Features SHOOT THE PIANIST, JULES ET JIM, THE SOFT SKIN, ANNE & MURIEL, A GORGEOUS GIRL LIKE ME, THE LAST METRO, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, FINALLY SUNDAY Extras Audio commentaries Presentations by Serge Toubiana on all titles Deleted scenes Trailers
Charlie is a piano player in a rundown jazz bar he used to be Edouard Saroyan a gifted classical pianist but after suffering his wife's suicide gave up his rising fame. He's miserable and lonely and so self-absorbed that he can't see that Lena the bars waitress is in love with him. When Chico Charlie's crooked brother uses the bar as a refuge from two gangsters he's double-crossed Charlie becomes embroiled in the mayhem. Will the resulting events awaken Charlie's emotions again?
Francois Truffaut portrays a film noir world of gangsters and intrigue with Charles Aznavour as a famous concert pianist who leaves his former life behind to play in a sleazy Parisian bar. He gradually becomes involved in the criminal activities of the big-city underworld.
The Woman Next Door (1981) Madame Jouve the narrator tells the tragedy of Bernard and Mathilde. Bernard was living happily with his wife Arlette and his son Thomas. One day a couple Philippe and Mathilde Bauchard moves into the next house. This is the accidental reunion of Bernard and Mathilde who had a passionate love affair years ago. The relationship revives... A somber study of human feelings. The 400 Blows (1959) For his feature-film debut critic-turned-director Franois Truffaut drew inspiration from his own troubled childhood. The 400 Blows stars Jean-Pierre Laud as Antoine Doinel Truffaut's preteen alter ego. Misunderstood at home by his parents and tormented in school by his insensitive teacher (Guy Decomble) Antoine frequently runs away from both places. The boy finally quits school after being accused of plagiarism by his teacher. He steals a typewriter from his father (Albert Remy) to finance his plans to leave home. The father angrily turns Antoine over to the police who lock the boy up with hardened criminals. A psychiatrist at a delinquency center probes Antoine's unhappiness which he reveals in a fragmented series of monologues. Shoot the Pianist (1960) 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... Jules and Jim (1962) Acclaimed French director Franois Truffaut's third and for many viewers best film is an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roch. Set between 1912 and 1933 it stars Oskar Werner as the German Jules and Henri Serre as the Frenchman Jim kindred spirits who while on holiday in Greece fall in love with the smile on the face of a sculpture. Back in Paris the smile comes to life in the person of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau); the three individuals become constant companions determined to live their lives to the fullest despite the world war around them. When Jules declares his love for Catherine Jim agrees to let Jules pursue her despite his own similar feelings; Jules and Catherine marry and have a child (Sabine Haudepin) but Catherine still loves Jim as well. Anne and Muriel (1971) Story of two British sisters who are in love with the same Frenchman over a period of 20 years. Screenplay by Francois Truffaut Jean Grault Based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roche. Finally Sunday! (1963) Claude Massoulier is murdered while hunting at the same place than Julien Vercel an estate agent that knew him and whose fingerprints are found on Massoulier's car. As the police discovers that Marie-Christine Vercel Julien's wife was Massoulier's mistress Julien is very suspected. But his secretary Barbara Becker while not quite convinced he is innocent defends him and leads her private investigations...
Francois Truffaut portrays a film noir world of gangsters and intrigue with Charles Aznavour as a famous concert pianist who leaves his former life behind to play in a sleazy Parisian bar. He gradually becomes involved in the criminal activities of the big-city underworld.
The opening of Shoot the Piano Player, François Truffaut's second feature film, is one of the signal moments of the French New Wave--an inspired intersection of grim fatality and happy accident, location shooting and lurid melodrama, movie convention and frowzy, uncontainable life. A man runs through deserted night streets, stalked by the lights of a car. It's a definitive film noir situation, promptly sidetracked--yet curiously not undercut--by real-life slapstick: watching over his shoulder for pursuers, the running man charges smack into a lamppost. The figure that helps him to his feet is not one of the pursuers (they've oddly disappeared) but an anonymous passer-by, who proceeds to escort him for a block or two, genially schmoozing about the mundane, slow-blooming glories of marriage. The Good Samaritan departs at the next turning, never to be identified and never to be seen again. And the first man--who, despite this evocative introduction, is not even destined to be the main character of the movie--immediately resumes his helter-skelter flight from an as-yet-unspecified and unseen menace. At this point in his career--right after The 400 Blows, just before his great Jules and Jim--the world seemed wide for Truffaut, as wide as the Dyaliscope screen that he and cinematographer Raoul Coutard deployed with unprecedented spontaneity and lyricism. Anything might wander into frame and become part of the flow: an oddball digression, an unexpected change of mood, a small miracle of poetic insight. The official agenda of the movie is adapting a noir-ish story by American writer David Goodis, about a celebrated concert musician (Charles Aznavour) hiding out as a piano player in a saloon. He's on the run as much as the guy--his older brother--in the first scene. But whereas the brother is worried about a couple of buffoonish gangsters, Charlie Koller is ducking out on life, love and the possibility that he might be hurt, or cause hurt, again. Decades after its original release, Shoot the Piano Player remains as fresh, exhilarating, and heartbreaking--as open to the magic of movies and life--as ever. --Richard T Jameson
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