Shoot the Piano Player (French, 1960)

Shoot the Piano Player, a whimsical crime drama, is the French auteur Francois Truffaut's second film following the extraordinary 400 Blows. The film's title alludes to a possibly apocryphal story about Oscar Wilde's visit to Colorado, where he reportedly saw a sign in a saloon bar that read, "Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best," and remarked, "This is the only rational method of art criticism I have ever encountered." The added humor of the film's title comes from the antipodal variation on the original.

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The plot

The film has two plot strands that revolve around the protagonist Charlie Kohler (played by Charles Aznavour): one personal and the other criminal.

The personal strand

On the surface, Charlie's life appears peaceful. He plays piano at a bar, looks after his teenage brother Fido (played by Richard Kanayan), and stays out of trouble. He has a friends with benefits relationship with Clarisse (played by Michèle Mercier), a prostitute who cooks for Fido. However, beneath this placid exterior, Charlie is haunted by a tragic past.

His real name is Édouard Saroyan, a former concert pianist. His career started humbly, giving piano lessons, until he was ostensibly discovered by impresario Lars Schmeel (played by Claude Heymann). Unbeknownst to him, his wife Thérèse (played by Nicole Berger) had slept with Lars to secure this opportunity for her husband. Despite this sordid backstory, Édouard became a successful concert pianist. However, as his fame grew, the marriage began to unravel. Overcome with guilt about her infidelity, Thérèse revealed the liaison with Lars to her husband and then committed suicide. Devastated, Édouard abandoned his former life, adopting a pseudonym and working as a cleaner at a bar. When he began practicing on the piano there, his boss Plyne (played by Serge Davri) recognized his talent and its potential to attract crowds. Plyne hired a drummer and bass player, and Charlie became a musician once again.

Meanwhile, a romantic relationship blossoms between Charlie and Léna (played by Marie Dubois), the bar's waitress, who has discovered his true identity. Léna persuades Charlie to quit his job and return to his life as a concert pianist.

The criminal strand

Charlie (Édouard) is one of the four Saroyan brothers, along with Chico (played by Albert Rémy), Richard (played by Jean-Jacques Aslanian), and Fido. Chico and Richard are being pursued by two gangsters, Momo (played by Claude Mansard) and Ernest (played by Daniel Boulanger), whom they have cheated out of their share of the loot from a heist. Charlie gets unwittingly involved when Chico, fleeing from Momo and Ernest, seeks refuge in the bar where Charlie is playing. As Charlie helps his brother escape, he becomes the gangsters' next target.

The two gangsters kidnap Charlie and Léna, hoping the couple will lead them to the hideout of Charlie's brothers. However, Charlie and Léna manage to escape and confront Plyne, who betrayed Charlie by giving the gangsters his address in exchange for money. Jealous of Charlie because Léna had rejected his advances, Plyne tries to strangle him, and Charlie kills him in self-defense. Léna then drives Charlie to his family's mountain hideout. Meanwhile, the gangsters capture Fido and force him to reveal the location of the cabin. A shootout ensues, during which Léna is killed. In the end, Charlie returns to his old job at the bar.

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Observations

Quirky mix of genres

The film's quirkiness arises from its fusion of elements of American film noir with attributes associated with serious dramas and dark comedy. It features classic noir tropes such as gangsters, urban settings, a dark atmosphere, and a shocking denouement—the death of the female lead. The climax unfolds against a stark, snow-covered mountain backdrop.

However, it deviates from traditional noir by excluding key elements like menacing male characters, a femme fatale, and a central criminal plot. Charlie Kohler is as far removed from Humphrey Bogart as George Smiley is from James Bond. The three women in his life—Clarisse, Léna, and Thérèse—are straightforward girls, not seductive sirens. There are no high-stakes plots involving espionage, murder, elaborate heists, and intense suspense. Characters do not navigate perilous situations to uncover hidden truths.

At the film's outset, Chico's pursuit by gangsters through the dark streets of Paris sets the stage for a classic film noir storyline. However, Truffaut subverts these expectations by steering the narrative toward a serious drama that delves into Charlie's backstory, psychological profile, and romantic life. The pipe-smoking gangsters, Momo and Ernest—one wearing a cap and the other a hat—initially appear menacing. Instead, Truffaut injects black comedy, portraying the duo as bumbling and ineffectual, reminiscent of the Keystone Cops. Amidst the blend of drama and comedy, Charlie ends up committing a murder, and the heroine is killed.

Charlie's journey

Charlie's character develops gradually, becoming a focal point of the film. Initially, he appears to be a predictable man of routine, but as the story unfolds, we uncover the complex layers of his personality.

His awkward attempts to court Léna hint at his inexperience with women, making it all the more surprising to learn that he was married to the beautiful Thérèse. Their romance remained playful, even two years into their marriage, with the couple engaging in role-playing games as a waitress and customer at the café. where Thérèse works.

We discover that Charlie's desire for obscurity stems from his struggle with fame as a renowned concert pianist and it's tragic consequences. As often happens when one has something to lose, Charlie became insecure and narcissistic, straining his marriage. His guilt over Thérèse's suicide is intensified by his decision to leave the room when she was emotionally distraught. Moments after his departure, Thérèse leapt to her death from the balcony. Buddhist scholar Joseph Goldstein posits that our reluctance to witness others' suffering hinders our capacity for compassion. Charlie is haunted by the counterfactual of having stayed. This internal conflict adds depth to his character, illustrating the sometimes profound impact of trivial choices and the weight of their consequences.

Charlie's tendency to avoid conflict resurfaces during a heated exchange between Plyne and Léna. In his inner dialogue, he rationalizes his inaction by considering Plyne's inherent goodness, the situation's lack of relevance to him, his own perceived insignificance as just a pianist, and ultimately, the meaninglessness of life. This passive approach contrasts sharply with his earlier, more successful phase, when he actively engaged with life's challenges, such as finding ways to overcome his shyness. However, Charlie's acquiescence with Léna's suggestion to quit his job and return to being a concert pianist reveals that, with the right encouragement, the allure of a brighter future can outweigh his fear of change.

The film's finale reveals Charlie's working-class roots and his escape as a teenager, when a renowned musician took him on as a pupil. As Charlie left with his tutor, his brothers hurled stones at the car with catapults, predicting that he would inevitably return to their "savage" way of life. On the surface, this prediction seems accurate when Charlie returns home as a murderer. However, this interpretation oversimplifies the situation, as his killing was done in self-defense.

While the dramatic elements of Charlie's life—criminal siblings, a suicidal spouse, a hidden identity—may seem far removed from ordinary experience, his need for emotional self-preservation resonates universally. This underlying motivation drives the arc of his life, making Charlie's journey relatable despite its extraordinary circumstances.

Lovable rogues

A key element of the film's genre-blending is the black comedy involving the gangsters Momo and Ernest. Their gauche attempts to tail Charlie repeatedly fail, including an incident where Fido throws a projectile at their car. Similarly, their plan to kidnap Charlie and Léna is foiled when they are pulled over for speeding, allowing the quarry to simply walk away. Later, when they manage to abduct Fido, the conversations between the teenage hostage and the gangsters are hilarious. In one particularly witty exchange, one of the gangsters proudly shows off his Japanese metallic scarf, only for Fido to point out that it isn't even Japanese. Another comedic moment is when Momo and Ernest are seen pushing their car to jump-start the engine while Fido sits at the steering wheel. However, we are abruptly disabused of our perception that they are lovable rogues when Léna is killed in the shootout.

The toppings

Shoot the Piano Player contains an array of creative flourishes that, while not necessarily advancing the narrative, enhance the viewing experience. One such feature is the use of conversations that are discordant within the context they occur. For instance, when Chico is trying to shake off his pursuers, he engages a stranger in conversation to avoid being alone on the street. The stranger then delves into a discussion about his marriage and why he chose his partner, an odd subject to talk with a man whom he just saw colliding with a lamppost. This stylistic choice recurs later in the film when the gangsters Momo and Ernest chat about their romantic lives with their hostages, Charlie and Léna, and make small talk with their second hostage, Fido.

These incongruous dialogues are part of a broader whimsical sensibility , exemplified by moments like Clarisse's spontaneous rendition of "TV is cinema you can see at home" and the abrupt introduction of a narrator in the form of Léna during a flashback that covers Charlie's past. This latter touch foreshadows the capricious narrator in Truffaut's Jules et Jim, who has a penchant for peppering the storytelling with eccentric details. We see a small sample of it when Léna, as the unseen narrator, mentions that the bar owner had hired a bass player with hairy hands!

Another comic delight is a series of sketches Charlie encounters in a storefront window advertising a business designed to cure shyness. The sketches depict a man transitioning from timid to commanding poses.

Lastly, the film is further enriched by its two songs. The first, Framboise about a waitress named Frances from Antibes, is performed at the bar to Charlie's piano, adding a noir touch as gangsters chase Chico while the song plays. The second, Dialogue d'Amoureux, is a haunting tune that plays in the background as Léna drives Charlie to his family farm, setting a mood of foreboding that, in hindsight, foreshadows Léna's tragic fate.

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Shoot the Piano Player becomes more enjoyable on a second viewing, once the sui generis nature of the plot is embraced and we recognize the director's creative self-indulgence. Without preconceptions, it’s easier to appreciate the film for what it is: a charming, unpredictable, and visually beautiful work with a unique storytelling style that blends genres in quirky ways.