Shoot the Piano Player

Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut, 1960), is, more than anything else, the story of how Charlie's past, his attempts to ignore it, his overreaching ambition have destroyed his life and the life of his wife Theresa (Nicole Berger).

The film opens with Chico (Albert Remy) racing down dark streets as he is chased by a mysterious car. As he does so, he stumbles into a lamppost and blackens his eye, revealing himself to be a person both is some sort of trouble and of poor vision. This second point is illustrated when a kind Stranger helps Chico up and and offers words of wisdom regarding relationships to Chico.

That Chico remains in the dark after this encounter is demonstrated for us in two ways. First, backlighting brightens the street scene as the Stranger asks Chico to walk with him for a bit. We see them emerge from the shadows as the Stranger talks about the evolution of his relationship with his wife. When Chico, upon hearing the advice, volunteers "that it always happens that way," the Stranger gently rebukes him with a "not always," thereby signifying that not all people make the compromises necessary to accept the other person for what they are to ensure a successful relationship. For the Stranger, this was realizing that a small loss of freedom was a small price to pay for true love. What Shoot the Piano Player ultimately shows us is that not everyone is even capable of making those compromises.

The second way Truffaut demonstrates for us that Chico remains in the dark is the mise-en-scene. When the Stranger stops to punctuate his point, we see the whitewashed buildings behind him backlit. This chiaroscuro effect also splits the frame in half, with Chico remaining in the shadows. An elevated street lamp centered above the two men connects the two halfs of the frame and punctuates the potential eureka opportunity for Chico. When Chico rushes back into the shadows after the two split, we realize Chico is more comfortable in the shadows. As the film unfolds we come to know Chico lacks the temperament to have grasped what the Stranger was really saying. Chico has grown up on the farm, and this simple upbringing has left him more suited to stoning limousines than venturing far from the fringes of society. Chico is incapable of being anything but a "beast" (plight he shares with his brother Richard.)

The gangster motif introduced in the opening chase scene is maintained throughout the film. The film stereotypically contains (non-stereotypical) gangster, Earnest and Momo, references to woman in gutter terms, the idea that a man (and not a dog) is man's best friend, and the obligatory shoot-out at the end. Even when not heard, the dialogue is also gangster-like, such as when Chico enters the bar and asks for Charlie (Charles Aznavour), and Plyne, with his fingers on his own chest, leans towards Charlie and seemingly asks: "You talking to me?

The effect of the opening scenes is that Truffaut introduces two topics central to the film: an understanding that most men lack an understanding of relationships between men and women, especially with respect to love (Chico's conversation with Stranger), and that we are most comfortable, and therefore live according to, with who we were growing up (in other words our past is thicker than our present) as represented by Chico's actions, but also by Charlie who - when push came to shove - activily participates Chico's escape from the bar after his previous protestations that he wished not to get involved and his previous frigid behavior towards Chico.

The idea that the past trumps the present is also represented in the scene where the three brothers are together at the farmhouse towards the end of the scene. Here we learn Chico and Richard had at one time straightened out their lives and found honest work at an exchange house, but, when presented with an opportunity, had reverted bak to a life of crime. When Charlie volunteers he has killed a man, his brothers are happy to have him back home, both from the standpoint of being within their mists, and from the standpoint of (re)joining the fraternity of "beasts." Charlie, the child-prodigy, who had left his brothers for a life beyond the farm, has found himself back where he started; Charlie is the prodigal son returning. That Charlie belongs back at the farmhouse is demostrated by the broken mirror he looks into. (Mirrrors play the role of representing the duality within Charlie, among others throughout the film. Since this mirror is broken, it represents the opposite of this. Charlie is no longer leading a double life.) He can be, and is, himself at the farmhouse in the, which is demostrated by his smiling into the broken mirror as the brothers playfully harass him. He is at last back home ins his formative surroundings.

A more complicated example of achieving a comfort level with formative surroundings is Fido (Daniel Boulanger). After struggling initially during the kidnapping sequence, Fido exhibits no apparent apprehension with Earnest and Momo since they provide Fido with a bit of misadventure - something Fida is comfortable with, understands, and is appreciative of. However, when prompted, Fido explains fido means "faithful." The point made is that Fido remains faithful to his brothers, which he demonstrates when he runs away from his abductors at the farmhouse. Actually, Truffaut gives you the sense that it is Fido who is running the abduction scenes, and essentially uses Earnest and Momo for the ride they provide to the farmhouse. (Earnest and Momo are not your typical gangsters, and exhibit their own dualities as well.)

What has been established so far (and is essential to the story) is that the past is in charge of our present, that what we do in the past remains with us in the present, and that there is no escaping this. Life should be led accordingly. On one level, this means living within the past in the present, doing only that which our temperament (rooted in our past) allows us to do comfortably. On another level this means allowing the same in others. (The Stranger explains that at first he would think of ways to kill the woman who would become his wife, and it is only when he confronted this behavior that he was able to realize the woman she was, grow comfortable with who she was, and eventually fall in love with her - a lesson lost on Charlie not once, but twice.)

Charlie is introduced to us as "Edouard" by Chico as Charlie gets ready for his set. In this scene, the dialogue is all about the distance between Charles and Chico. Examples of this are when Charle orders Chico to refer to him as "Charlie." If "Edouard" is his real name, why the insistance to be refered to by another except to distance (temporal distance) what Chico represents (his past) to Charlie? Charlie also orders Chico to maintain his distance (spatial distance) when he orders Chico to "wait there"; in other words, not to enter the room. Chico for his part speaks to emotional distance when he states Edouard is a "strange bird" and that Edouard's is a strange reaction considering they "haven't seen each other for four years." In line with the film's motif of the past shaping the present, Charlie asks Chico is anyone is "after" Chico. When Chico replies "not the cops," we cement both Chico's standing as a gangster-type, and Charlies familiarity with the gangster-type.

The mise-en-scene also contributes to the distancing within the scene. At one point, a door jamb splits the frame in two with Chico on one side of a wall, and Charlie on the other. They continue to communicate through a window on this wall. Inside the room, a mirror reflects Charlie's presence, which introduces a window to his past, and further suggests that Charlie is leading a double life. Even when Charlie goes off-camera to retrieve a tie, the mirror remains in the frame, signifying how the past is always present in our lives, even when we are not consciously aware of it. (This window motif is also used later to initiate the flashback into Charlie's past.)

The mirror technique is carried over into the bar scene as well where the piano is introduced as Charlie's damnation, salvation, and shield. As the caberat singer (Bobi LaPointe) sings, the camera shows the singer foregrounded, and Charlie (behind the piano) and the drummer framed behind the songer. Later, after the singer concludes his song, he walks out of the frame and the camera pans to frame just Charlie and the drummer, then zooms on Charlie while maintaining the back of the drummer's head in the mirror above them. The message is: Charlie's life - represented by the mirror - is as phony as the drummer's never-changing smile, which also suggests the drummer might be a different person when not playing the drums. (Truffaut would have us believe just about anybody is capable of leading a double life at some point in their lives.)
Later, we will see how the (concert) piano, and Edouard's ambition to become a world famous concert pianist, results in tragedy. And even later, how it is the (two-bit) piano that allows Charlie some solace when he decides to flagellate himself by abstaining from classical music and limiting himself to honky-tonk tunes as punishment for his blind ambition and failure to act. But for now let us concentrate how this bar scene introduces the piano as emotional shield. It is behind the piano where Charlie retreats when his routine is challenged by his brother (Chico), and from where he challenges Plyne (in a later scene with Lena, Charlie cannot challenge Plyne and retreats to the safety of the piano (and honky-tonk tunes) until Lena is physically threatened) regarding his brother, and where he retreats to after helping his brother escape. It is this last shot, the frame fore-grounded by the caberet singer with Charlie and the drummer behind him that poignantly marks Charlie's place in the world: a distant third (Charlie looks as if he could cry) in a frame of three. The blow-me-away dialogue that follows (Charlie wishes Chico luck in a firm internal voice), makes clear that this is where Charlie wishes to be.

All that's left is to introduce how it is that Charlie ended up at the bar, which is Lena's (Michele Mercier) job. Lena represents a bridge from Charlie's past to a "brighter" future grounded in Edouard, the concert pianist. Everything in the film up to this point has primed us to believe that this is not possible without similarly tragic consequences, since it would be repeating past mistakes. So it should not surprise us when Lena perishes at film's end.

In Lena's apartment, we are introduced to the flashback. It is here that we see Charlie stare at a poster of himself as if he's looking through a window, and it is this shot that initiates the flashback, where we see Charlie (as Edouard) share a happy and loving relationship with his wife Theresa. Edouard was working hard to be a world-class pianist and they would entertain themselves playing silly games, which we witness in the initial restaurant scene.

It is in this scene also where the instrument of blind ambition is introduced in the form of the impressario, Lars Schmeel. The mise-en-scene creepily places him in between Edouard and Charles in the restaurant scene, and even more creeperly (sp?) temporarily displaces Edourd in bed in the following iris-out shot. This last shot shouts out Schmeels true intentions.

It is however, Theresa that allows herself to be seduced by Schmeel to further Edouard's career, an infidelity she hides from Edouard. By living a lie, she forshadows Eduoard living a lie as a world class concert pianist. Theresa's act, the result of ambition, eats at her true self, resulting in at first only making herself miserable, then driving a physical wedge between them (she doesn't let Edouare touch her anymore), then finally resulting in her destruction. Edouard, given a chance to save his wife, instead retreats to his insecurities, in keeping with the theme of resorting to one's past when push comes to shove. (That Edouard/Charlie is at essence a shy, insecure person was identified for us earlier by Plyne.)

Edouard cannot forgive himself for he had been as guilty as Theresa in the breakup of their relationship. He had also been seduced by Schmeel himself. Edouard's ambition had been to be a world-class pianist, even though his temperament was not suited for the stress that went along for that role. This is made evident during the first argument scene when Theresa wishes Edouard could be more sure of himself, and Edouard replies that maybe he is not the man for her. This realization on Edouard's part leads to Schmeel's final seductionl. This takes place when Schmeel shows an article supposedly showing some article about Edouard, but also containing an ad promising to cure shyness. Edouard, blinded by his desire to succeed, emakes himself emotionally, but finds otherwise when confronted by the decision whether or not to go to Theresa's side after she confesses. Despite his (true) internal voice telling him to do the right thing, he retreats based on his (false) reconstructed emotional core. His retreat from the room eviscerates Theresa, and an abandoned Theresa jumps to her death.

The crux of the film's story then is to not let your ambitions blind you to who you and those you love really are. Theresa attempts to transform Edouard into a world-class pianist, and betrays their relationship to do so. She can't live with the lie she's living, but once rejected by Edouard, her resaon for living evaporates. For Edouard it's also all about becoming the world-class pianist. To succeed, he places himself outside of his roots, and confuses what's most important at the time it matters the most. This leads to Edouard's emotional destruction.

The duality of their lives ends for Theresa once she jumps, but is exaggerated in Edouard when he retreats, tailed tucked in between his legs, into the junkyard existence he chooses (as the scene exiting from the flashback suggests), rusting away as Charlie Koller.

The question Truffaut asks us to consider at this point in the film is: Can Charlie find happiness with Lena? And the answer is: No. Lena is the second coming of Theresa, a woman who wants to transform the sad Charlie Koller into that world-renown concert pianist, Edouard; something Edourd can never be. It is intereting to note that neither Theresa or Lena represent the prototypical femme fatales of the gangster genre. The real femme fatale is ambition. Lars Scheel is only a conduit for Lady Ambition. He only facilitiates Theresa's ambitions for Edouard. Lars serves the same purpose for Edouard, exemplified not only by the newspaper article scene already mentioned, but also, in the scene where Edouard visits Schmeel's studio. Here Eduard's modesty prevents him from interrupting (as evidenced by the increasingly extreme close-ups of the doorbell) the seduction taking place inside the studio (as the lovely violin music from within the studio protrays). The fact that Edouard's music later similarly effects the violin player in the hallway (she stops when Edouard starts playing, lowers her violin, and then continues) is evidence that she is aware that a similar seduction is taking place with Edouard. As for Lena, there is no need for a Schmeel to faciliate her ambitions. Lena makes her plans for Edouard clear in her apartment. In other words, her ambitions are already in play, and also ends in her destruction (she returns to the farmhouse, to retrieve Charlie and continue with her plans to remake him into the world-class pianist she wishes for him to be.)

In the end, Charlie's only hope is to one day share the Stranger's experience: suddenly finding himself in love with someone (the new waitress introduced at the end of the film?) who accepts him for what he is, past and all: a shy and resrved man who happens to play the piano very well.