Review: They Shot the Piano Player

The documentary delves into what happened to Tenorio

This afternoon I watched an animated documentary called They Shot the Piano Player directed by Fernando Trueba, who co-wrote the script with Javier Mariscal at VIFF. 

However the film starts off with a made-up journalist by the name of Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum), who has a book deal to write about the bossa nova wave in the late 1950s and 1960s that influenced the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Stan Getz and Frank Sinatra.

Harris is conjured up by the the director as a vehicle to find out more about what happened to Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenorio Junior, who was very much a real person. While he was not very famous, Tenorio was well liked by his fellow musicians, which is reiterated over and over in the film.

Harris is a made-up writer into bossa nova

But when he was visiting Argentina in March1976, he went out to get medicine and sandwiches in the middle of the night and then disappeared and no one knew what happened to him. And so They Shot the Piano Player is an attempt to figure out where he went.

The animation makes the story come alive with the vibrant colours and of course the catchy music that was revolutionary at the time. Trueba conducted numerous interviews that were filmed and then animated, which kind of begs the question, why?

It would be understandable to go back in time by animating them, but was there a need to animate actual people giving their side of the story in the present day? A mix of live action and animation might have been a better way to go -- it just seemed superfluous to animate the interview subjects, and see their true facial expressions, though some includes Harris in the scenes, others don't.

Nevertheless, the story is fascinating in itself to keep viewers interested in finding out what happened to Tenorio.

While he had a wife named Carmen and five children, he also was in love with a woman named Malena -- who he was with the night he disappeared. Harris points out that Carmen did not have a chance to confront Tenorio or divorce him regarding the extramarital affair, but probably worse, because he was not found, Tenorio was not declared dead, Carmen was not a widow and could not access her husband's pension.

Actual interview subjects animated in the film

The film gets darker when the documentary interviews a journalist who wrote about Operation Condor, where the United States was involved in propping up dictatorships in several South American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and how Tenorio was nabbed despite not being known to be politically active.

They Shot the Piano Player ends somewhat abruptly, with Harris hoping that his "book" will allow Tenorio to remain in people's memories, that he was not forgotten.

We appreciate the effort that went into making this animated documentary, but wonder maybe some parts could have been streamlined. Harris goes to Rio de Janeiro at first to write about bossa nova, and then because he becomes obsessed with Tenorio, the subject of his book changes... couldn't it have just have been about Harris writing the Tenorio book all along?

It still would have covered the music scene at the time, but through Tenorio's life, or perhaps there wasn't enough information about him? Also his voice is never heard throughout the film, so while he is seen in the film, he is not heard which is kind of ironic.

Despite it going into tangents, They Shot the Piano Player is still a marvel to watch, transporting viewers to a bright and glorious time that sadly turned dark and tragic...

They Shot the Piano Player

2023

104 minutes

Directed by Fernando Trueba

Written by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal