While playing piano in a bar, the pianist Charlie Kohler (Charles Aznavour) is approached by his crook brother Chico Saroyan (Albert Rémy), who has been chased by two gangsters. Charlie helps him to escape, but he upsets the two criminals, and they stalk Charlie and the waitress Lena (Marie Dubois), who is in love with him. The shy Charlie tells his past to Lena, when he was the former famous pianist Edouard Saroyan, and he quitted his successful career after the suicide of his wife, the also waitress Thérèse Saroyan (Nicole Berger). When his brother Fido Saroyan (Richard Kanayan), who is raised by Charlie, is kidnapped by the gangsters that want to know where Chico is, Charlie has to take an attitude with tragic consequences.
The film-noir "Tirez Sur le Pianiste" is a weird movie about a timid man that has difficulties to express and to have the correct timing with the words. He seems to communicate only through the piano keys playing music, causing the death of his beloved wife and girlfriend for not saying the right words in the right time. The story is original, and it is difficult to label a genre for this movie: is it a film-noir, a drama, a romance, a thriller, a dark comedy? I believe all the answers are correct. The result is an enjoyable movie, mostly recommended for fans of Truffault. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Tiro no Pianista" ("The Shot in the Piano Player")
Note: On 02 October 2011, I saw this film again.
The film-noir "Tirez Sur le Pianiste" is a weird movie about a timid man that has difficulties to express and to have the correct timing with the words. He seems to communicate only through the piano keys playing music, causing the death of his beloved wife and girlfriend for not saying the right words in the right time. The story is original, and it is difficult to label a genre for this movie: is it a film-noir, a drama, a romance, a thriller, a dark comedy? I believe all the answers are correct. The result is an enjoyable movie, mostly recommended for fans of Truffault. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Tiro no Pianista" ("The Shot in the Piano Player")
Note: On 02 October 2011, I saw this film again.