...
After reading it, I thought, what made me fall in love with Godard, and then turned to Truffaut. On the difference, it can really be said that three days and three nights, let's say that I want to seriously contact Truffaut. That was when I was reading the monograph on "Exhausted", and it was mentioned somewhere that in fact, the "Exhausted" project belonged to Truffaut, but somehow Truffaut He was handed over to Godard, and after that, two monuments in film history were established. One is "Four Hundred Blows" and the other is "Exhausted".
Truffaut's works always have objects of homage, something to refer to. "Four Hundred Strikes" is a hymn dedicated to his mentor Bazin; "Shooting the Pianist" is a long poem dedicated to his favorite detective, a B-level movie. While maintaining the flowing and casual photography style of the previous film "The Four Hundred Blows", the film uses names as symbols to pay tribute to the classic elements of American literature: writers William Saroyan, Charles, Zhuo Belin, theatrical actor Max. This is Truffaut's taste, and the label he is putting on his films. From a narrative point of view, the story begins with an unreasonable pursuit. In the high-contrast lighting environment, the guy named Chico is constantly running away, and he doesn't know whether he is intentional or not, and the characters are running again. To escape is also to seek freedom, but this time, the pursuit is a car, not a nihilistic abstraction. After Chico's fall, being helped and talking to strangers about women in Paris, the style of the film fused, the pace slowed down, back to the French people's favorite chatter movie, and then, after a goodbye, the chase continue. When Chico came to the bar, it turned into a slow pace with a petty bourgeoisie. From this clip, it seems that Truffaut is doing a mix of types, which corresponds to the theory of "type explosion", but he is not playing without restraint. The rhythm of the film is fast and slow, like the syncopated notes in jazz. Based on this, there are changes that give the film more form. But no matter how it changed, the tone set from the beginning was to declare that "Shooting the Pianist" was created as a film noir variant. In an interview, he said that this work spiritually belongs to "Desert Strangers", which is adapted from an American B-level novel, which confirms these claims. As a paragon of anti-type, Shooting the Pianist begins by conforming to the genre, and the paradigm of dancing within a frame can always teach us something.
Looking at the whole article, we will find that Truffaut has returned to what he is good at, showing mysterious women and complex relationships between men and women. Charlie has an unspeakable past, and this past hides his identity, which was created and buried by a woman. When Charlie meets another woman, the past is revealed. Charlie and the woman thought they could escape the past, but what they didn't expect was that they were harmed by a longer and stronger blood relationship. When all the dust settled, Charlie went back to his tavern as usual and hid himself. At this time, a new woman came to the tavern. This is a cyclical story that tells about Charlie's relationship with different women and the detached relationship they maintain. The determination of self-identity is closely related to the women around him. During a confession with him, you can see It turns out that Charlie is indeed looking for his sense of accomplishment in women, so he will leave his girlfriend after learning that his career has succeeded because of his girlfriend's body. He also sacrificed his own woman because of his brother. In a sense, Charles loves women and hates women. When he sat in front of the piano in the same way, who knew how many times this happened to Charlie. Of course, Truffaut paid tribute to Bresson's "finger art" in the episode of your love for me, which is beautiful and moving.
Although the location is Paris, the story is unpredictable and makes people feel a little dizzy. This is because Truffaut's reference value is in a specific superstitious culture, everything is referred to, and the audience interprets it by relying on video experience. This is not unintentional. Truffaut once said that this way of creating the world allows him to focus on his love.
If there is anything wrong with this film, it is that Truffaut is too obsessed with presenting his own view of love. Starting from Charlie's recollection, he obviously dilutes the characteristics of film noir. In the second half, we I can no longer find the benchmark value of the genre, and it can no longer be said to be a variant of the genre, but has been renamed the hybrid of the genre, which makes the works always have a sense of division, rather than a good fusion.
In fact, Truffaut's style is already showing signs of returning to tradition at the beginning of this film. All techniques serve the story, which is faithful to the way the story is described, and the "non-aggressive" that he criticized before. Novels and movies are somewhat similar, and he also admits the difference between him as a film critic and a film author, but because of this, his works are the most classic, the highest rated, and the most discerning in the new wave. What makes people happy is not his stubbornness to his ideas, but that in each film, there are changes that are fascinating and instructive. Only in the last years of his years, a good film such as "The Last Subway", which was well-received at the box office, was made. For him, the New Wave is not a dead end, not an established style change, it is just the beginning, not the end. Unfortunately, as violent as Godard, he would not think about it.
I think, as a filmmaker, you have to see Truffaut, he is so approachable, and at the same time, he is so talented. It's not that he doesn't have a strong attitude, but the techniques he presents are soft, not hurtful, and truly beautiful. It's not about the love he's showing, it's not about his work being part of the "eulogy", it's about a captivating story, a technique that captures the audience's deepest emotions.
View more about Shoot the Piano Player reviews
