TIREZ SUR LE PIANISTE (Shoot the Piano Player, or Shoot the Pianist, 1962) *** Truffaut's characters are, as always, beautifully drawn. Marie DuBois is especially effective as the barmaid that just wants things to be different, and wonderful, like they were but different, and believes that this can be done directly through her own straightforward efforts. Charles Aznavour is also very good as the protagonist piano player from a family of criminals. His motivations are difficult to ascertain-why does he fire in one situation but not in others? It eventually has something to do with being backed to the wall I guess. He is willing to submit peacefully to the destruction of his life so long as the forces that do so do not confront him directly. But each time he takes any initiative, even without trying to improve his own plight, it moves him closer to a shootout in the snow. Very witty and existential, each moment awaits something else, from someplace else, undefined situations and characters with no sense of the forces acting upon them.
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