Arguably Truffaut’s most audacious and experimental work, it is a loving homage to and a fascinating pastiche of American genre movies, especially but not limited to, film noirs, gangster films and B-movies. The story of a washed out protagonist trying to escape his past, comical shady thugs, and love on the run might be straightforward; but the array memorable dialogues, brilliant comical interludes, moments of heart-touching delight and humanism, unabashed self parody, and marvelous turns by the leads, truly makes this a great cinematic achievement...Francois Truffaut, along with his iconic contemporaries Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol et al, was one of the founding members of the revolutionary French Nouvelle Vague movement. And whenever we mention the name of the former Cahiers Du Cinema critic and legendary French auteur, we either associate him with his first and most famous film, 400 Blows, or his third feature Jules et Jim. But it was his second work – Shoot the Piano Player – sandwiched between the two universally acclaimed classics, that not only was one of the most defining movies of the New Wave movement, but is often considered by many to be Truffaut’s greatest masterpiece. It may be clubbed along with such landmark movies by Godard like Breathless and Masculin Feminin where the technical aspects are concerned, and with Band a Part as far as its quirky and bittersweet feel goes. Charles Aznavour, a legendary singer/songwriter in real life, gave a terrific performance as Charlie, a once-famous artiste, but now a washed out piano player at a run-down place in Paris. He goes through the motions without any palpable attachment to the world around him. But then, one not-so-fine day, his brother turns up at his place and informs him that two gangsters are after him and asks him to help him escape. Meanwhile, he slowly finds himself falling for his sweet and captivating co-worker Lena. Thus starts a tale of love on the run as the two gangsters start chasing them in order to get hold of Charlie’s brother. The movie has a strong flashback narrative too. While the present tells us who Charlie is, the past tells us how Edouard Saroyan, a renowned piano maestro, ends up becoming an unknown honky-tonk player at a bar where nobody cares for his keyboard play. We learn about Charlie’s first love affair, his marriage, how he climbs the ladder to fame, and how his wife’s infidelity (though for Charlie’s sake) makes him completely loose his attachment with the goodness and niceties of life and love, and turns him into a morally detached existentialist. Like most Nouvelle Vague movies, Shoot the Piano Player, is less concerned about its plot and more about the thematic, stylistic and the mise en scene aspects. Loosely based on David Goodis’ pulp thriller Down There, the movie comprises of a free-flowing blend of the landmark New Wave techniques like jump cuts, unrelated montages, ad-libs, improvised screenplay, dialogues that at times have no bearing with the scene under consideration, to name a few. Arguably Truffaut’s most audacious and experimental work, it is a loving homage to and a fascinating pastiche of American genre movies, especially but not limited to, film noirs, gangster films and B-movies. The story of a washed out protagonist trying to escape his past, comical shady thugs, and love on the run might be straightforward; but the array memorable dialogues, brilliant comical interludes, moments of heart-touching delight and humanism, unabashed self parody, and marvelous turns by the leads, truly makes this a great cinematic achievement and a delectable work of art. It is extremely unfortunate that when the movie was released people failed to realize and appreciate the enormous artistic value of this movie. It was a failure at the box office and people apparently forgot that the movie was ever made. This literally broke Truffaut’s heart, and he never made a movie as experimental, irreverent or avant-garde as this one. But good art is really never lost; and now that its greatness has been realized, it will remain ingrained for posterity in the hearts and minds of cine-lovers.
