SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (CRITERION)

François Truffaut, Brilliant Director Who Gave You the Award Winning “The 400 Blows”, Now Brings to the Screen a Fascinating New Work That Plays in Many Keys…All of Them Delightful!

François Truffaut plays the crime genre like jazz with this freewheeling adaptation of a novel by pulp master David Goodis, a film that infuses noir fatalism with a nervy nouvelle-vague freshness. The tragicomic story follows the adventures of timid dance-hall pianist Charlie (Charles Aznavour), who gets caught up in a whirlwind love affair and is inadvertently drawn into a violent underworld by his gangster brothers. With the film's dazzling mix of Raoul Coutard's handheld camera work, a wistful score by Georges Delerue, and playfully jagged editing, Truffaut creates a rueful character study shot through with his signature obsessions: cinema, the elusive nature of creativity, and the sting of romantic regret.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• TWO-DISC (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY) COMBO PACK RELEASE
• NEW 4K RESTORATION, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring film scholars Peter Brunette and Annette Insdorf
• Introduction by filmmaker Noah Baumbach
• Interviews with cinematographer Raoul Coutard, actors Charles Aznavour and Marie Dubois, and François Truffaut collaborator Suzanne Schiffman
• Archival interviews with Truffaut on the film and the source novel
• The Music of Georges Delerue, an illustrated audio essay
• Episode of the Criterion Channel series Observations on Film Art featuring scholar Jeff Smith
• Dubois's screen test
• Trailer
• Plus: An essay by film critic Kent Jones, an interview with Truffaut, and reflections by the director on Aznavour and Dubois