Shoot the Piano Player

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.

France
1960
81 minutes
Black & White
2.35:1
French
Spine #315

Special Features

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
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

Cover by F. Ron Miller

Coming soon, available Nov 10, 2026

4K+Blu-ray 2 Discs $39.96 SRP: $49.95

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

Digital Options

Watch Now On

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
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

Cover by F. Ron Miller

Cast & Credits

Cast

Charles Aznavour: Charlie Koller/Edouard Saroyan
Marie Dubois: Léna
Nicole Berger: Thérésa Saroyan
Michèle Mercier: Clarisse
Serge Davri: Plyne
Claude Mansard: Momo
Daniel Boulanger: Ernest
Jean-Jacques Aslanian: Richard Saroyan
Richard Kanayan: Fido Saroyan
Claude Heymann: Lars Schmeel
Albert Rémy: Chico Saroyan

Credits

Director: François Truffaut
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Editing: Claudine Bouché
Editing: Cécile Decugis
From the novel Down There by: David Goodis
Adaptation by: François Truffaut
Adaptation by: Marcel Moussy
Producer: Pierre Braunberger
Music: Georges Delerue
Sound: Jacques Gallois
Production supervisor: Serge Komor
Production manager: Roger Fleytoux
Script girl: Suzanne Schiffman

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Current

Shoot the Piano Player: You’ll Laugh, You’ll Cry

If there is a skeleton key to François Truffaut’s oeuvre, it is this film, in which all of his assorted gifts and preoccupations are in play and meshed into a uniquely idiosyncratic whole.

By Kent Jones

Essays — Dec 6, 2005

Remembering Peter Brunette

Sitting on a hard drive here in the office is the unedited footage of an interview we shot here with Peter Brunette on April 26, for an upcoming release of Senso. The release had been delayed, but I told Peter that since he had already boug…

By Issa Clubb

Production Notes — Jun 23, 2010

Truffaut Goes Wide for His “American” Movie

Professor Jeff Smith breaks down how François Truffaut’s loving tribute to the crime genre Shoot the Piano Player uses anamorphic widescreen compositions to stylish effect.

On the Channel — Oct 29, 2018

The Unforgettable Images of Raoul Coutard

From the delicate natural lighting in Jacques Demy’s Lola to the breathtaking widescreen Technicolor in Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou, the late cinematographer Raoul Coutard’s most indelible images remain hallmarks of modern French cinema. I…

Short Takes — Nov 14, 2016

Did You See This?

Film Comment Arrives, Overlook Film Festival, the History of French Noir

The November/December issue of Film Comment has arrived, and the highlights include Mark Harris on queer representation in contemporary cinema, Violet Lucca on the power of digital VFX software, and Eric Hynes on the forty-year history of t…

Short Takes — Nov 4, 2016

From the Truffaut Archives

Today marks the birthday of French New Wave pioneer François Truffaut. In celebration of his incredible life and body of work, revisit a selection of essays and Criterion supplements dedicated to the brilliant filmmaker and cinephile: “The face o…

Short Takes — Feb 6, 2016

Explore

Georges Delerue

Composer

Composer Georges Delerue, once named “the Mozart of cinema” by the French newspaper Le Figaro, wrote more than 350 film and television scores, along with pop songs, ballads, and orchestral pieces. In the course of his work with such titans of cinema as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Mike Nichols, and Oliver Stone, Delerue, a native of Roubaix, France, created some of the most evocative film music of all time. Although he was trained in metallurgy, and began his working life in a metal factory, his lineage was musical (grandfather a choral singer, mother a pianist), and he found himself drawn in that direction, first studying the clarinet and eventually beginning to compose. After doing some scoring for television and short films (including Agnès Varda’s early short L’opéra mouffe, which is available on Criterion’s edition of Cléo from 5 to 7), Delerue was approached by Resnais and Truffaut to write the themes to Hiroshima mon amour and Shoot the Piano Player, two works at the forefront of the French New Wave movement. The scores for which he is now best known followed close on their heels: his energetic, lovely melody for Jules and Jim and his grand, swoony, undulating theme for Contempt—the latter appropriated years later by Martin Scorsese for his 1995 drama Casino. Delerue’s stature grew, thanks to scores for such films as The Two of Us and King of Hearts, and eventually he would not only win an Oscar (for 1979’s A Little Romance) and three Césars in a row (for Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Love on the Run, and The Last Metro) but also be named a Commander of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest cultural honors. He came to Hollywood in the eighties and wrote music for Platoon, Beaches, and Steel Magnolias, among others. Delerue died in 1992.