This François Truffaut film is based on David Goodis's Down There, a trim, well-written American crime novel. The movie busts out all over—and that's what's wonderful about it. Comedy, pathos, and tragedy are all scrambled up. Charlie, the sad-faced little piano player (Charles Aznavour), is the thinnest-skinned of modern heroes: each time he has cared about someone he has suffered, and now he just wants to be "out of it." This is a comedy about melancholia—perhaps the only comedy about melancholia. Truffaut is freely inventive here—a young director willing to try almost anything—and Charlie's encounters with the world are filled with good and bad jokes, bits from old Sacha Guitry films, clowns and thugs, tough kids, songs and fantasy and snow scenes, and homage to the American Grade-B gangster pictures of the 40s and 50s. The film is nihilistic in attitude yet by its wit and good spirits it's totally involved in life and fun. Nothing is clear-cut; the ironies crisscross and bounce.

Direction: François Truffaut.

Screenplay: François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy, from the novel Down There by David Goodis..

Photography: Raoul Coutard.

Editing: Claundine Bouché, Cécile Decugis.

Music: Georges Delerue.

Charles Aznavour..............Charlie Kohler / Edouard Saroyan

Marie Dubois.............................................................Léna

Nicole Berger........................................................Thérésa

Michèle Mercier.....................................................Clarisse

Serge Davri...............................................................Plyne

Claude Mansard.......................................................Momo

Richard Kanayan........................................................Fido