Wednesday, July 1, 2009

After Hours

Charles Aznavour - Et Pourtant

It's everybody's favorite Franco-Armenian entertainer! This is from the 1964 film Cherchez l'Idole. Yes, le grand Charles is pretty zombie-tacular in this, but so is the audience! I mean, it's not like a truly dynamic performer is singing a great tune or anything. Nothing to get excited about here, folks. Just sit still and we'll run the credits for you in a sec!

You'll also remember that Aznavour is (he's still quite alive) something of an actor. His most memorable role was in Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player from 1960. Here's the trailer:

You know, I tried with all my mighty might to dislike Truffaut and I just can't. He's much too good of a filmmaker. True Fahrenheit 451 is a disaster, but Day for Night more than makes up for it. Shoot the Piano Player is really quite a gem and Chuck is great in it. He gets to play the piano, fall in love and go triple-badass on his brother's enemies - all at terrible cost. I highly recommend it, but just be aware of this: it's in French.

2 comments:

Jim said...

I saw "L'enfant Sauvage" at SIFF earlier this year and found it a deeply moving enquiry into science and human understanding. Can you say this about any Godard film?

Igor Keller said...

Yeah, I even like Truffaut as an actor despite the comb-over and the fact that he's totally beady-eyed. I saw parts of "L'enfant" the week they were showing it on the This Network. It's very good and so is Truffaut's acting.