Re: RARA-AVIS: David Goodis- Tirez sur le Pianiste- films

Etienne Borgers (freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Tue, 30 Mar 1999 22:24:42 -0800 (PST) A. Goodis.

Nicole,

It's the way round!

The original novel by Goodis, Down There (1956) was
translated for Serie Noire in France (in 1957) under
the title:
Tirez sur le Pianiste- or: Shoot the piano Player.

Truffeau in his film of 1960 simply took the French
title of the novel at the time.
This title is *in French* a derision of "NE Tirez PAS
sur le pianiste" (Don't Shoot....) expression which
means (coloquial): don't nag the one who does what he
can...

Film by Truffeau:
I personnally think this film is way inferior to the
book, speaking of contents and HB/Noir.
However... seen as something detached fron its
origin, and not comparing it to the book, Truffeau
did a quite good film strong by its artistic "film
assembly" (montage, shoots, cinematography)

B. HB films- List found by Mark Sullivan
As for the list of HB/ 1984, I would recommend the
film by Rene Clement "La Course du Lievre...",
underrated, a little bit offbeat but (IMO)
captivating. It was only partially based on the novel
by Goodis (The Raving Beauty - 1967).
To recall, Clement was the director of "Plein
Soleil"(1959) with Alain Delon, extremely brilliant
film Noir- and probably Clement's masterpiece.

E.Borgers
Hard-Boiled Mysteries
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

A/---Nicole Leclerc <nicolel@cam.org> wrote:
>
> The movie was indeed one the classics of the time.
For some reason the
> French title "Ne tirez pas sur le pianiste" (Don't
Shoot the Piano Player)
> was translated into the exact opposite in English.
Since I don't know the
> original title of Goodis' work, I have no idea
which came first. I remember
> seeing it way back then and really enjoying it,
particularly the rare
> acting performance of singer Charles Aznavour as
the pianist. The story is
> now somewhat blurry in my mind but some images are
still vivid - a sign of a
> good movie in my opionion. I second Mark's
recommandation.
>
> Nicole Leclerc
> nicolel@cam.org
>
> Mark Sullivan wrote:
>
> > Shoot the Piano Player (1960) was made by
Francois Truffaut and is
> > deservedly considered one of the classics of the
French New Wave. I
> > looked it up at reel.com and it looks like it is
about to be reissued on
> > video, available 4/27. Recommended.
> >
> > Mark
>
>
>
>

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