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sn#352585 filedate 1978-05-02 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
Stefanie Allyn Bayley
Francois Truffaut's second film, Shoot The Piano Player, was a direct
extension of his written criticism while working at Cahiers du Cinema. As he
emerged as a director, his ideas crystalized into technique. Though he no
longer so finely distinguished between "good" and "bad" films, his emphasis was
on the more subtle graduations of the two. He saw films as good when they mixed
genres and emotions, creating characters filled with conflicting impulses of
good and evil, action and non-action. This film intertwines and counter- points
slapstick and gangster film, romance and melodrama. The central oharacter is
the embodiment of these contradictions in his duality as Charlie/ Edouard. His
actions have had him withdrawing from life, only to be drawn back into it, back
and forth. These movements between involvement and exile are produced by
unforseen, uncontrollable circumstances; they just seem to happen.
Truffaut is destroying our concepts of right and wrong with
inconguities. As we view the film, outside reality disappears and we must accept
givens. He has said, "It's not necessary to look for reality in Piano Player -
neither in the Armenian family in the snow near Grenoble, nor in the bar in the
Levallois-Perret..." Yet we can take a detailed look at one scene and find the
elements of Truffaut's theory of mixibility and the effects it has on his
characters, the reality it creates for them. The resistance and ultimate
inclusion of Charlie once again fuses his behavior patterns. The
inconsistancies in environment distort our reactions, yet have an impact on the
characters that we can interpret.
In the following analysis we will see examples of classic "film noir"
technique in Truffaut's camera direction. The withholding of an establishing
long shot of the farmhouse at the beginning of the scene creates a
disorientation we continually try to rectify. Compression of the frame by areas
of darkness, the cutting off of people's bodies, high angled shots, and the
prominence of objects in the foreground all find place and use in this work.
The farmhouse scene in Truffaut's second film, Shoot The Piano Player,
is the only scene where we see all the Saroyan brothers together. One, Edouard,
has left his life as concert pianist to become Charlie Kohler, honky tonk piano
player in a bar-cafe. He has killed the bar owner with a knife in a quarrel and
has come to the family's farmhouse to join his brothers in hiding. Richard and
Chico are already there, hiding out from two robbers, after stealing the money
for themselves. Chico had gone to Paris earlier to enlist the aid of Charlie,
but he had refused. Richard meets Charlie some distance from the house and we
do not see it before the first interior shot. The first farmhouse shot is a
medium close-up of Charlie and Richard sitting at a table, Charlie on the left,
Richard on the right. Their right and left, respectively, shoulders extend out
of the frame creating a center space of approximately one third of the frame.
Charlie is still wearing his light colored trenchcoat, is slightly hunched over
the table, with his hands below the table, and is staring off to the right and
down. Richard is talking to and looking at Charlie. His forearms are crossed
and propped on the table, his hands vivid against his bulky black sweater. The
center space of the frame is filled with plain painted panelling. At the top of
the frame a bouncing pendulum indicates the presence of a clock. Richard and
the table overlap Charlie's figure, superimposing one brother over another. We
have been told in previous narration that this is the family home and also that
the older parents have been sent into the village for the "duration". Yet this
first shot shows no "hominess" that we can identify from Charlie's attitude. He
is withdrawn, inanimate, unresponsive to either his brother or his environment.
He is dressed formally - a crisp coat, white shirt, tie - looking much like his
abandonned Eduoard image. The table top is empty and bare, as is the wall
behind it. His brother's posture is casual, accustomed, and most importantly,
we see it as dominant. Charlie seems to be, at most, a guest. Charlie's only
response to his brother is when Richard speaks to him from his personal
viewpoint. Up until now Richard has been talking of Charlie's experiences.
Charlie responds to Richard's use of "I". Richard says that he is glad to see
him again [not "...glad you're back," as subtitled]. At this, Charlie replies ,
"me too," and becomes temporarily animated. Charlie glances several times over
his right shoulder, away from Richard, distracted, not seeming to be listening,
yet more award than in his staring state. Charlie changes the subject to that
of the boiling coffee. Richard gets up, walks behind Charlie, as the camera
dollies right and out, along the side of the table, revealing that Charlie is
sitting at one short end of it, again giving the impression of a guest. We now
have a wider angled medium shot. We see Richard as functioning in this
environment. He is fiddling with coffee, stove, wood poker, etc. behind
Charlie, at a right angle to the camera. In this wider shot more of the surface
of the table is revealed in the foreground, showing us that Charlie's gaze may
well have been fixed into the immediacy of the farmhouse afterall, for jutting
out of the table is a large knife_ we now see his staring eyes' target. Also,
we see a bowl of eggs and a lit lantern lined up on the surface, leading away
from Charlie. At the same time, Richard is speaking of going "stir crazy,"
holed up in the house. Whereas Charlie fixes onto the knife as a replay of the
knife jutting out of his victim, in the context of the farmhouse it is both an
implement for eating and for toying with to while away time. With this wider
shot we also see more of the walls of the interior. A background woodpile,
stovepipe, shelves with bottles, and the whole wall clock, surprisingly
delicate, reflecting polished metal. Finally, we expect to see some of the
intimate articles of the brothers' parents' home. What we see is that strange
combination of utilitarian and absurd things that we would more likely expect
from any hide-out. The setting still looks stark, barely functional, except for
the small clock.
A cut to a close-up of Charlie with the camera angled down. Richard's
voice talks of not wanting to get up in the morning, of being a prisoner. The
image of Charlie is locked into the frame, pinned at the shoulders. Charlie
only blinks, his face frozen, drawn, pale, expressionless. Richard is still
fiddling behind his head. We see that Charlie is perhaps listening now,
reflecting on his life as "Charlie Kohler," the imprisonment he, too, has
imposed on himself.
Cut back to shot 1. Richard speaks of playing and joking with Chico,
that they had found it at first fun. Perhaps Charlie is remembering the quarrel
with the bar owner_ the "play" that he had wanted to stop once they had
tusselled outside of the bar, away from the women's view, after he thought they
had both made their points. Richard pounds the ceiling with an ax, calls to
Chico. The camera pans back to the right to Chico descending the stairs behind
the panelling, emerging through the door. Chico is also wearing casual warm
"country" clothing - a paid woolen shirt over a plain one. Richard is bent over
the stove in the background with his back to Chico. Chico acknowledges Charlie
first; it is then that Charlie breaks away again from his locked gaze. Chico,
thus, seems to be the central, dominant figure, able to command attention, and
much more readily than did Richard. Continuing this, the camera continues to
pan to place only Chico in the frame in a medium shot with still more of the
table revealed: a pile of cut bread, reaffirming the farmhouse context of the
knife, as opposed to Charlie's context. As we lose view of the knife and
Charlie's focus, before the end of the pan, for the first time we see well a
gleaming gun in Chico's hand. This, then, also defines the knife in its
farmhouse context, as Chico thinks the gun is more important. Chico is also
carrying a small briefcase. Charlie asks, "What is that?" Chico answers, "The
loot." But Charlie may be asking about the gun. Richard enters from the left,
looking at Chico. The camera pans back to the left and Chico and Richard both
turn and look at Charlie as Chico explains that "the loot" is the reason he went
to Paris. This is a very powerful statement as it demonstrates that Chico has
begun to formulate his own version of his actions pertaining to the robbery, The
scenes in Paris of Chico and Charlie give no indication that that was his
purpose in being there, rather, that he had sought Charlie's help, as usual.
Now, in the farmhouse, Chico is, it seems, concocting, but with Charlie's lack
of response, he goes unchecked, uncorrected, thus putting himself into a
different power position in relation to his brothers. The two brother looking
at Charlie also seem to be accusing, challenging; they are both standing and
Charlie is still hunched over the table. Chico had just told what seens to us
to be a fabrication. Charlie is still locked into his lie of being "Charlie"
and thus cannot question Chico's lie. We see that Charlie's eyes have now found
the gun. Chico's power is reaffirmed as the camera dollies along the table, and
then pans and dollies to face Chico sitting there. As Chico starts to sit at
the table, the combination dolly and pan of the camera effects the disappearance
of Charlie, so that the fully seated Chico is the only figure in the frame. He
is also at a more perpendicular angle to the camera than the past views of
Charlie - a much more commanding stance, even when sitting. We must face him,
as we didn't have to with Charlie. His attention is directed out of the frame
to his right, where we think Charlie is. Before him on the table are both the
knife and the gun, and the eggs, along with the coffee "cups" Richard has been
setting out. Chico tells Charlie of he and Richard "going straight," with a
lean towards Charlie and a grin on his face. This affect of intimacy, humor at
his and Richard's situation, shows his reversion to a brotherly understanding he
expects from Charlie. Also, we see a "black" humor at his finding their
situation funny. They were trying to be something they were not, much the same
way Charlie was. The camera pans back to Charlie as Richard serves him coffee
first, again implying he is a guest. Richard's face is not seen in a full or
flat view, but as a horizontal "into" the frame as he leans over the table.
Thus he does not interrupt the preference given to the other brothers, but seems
to condone and nurture it. The shot ends with Richard finishing the pouring of
his own coffee from a position to the right and slightly behind Charlie, as
Charlie looks at Chico. Charlie faces across the camera view at close to a 90
degree angle, while Chico almost faces it squarely.
The cut to the next shot is almost a jump cut. Richard is now off the
left edge, with only the coffee pot and his hands visible. Chico is in
mid-frame in a closer shot than we last saw, and once again he is more square to
the camera. He can command these things. Richard walks behind Chico to pour
his coffee from Chico's left side, waiter-like. This also serves to keep him
from coming between Charlie and Chico. He then exits to the left behind Chico.
As Chico says that he and Richard should have "bumped them off" (the robbers)
there is a cut to what seems to be empty space. This is very disconcerting
after two very long takes, with only one short static close-up in between. The
whole image is quite abstract, especially when we see a figure enter from the
upper left corner, a new camera angle, completely obscuring the space. It is
Richard in his black sweater, which serves to 'compress' the frame downwards as
he is seated. This leaves us with a close-up of Richard, shot from above and
over Charlie. We see a rounded, full face surrounded by curly locks. He looks
somewhat cherubic, child-like. The camera angle downward seems to substantiate
this - his child-like quality - by giving us a dominating viewpoint. This is
especially evident as Richard tells Chico that Charlie has killed a man.
Richard does not take his eyes off Charlie as he relates this information to his
other brother. We see this as tattling on Charlie; we watch as he judges his
words not by the reaction of whom they're spoken to, but whom they're spoken of.
It is at this point that we see Richard's place between his two brothers. As at
the table he is eventually placed between, in life he is there to "tattle", to
shuttle information between them, to sometimes act as buffer, but never to make
important final judgements or decisions. Yet he is the "functioning" one, the
brother who hasn't gotten himself all beat up, who does the domestic chores, who
retains a presentable, honest name, Richard, as opposed to the cuteness of
"Chico" and the lie of "Charlie." He is the one who has accepted his life in
hiding, he needs no gun, is not moping about the past. Opposed to this ability
to shed "external" influences, he is also the ultimate "follower"; Chico is a
bumbler, true, and Charlie has also bumbled through his experience, but Richard
continues to act on Chico's decisions and look for support from Charlie. As
Richard tells on Charlie, we see Charlie's head sliding out of the lower left
corner of the frame as it is bent forward. Charlie acknowledges his act by
lowering his head. The camera then serves to additionaly subjugate with the
angle looking down on both brothers, and by placing Charlie's head in front of
Richard, much as a slave would bow before a master. We are still at the highest
point of view, but that doesn't last as the film cuts to a dual close-up of
Richard and Chico, who is on the right.
The camera is once again level. Richard is slightly forward of Chico;
here he is again identified as the informant, a literal shuttle as he looks back
towards Chico. The camera angle is much closer than previously to what
Charlie's view would be. He is finally starting to become enmeshed in the
brotherly dialogue. Once again the brothers' bodies extend out of the frame.
The shot being closer, the edge is through their heads; the center third is
empty, but this time it is divided by a corner, and resulting shadow, in the
wall. Consequently, the thirds of the image actually become fourths or halves,
balanced, as Charlie sees his brothers.
These are his brothers. They will always be separate from him. His
view extends out from himself to encompass them, where he can either make the
balance an equal three-way split, or a two-way split between himself on one side
and the two of them on the other. As earlier shots seemed to be of the first,
tri-lateral view by not being from Charlie's viewpoint, this shot serves to set
up Charlie's inclusion. It is the "steeling shot," as he sees his brothers
before him, possessing the truth of his actions. Chico laughs as he realizes
that Richard has spoken the truth, and then there is one final pan to the right
to show Chico in single close-up. He is now ready to speak his judgement and
Charlie knows it. As Chico speaks, the camera cuts to Charlie's back as he
walks from the table. "T'est comme nous." (You are like us.) Charlie has
finally entered the scene as a participant, not as merely a guest.