shoot the piano player (truffaut, 1960)

my new favorite post-breathless new-wave acts like a playground for truffaut to experiment with and reinvent the conventions of filmmaking, genre, and story. you can practically feel him trying to one-up godard, and he does on more than one occasion. the story is heartfelt and beautiful, and truffaut really understands its core essence and does right by it, right down to the final focus on the piano player's ear (this may sound obvious for an auteur, but so often it isn't the case). the character parallels are artful, and the dialogue is superbly witty and full of puns--i can only imagine how rich the text would be if i actually spoke french. the influence on wes and the coens bleeds off the screen. a true delight.

classics scale: 8.5/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054389/