Francois Truffaut's loving homage to Hollywood gangster films is less a plot-filled film noir than a free-associative meditation on the genre. Charles Aznavour stars as a one-time concert pianist who gained fame as Edouard Saroyan but has since changed his name to Charlie Kohler and plays honky-tonk in an out-of-the-way saloon. His self-imposed exile is shattered by the appearance of his mobster brother Richard Saroyan (Jacques Aslanian). Truffaut’s adaptation of David Goodis’s Down There pays charming tribute to—and parodies—Hollywood gangster films. As critic Dudley Andrew says, however, “beyond parody, its sincerity is the love Truffaut feels for the movies.”
