Thirteen years after “Chico & Rita”, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal mix music and animation again in “They Shot the Piano Player”. An investigation carried by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, to be discovered in cinemas from January 31.
What does it talk about ?
A New York music journalist investigates the disappearance, on the eve of the coup d’état in Argentina, of Francisco Tenório Jr., a virtuoso Brazilian pianist. While celebrating jazz and Bossa Nova, the film captures a fleeting period of creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 1960s and 1970s, just before the continent fell under the yoke of totalitarian regimes.
3 good reasons to give in
After several live-action feature films, made since the early 1980s, Fernando Trueba moved to animation in 2011 with Chico & Rita, assisted by Javier Mariscal. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss their second collaboration, also lively.
1 – Based on a little-known true story…
Music journalist Jeff Harris, who tells the story, does not exist. But Francisco Tenório Jr. yes. born July 4, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro, this Brazilian pianist died in March 1976 at the age of 34. Note the conditional carefully. Because although there is unfortunately no doubt about his fate, the circumstances of his disappearance have never really been clarified. And each interlocutor of the main character has a different theory, right down to a key testimony.
But all point to the same conclusion: Francisco Tenório Jr. paid the high price for the wind of freedom that he helped to blow through his music. The film makes him a symbol of the oppression characteristic of dictatorships, and the way in which those who try to resist him are treated. In a story at the crossroads of investigation, political thriller and documentary, which uses animation and bright colors to bring the pianist to life.
Dulac Distribution Francisco Tenório Jr. (left)
“Initially, I wanted to make a classic documentary about Tenório”specifies co-director Fernando Trueba. “There was nothing on him, so I did more than 150 filmed interviews with his musician friends, sound engineers, his wife, Carmen, his mistress, Malena, his children. I went to Paris, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Rio, São Paulo… I also went to Argentina to see the places where Tenório had spent his last days. I then had more information about him than his family and the police!
“Thanks to animation, we could bring Tenório back to life and see him play. Thanks to Javier’s drawings and colors [Mariscal, co-réalisateur]we were able to ‘reopen’ the bars of Rio de Janeiro where Bossa Nova was born in the 60s. We also had the opportunity to recreate the dark years of Argentina.” Form, substance and a film that tells us about the History of Art and South America against a backdrop of unknown destiny, what more could you ask for?
2 – … with a well-known voice
If several of the people interviewed by Jeff Harris really exist (Gilberto Gil in the lead), this is not the case of the journalist, who can nevertheless be considered as the voice of his directors. Except that he owns that of… Jeff Goldblum. That Fernando Trueba had already directed in The Dream of the Mad Monkey in 1990 (also with Anemone in the cast), well before he tried his hand at animation with Chico & Rita, in 2011, alongside Javier Mariscal.
And it’s an understatement to say that the singing timbre of Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, himself a jazz pianist when he’s not in front of a camera, suits this story perfectly with a backdrop of music, which he mostly narrates in voice. -off. So much so that, at first, They Shot the Piano Player resembles an animated episode of the documentary series The World According to Jeff Goldblum, available on Disney+. Before reality takes precedence over fiction, and the actor manages to make himself forgotten… while continuing to captivate us.
3 – A tribute to music and cinema
Is it really a coincidence that the title They Shot the Piano Player recalls that of Shootez sur le pianiste? Of course not. And not only because Fernando Trueba admits to having written the screenplay with the poster of François Truffaut’s second feature film in front of his eyes, above his desk.
The film explains that Bossa Nova and the French New Wave were launched the same year, in 1959, revolutionizing their respective fields by overturning the codes established until now. Cinephiles will therefore have the joy of seeing in They Shot the Piano Player extracts from A bout de souffle, Les 400 coups and Jules et Jim in animated version. With the risk of wanting to watch these films again, while listening to the music highlighted in this animated feature film.
Starting with that of Francisco Tenório Jr. who, although he was the author of only one solo album, remains considered a major figure in the history of music with an influence that has grown over time. years. That They Shot the Piano Player highlights it so much is only fair.