User Reviews

A young Brazilian piano player, Francisco Tenório Júnior, unexpectedly disappears one night and is never heard from again. While it is likely that he is a victim of the brutal military regimes that ruled Latin America at the time, a journalist from New York - fascinated by Tenório's music - travels to Brazil to uncover the truth.

They Shot the Piano Player is a dazzling, animated, and documentary-style dive into bossa nova, samba, and the music of Brazil. The film is scattered and not organized well but it is a colorful and intriguing true story. It is soothing to the soul to see the film's artistry of Rio in moonlight and the bright and vibrant clubs and landscapes of Brazil. It is also interesting to learn about the military regimes of the time where tens of thousands of innocent people were tortured and killed for no reason. Their friends and family never got to say goodbye. These people are not alive or dead, only "disappeared."

This an animation film about the life and tragic death of Francisco Tenório, a jazz piano player. The story is narrated exclusively through the recorded accounts of people who met him, and it's framed through the journey of discovery that a writer takes to write a book about him.

The reconstruction of the interviews that constitute the bulk of the film is painstaking and extensive. Most are slightly unfocused, fogged by the passing of time, and can be resumed with "he was a great guy". It's only well into the second act that we start to get crumbs of information about his cruel demise, and eventually the mystery is solved. Ample context is given, and it sheds light over a very dark time of the history of Latin America. You leave the cinema feeling that Francisco remains a ghost, that his short life in perilous times left precious little trace beside his records, but perhaps it's intentional, and it's laudable that the director resists the temptation of creating an overarching narrative for dramatic effect.

Side notes: I found the "reduced animation" technique exceedingly distracting, and I couldn't quite decide if it was a stylistic choice, or a budgeting strategy. Jeff Goldblum is pitch-perfect in the part of the narrator, although little is made of the cultural difference between his character, a textbook New Yorker journalist, and his subjects, mostly old men from Brazil and Argentina.

Overall, a slightly uneven movie that remains interesting, and tells a worthwhile story. And, ah, Jeff Goldblum.

On March 18, 1976, pianist Tenorio Jr, one of the most promising Brazilian musicians of the time, disappeared without a trace after leaving his hotel in Buenos Aires to buy cigarettes. New York, 2010, Jeff Harris, an accredited music journalist, sets out to discover the truth about Francisco Tenorio Júnior, a young Brazilian samba-jazz pianist who disappeared in Argentina and who was working as a pianist for the famous musician Vinicius. Then the stubborn New York music journalist begins a hectic investigation to discover the truth behind this case, which occurred a few days before the coup d'état in Argentina.

This is a drama, it is a musical, and it is at the same time a documentary about the past and the present, adding an acid criticism of the South American dictatorships that proliferated in the seventies. They Shot The Piano Player (2023) captures a fleeting time filled with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 1960s and 1970s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes. Dealing with a New York music journalist embarking on a quest to discover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of the young Brazilian piano virtuoso named Tenorio Jr. The journalist's voice in the international version is that of Jeff Goldblum who previously worked for Fernando Trueba in 'The dream of the crazy monkey'. A celebratory origin story of the world-famous Latin musical movement Bossa Nova; 'They Shot The Piano Player' captures the details of a time gone by with creative freedom emerging and new musical styles exploding and influencing all parts of the world but especially in the United States. The film and its title pay tribute to Tirad on the Pianist (1960) and Jules and Jim (1962) by François Truffaut. To help accurately represent Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and other South American countries of the 1970s, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal undertook an extensive research trip and were able to view photographs from government archives of the time. The geography of the cities where the action takes place is as accurate as possible to the design of real life, in fact all the buildings are real buildings. There is also a lengthy description of the Mechanical School of the Argentine Navy located in Buenos Aires, and today converted into a museum, where suspects were apparently kidnapped during the time of General Videla's dictatorship. There they subjected the prisoners to severe torture, one of the main executioners being Captain Astiz, nicknamed the Angel of Death.

The film based on real events is made three years after the premiere of the animated film "Chico y Rita" (being the first Spanish animated film nominated for the United States Academy Award for Best Animated Film) Trueba and Javier Mariscal They team up again in this film, nominated for best animated film at the Goya 20124, a tribute to Latin music that combines documentary with political reflection, samba-jazz, Bosa nova, film noir and thriller. This intelligent but somewhat slow film was well and professionally directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, although it becomes somewhat tiresome due to the multitude of interviews that occur throughout the somewhat long story. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal's collaboration dates back 10 years ago when Trueba asked designer Mariscal to create a poster for his Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 (2000). The two would work together frequently, to the point of being co-owners of a jazz restaurant in Madrid. Trueba directed numerous hits such as ¨Sal gross¨, ¨Demasiado¨, ¨Milagro De Candeal¨, ¨Year of Lights¨, ¨The Girl of Your Dreams¨, ¨Calle 54¨, ¨Embrujo De Shanghai¨, ¨Chico y Rita¨ . Trueba was President of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and received the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1994 for ¨Belle Epoque¨ (1992). And the film "The Artist and the Model" was also handled with gentle confidence by Trueba, as always. And while "The Girl of Your Eyes" was a great success, one of his last films, "The Queen of Spain," was a resounding failure. Rating: 6/10. Passable and decent Spanish animated film.

The film serves as a reminder that, beneath the surface of the music and the mesmerizing landscapes, lies a deeper narrative of struggle, resilience, and the indomitable spirit of those who resisted oppression. The poignant stories of the disappeared become a collective cry for justice, echoing through the years and demanding acknowledgment of the atrocities committed during that dark chapter in history.

In conclusion, "They Shot the Piano Player" is not just a documentary; it is a symphony of sight and sound that resonates with the heartstrings of its audience. The scattered narrative mirrors the disarray of a nation under the grip of political turmoil, while the vibrant visuals and soul-stirring music provide a compelling backdrop to the search for truth. Through Francisco Tenório Júnior's story, the film becomes a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity, an ode to those who vanished into the shadows but whose echoes linger in the soul of Brazil.

Got to see this from the DOC NYC Festival.

This is another collaboration from filmmakers Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal as their previous movie "Chico & Rita" was 13 years ago. Chico & Rita wasn't perfect but I enjoyed the movie for it's characters and ambitious tone. With this new movie, unfortunately, despite strong musical soundtracks and a pretty interesting concept, this movie is a bit underwhelming and not as strong as it is able to be.

Throughout, the movie focuses on the life and disappearance of jazz piano player Francisco Tenório and the narrative is told through a mix of documentary and fictional feature style with real people and fictional characters implemented into the narrative. Docudrama movies can be interesting and there are some interesting interview moments and themes explored within the movie. But as whole, the movie suffers from unbalance structures between concepts that were interesting and some not being interesting. As if there were concepts and some ideas that felt a bit lost or uneven. The animation, colors, and models are pretty good but there were a few models that were distracting and cheap looking.

Many of the interviews were interesting as the interviews do provide interesting insights on the characters and Tenório. Including some themes about Tenório background, the mystery and some history about Latin America. There are some themes and concepts I kind of wish were explored because they were certain ideas that felt left out or too thin to fully comprehend emotionally. The voice performances from the characters were solid and I like Jeff Goldblum but unfortunately, his narration ended up being slightly distracting halfway as his character felt too thin to care for.

The best aspects are on the musical soundtrack as the musical soundtracks of Brazilian music is amazing with good tones and sounds throughout. Solid pacing.

Overall, despite the uneven structure, I still remained at least interested to see where the movie was heading towards and at the end, I found it at least interesting. But it could have been better.