Shoot the Piano Player [Tirez sur le pianiste]

N.p. N.p., Circa 1960. Vintage oversize borderless reference photograph of actor Charles Aznavour and director François Truffaut on the set of the 1960 film. Annotations in manuscript ink and a printed provenance label on the verso.

Aznavour spends half his time playing saloon piano and half his time on the run in this early Truffaut masterpiece, one of the great French noirs, based on the 1956 hard-boiled novel "Down There" by American pulp author David Goodis.

Criterion notes: "François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague."

9 x 11.25 inches. Very Good plus.

Criterion Collection 315. Grant France.

[Book #163339]