February 29, 2024
FILM: THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
DIRECTED BY: JAVIER MARISCAL, FERNANDO TRUEBA
STARRING: JEFF GOLDBLUM, ROBERTA WALLACH, TONY RAMOS
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
They Shot the Piano Player is an animated documentary style film about a journalist who attempts to find out what happened to a 1950s/60s samba jazz pianist. Jeff Goldblum voices the journalist but he’s not what makes the film most interesting to view. Right from the opening credits, we know it will be filled with cool jazz sounds and a lot of colorful imagery. For the most part it does, but the energy wanes down towards the middle, losing the initial great steam the filmmakers behind the previous Oscar-nominated animated film, Chico and Rita, establish so well in the beginning.
The opening features the journalist at a bookstore event in 2009 reflecting on how his then current book came to be written. Flashbacks take us to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as he interviews musicians and family members who knew the pianist, Tenorio Jr. What filmmakers Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba do so well here is to capture the minute details of clubs, rivers, and homes of the region during the 1960s. Colors are vibrant throughout making for an immensely pleasing visual aesthetic. There is something to be said for telling a story like this using such precise 2D animation. A lot of money is saved on production design, costumes, cinematography, and other elements that would be so necessary to bring the narrative to life as a live action work. Also included are some fine animated recreations of significant jazz figures such as Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker. What is also quite fascinating is the history of the bossa nova sound that swept the world during this era. The film features a number of energetic jazz numbers that inspire me to seek out recordings from the period.
The title refers to the 1960 French film by Francois Truffaut, Shoot the Piano Player. That film along with others by the director such as The 400 Blows and Jules & Jim are given brief animated recreations here. The French New Wave directors at the time were breaking the rules of cinema and taking new forms of creative control over their work. Similarly, Tenorio Jr. and the samba jazz movement were changing the sound of pop and jazz effecting artists all over the world.
The main focus though is the disappearance of Tenorio Jr. and the implications that, after a military coup, led to a dictatorship in Brazil. Similar situations were occurring throughout Central and South America and many people went missing and were never found again. Within the context of the film this history lesson becomes fascinating but it also begins to drop the energy of the first part of the film as the mystery becomes darker and grimmer. Unfortunately, Mariscal and Trueba then rely a bit too heavily on talking head interviews virtually halting the lively soundtrack. As such, flatness bogs down the rest of the narrative. The plot also doesn’t advance much suggesting a bit more narrative editing might have improved the overall flow of the film.
Jeff Goldblum is a welcome presence here as the journalist, mostly speaking in English but occasionally conversing with other characters in Portuguese. The problem is that he doesn’t inject much personality into his character, also remaining a bit flat throughout the film.
Still, Mariscal and Trueba do make an interesting and melancholic story suggesting that the world may have lost a lot of strong musical creators due to the various military and political happenings of the 1960s. Would the samba jazz sound expanded and grown through the following decades? What else could a character like Tenorio Jr. have contributed to 20th Century music? It’s an intriguing question and one that is still relevant today thanks to the many socio-political uprisings and coups that have occurred throughout the world in the last 60 years.
They Shot the Piano Player played last fall at the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens this week in limited theatrical release.
FILM: THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
DIRECTED BY: JAVIER MARISCAL, FERNANDO TRUEBA
STARRING: JEFF GOLDBLUM, ROBERTA WALLACH, TONY RAMOS
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
They Shot the Piano Player is an animated documentary style film about a journalist who attempts to find out what happened to a 1950s/60s samba jazz pianist. Jeff Goldblum voices the journalist but he’s not what makes the film most interesting to view. Right from the opening credits, we know it will be filled with cool jazz sounds and a lot of colorful imagery. For the most part it does, but the energy wanes down towards the middle, losing the initial great steam the filmmakers behind the previous Oscar-nominated animated film, Chico and Rita, establish so well in the beginning.
The opening features the journalist at a bookstore event in 2009 reflecting on how his then current book came to be written. Flashbacks take us to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as he interviews musicians and family members who knew the pianist, Tenorio Jr. What filmmakers Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba do so well here is to capture the minute details of clubs, rivers, and homes of the region during the 1960s. Colors are vibrant throughout making for an immensely pleasing visual aesthetic. There is something to be said for telling a story like this using such precise 2D animation. A lot of money is saved on production design, costumes, cinematography, and other elements that would be so necessary to bring the narrative to life as a live action work. Also included are some fine animated recreations of significant jazz figures such as Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker. What is also quite fascinating is the history of the bossa nova sound that swept the world during this era. The film features a number of energetic jazz numbers that inspire me to seek out recordings from the period.
The title refers to the 1960 French film by Francois Truffaut, Shoot the Piano Player. That film along with others by the director such as The 400 Blows and Jules & Jim are given brief animated recreations here. The French New Wave directors at the time were breaking the rules of cinema and taking new forms of creative control over their work. Similarly, Tenorio Jr. and the samba jazz movement were changing the sound of pop and jazz effecting artists all over the world.
The main focus though is the disappearance of Tenorio Jr. and the implications that, after a military coup, led to a dictatorship in Brazil. Similar situations were occurring throughout Central and South America and many people went missing and were never found again. Within the context of the film this history lesson becomes fascinating but it also begins to drop the energy of the first part of the film as the mystery becomes darker and grimmer. Unfortunately, Mariscal and Trueba then rely a bit too heavily on talking head interviews virtually halting the lively soundtrack. As such, flatness bogs down the rest of the narrative. The plot also doesn’t advance much suggesting a bit more narrative editing might have improved the overall flow of the film.
Jeff Goldblum is a welcome presence here as the journalist, mostly speaking in English but occasionally conversing with other characters in Portuguese. The problem is that he doesn’t inject much personality into his character, also remaining a bit flat throughout the film.
Still, Mariscal and Trueba do make an interesting and melancholic story suggesting that the world may have lost a lot of strong musical creators due to the various military and political happenings of the 1960s. Would the samba jazz sound expanded and grown through the following decades? What else could a character like Tenorio Jr. have contributed to 20th Century music? It’s an intriguing question and one that is still relevant today thanks to the many socio-political uprisings and coups that have occurred throughout the world in the last 60 years.
They Shot the Piano Player played last fall at the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens this week in limited theatrical release.