Shoot the Piano Player - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

François Truffaut plays the crime genre like jazz with this freewheeling adaptation of a novel by pulp master David Goodis, a film that infuses noir fatalism with a nervy nouvelle-vague freshness. The tragicomic story follows the adventures of timid dance-hall pianist Charlie (Charles Aznavour), who gets caught up in a whirlwind love affair and is inadvertently drawn into a violent underworld by his gangster brothers. With the film’s dazzling mix of Raoul Coutard’s handheld camera work, a wistful score by Georges Delerue, and playfully jagged editing, Truffaut creates a rueful character study shot through with his signature obsessions: cinema, the elusive nature of creativity, and the sting of romantic regret.

• France
• 81 minutes
• Black & White
• 2.35:1
• French
• Spine #315
• 1960

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring film scholars Peter Brunette and Annette Insdorf
- Introduction by filmmaker Noah Baumbach
- Interviews with cinematographer Raoul Coutard, actors Charles Aznavour and Marie Dubois, and François Truffaut collaborator Suzanne Schiffman
- Archival interviews with Truffaut on the film and the source novel
- The Music of Georges Delerue, an illustrated audio essay
- Episode of the Criterion Channel series Observations on Film Art featuring scholar Jeff Smith
- Dubois’s screen test
- Trailer
- Plus: An essay by film critic Kent Jones, an interview with Truffaut, and reflections by the director on Aznavour and Dubois

*Cover by F. Ron Miller