Shoot The Piano Player (1960) ( Tirez sur le pianiste ) ( Shoot the Pianist )

Shoot The Piano Player (1960) (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Tirez sur le pianiste
Alternate Title: Shoot the Pianist
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
French ( Dolby Digital Stereo )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
78 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Commentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1960 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
François Truffaut

Written By:
David Goodis
François Truffaut

Actors:
Charles Aznavour ..... Charlie Kohler/Edouard Saroyan
Marie Dubois ..... Léna
Nicole Berger ..... Thérèse Saroyan
Michèle Mercier ..... Clarisse
Serge Davri ..... Plyne
Claude Mansard ..... Momo
Richard Kanayan ..... Fido Saroyan (as Le jeune Richard Kanayan)
Albert Rémy ..... Chico Saroyan
Jean-Jacques Aslanian ..... Richard Saroyan
Daniel Boulanger ..... Ernest
Claude Heymann ..... Lars Schmeel
Alex Joffé ..... Passerby
Boby Lapointe ..... Le chanteur
Catherine Lutz ..... Mammy

Synopsis:

While playing piano in a bar, the pianist Charlie Kohler is approached by his crook brother Chico Saroyan, who has been chased by two gangsters. Charlie helps him to escape, but he upsets the two criminals, and they watch Charlie and the waitress Lena, who is in love with him. The shy Cahrlie tells his past to Lena, when he was the former famous pianist Edouard Saroyan, and he quited his successful career after the suicide of his wife, the also waitress Thérèse Saroyan. When his brother Fido Saroyan, who is raised by Charlie, is kidnapped by the gangsters, Charlie has to take an attitude with tragic consequences.

Francois Truffaut's loving homage to Hollywood gangster films is less a plot-filled film noir than a free-associative meditation on the genre. Charles Aznavour stars as a one-time concert pianist who gained fame as Edouard Saroyan but has since changed his name to Charlie Kohler and plays honky-tonk in an out-of-the-way saloon. His self-imposed exile is shattered by the appearance of his mobster brother Richard Saroyan (Jacques Aslanian). Richard and his other brother, Chico (Albert Remy), are on the lam from gangsters they've double-crossed. Charlie helps Richard and Chico get away, but he now finds that his life, along with his younger brother Fido's (Richard Kanayan, has been put into jeopardy, having gotten mixed up with gangsters Momo (Claude Mansard) and Ernest (Daniel Boulanger) who are pursuing Richard and Chico. Momo and Ernest keep an eye on Charlie's apartment and, although they don't get Fido, they manage to kidnap Charlie and Lena (Marie Dubois), a co-worker with whom he has fallen in love. But when Ernest runs a red light and is pulled over, Charlie and Lena escape the gangsters' clutches. They take refuge in Lena's apartment, where Charlie sees a poster for a performance by Edouard Saroyan, causing Charlie to think back upon the circumstances that had led him to this moment in his life. Lena and Charlie make love, and Charlie returns to his apartment, only to discover Fido has been kidnapped. Lena and Charlie then head back to his club, where they plan to quit their jobs and try to find Fido.

Charlie Kohler is a piano player in a bar. The waitress Lena is in love with him. One of Charlie's brother, Chico, a crook, takes refuge in the bar because he is chased by two gangsters, Momo and Ernest. We will discover that Charlie's real name is Edouard Saroyan, once a virtuose who gives up after his wife's suicide. Charlie now has to deal wih Chico, Ernest, Momo, Fido (his youngest brother who lives with him), and Lena...

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 28 May, 2015.