Despite many seeing this film as GREAT, I was impressed but not overly so by Shoot The Piano Player. It was a good film and had some wonderful twists and turns. It sort of reminded me of a combination of an American Film Noir picture combined with Breathless (which Truffaut wrote). It's more realistic style does differentiate it from Film Noir, though I still found myself preferring the better Film Noir films to this. In other words, if I were to compare The Killers, DOA or Kiss Of Death to this film, I would prefer the Hollywood versions--the dialog was not quite as realistic but much snappier and gritty. However, I am not knocking this film. I particularly enjoyed the flashback scene involving the pianist and his wife--it was BRILLIANT. In fact, I would have preferred if this section had actually been expanded into an entire film on its own. Her hidden secret and his reaction to it are dynamite on screen.