COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	   VALID 00002 PAGES
C00031 ENDMK
C⊗;
COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
     
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
     
C00001 00001
     
C00002 00002
     
C00035 ENDMK
     
C⊗;
     
     
		                                   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 Francois Truffaut's 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 aware 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  plaid 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 brothers  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.