, Levallois-Perret, and Grenoble.
- Since no studio wanted to finance this project, François Truffaut and his team shot the film on the fly on the streets of Paris. The script was frequently rewritten during filming, and the finale involved whichever actors were available at the time.
- When the heroes are driving in a car with the kidnappers, a truck with the logo of 'Cahiers du Cinema' magazine passes by. Before becoming a director, François Truffaut worked there as a film critic.
- As Lena and Sharli walk home from work, the shadow of the camera can be seen on their coats.
- The film's screenplay was based on the 1956 novel 'Down There' by American writer David Goodis.
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