Complete credited cast: | |||
Charles Aznavour | ... | Charlie Kohler / Edouard Saroyan | |
Marie Dubois | ... | Léna | |
Nicole Berger | ... | Thérèse Saroyan | |
Michèle Mercier | ... | Clarisse | |
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Serge Davri | ... | Plyne |
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Claude Mansard | ... | Momo |
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Richard Kanayan | ... | Fido Saroyan (as Le jeune Richard Kanayan) |
Albert Rémy | ... | Chico Saroyan | |
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Jean-Jacques Aslanian | ... | Richard Saroyan |
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Daniel Boulanger | ... | Ernest |
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Claude Heymann | ... | Lars Schmeel |
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Alex Joffé | ... | Passerby |
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Boby Lapointe | ... | Le chanteur |
Catherine Lutz | ... | Mammy |
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... Written by Yepok
With singer/actor Charles Aznavour in the lead (his expressive face is priceless), "Shoot the Piano Player" is one of Truffaut's most charming and inventive works. Aznavour plays Charlie/Edouard -- a former concert pianist who becomes an anonymous piano player in a dive bar in order to escape his past. After his brother (Remy, who Truffaut also used wonderfully in "The 400 Blows") gets in trouble with some borderline inept gangsters, chaos ensues.
Truffaut's winsome camera and editing techniques blend perfectly with Aznavour's performance. A must for fans of the French New Wave.