In Portuguese, the word “saudade” describes the feeling of profound longing for something or someone. Saudade is the prevalent emotion on display in They Shot the Piano Player, the new animated docudrama from directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. Employing the same animation style from their previous Academy Award nominated collaboration, Chico and Rita, the directors dive into the mysterious disappearance of Brazilian instrumentalist, Tenorio Jr.
While doing research for a book on Bossa Nova, journalist Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum) comes across a name in the liner notes of an album he had never seen before: Tenorio Jr. As he continues with research and interviews about the Brazilian samba jazz movement, his brain cannot let go of Tenorio. His fascination leads him to ask legendary Bossa Nova musicians Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, João Donato, and many more about what happened to Tenorio. We hear different takes on the same set of events from his family members, lovers, and band members; he was kidnapped in the middle of the night by the police in Buenos Aires. The film essentially functions as a true crime story with the rise of both bossa nova and fascism in South America as its anchor.
With the mixture of documentary interviews and reenactments, They Shot the Piano Player takes on two different animation styles to convey one from the other. The animation of the reenactments is stunning. The performers during musical sets are cast in stark colors that allow the music to be in the foreground. When the first-hand accounts are being recalled, the characters and backgrounds are covered in dark lines and scribbles, implying that the memories are hazy, but the sounds are unforgettable. Tenorio’s facial hair during performances has the same scribbled consistency as the piano keys he’s playing on. They are one and the same. The true crime/noir elements are reinforced with the retellings of the fateful night he went out for a sandwich (or cigarettes, or medicine) looking straight out of a 50’s gangster picture.
Where the animation does deter from the film is during the talking head interview portions. The illustrated portrayal of these figures feels like a necessary commitment to style rather than an inventive change in the medium. Animated documentaries aren’t a new idea, so when you throw old conventions into your vibrant method, it feels uncanny. The interview portions feel straight out of Richard Linklater’s rotoscope films like Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly. There’s obviously hard work done to translate the style of the film into these interviews, but having these heart-wrenching accounts of Tenorio Jr.’s life being traced over feels distracting.
Jeff Goldbum’s voice is also a distraction. The concept of someone discovering this little-known artist and wanting to do a deep dive into him is what happened to one of the directors, but rather than play himself, they fictionalized a journalist character and cast a Hollywood star. It’s understandable that the team behind the film would want Goldblum’s involvement, as he is famously a jazz enthusiast, but they do not nail the landing. His conversations with the interviewees are so clearly Goldblum reacting to sound bites. It’s all the more distracting because the character of Jeff looks nothing like the actor. It’s a bit disappointing when seemingly so much thought was put into elements not involving the journalist character that one wonders what might have been if it was simply all voiceovers telling the story over the gorgeous animation.
The actual events of what happened to Tenorio Jr. are tragic, and hearing about the hole that he left in so many people and to an entire genre of music from those voices is powerful stuff. What They Shot the Piano Player gets absolutely right is how necessary it is to preserve these lost artists. Saudade, again, rings through the people’s words like an empathetic bell. Without this film, the impact of Tenorio Jr. would have disappeared with the memories of the people who knew him. It is so important to get these stories out to people who will appreciate or even become appreciators because of it, even if it’s just a scribble.
3.5 stars
While the film is a sprawling journey through the history of Bossa Nova and the rise of many dictatorships in South America, the real takeaway from They Shot the Piano Player is how fleeting our lives can be. Though the quality of animation is a little mixed throughout, the palpable feeling of saudade shines through. They Shot the Piano Player is worth it, even with your eyes closed.
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