The Pianist Reviews

• Easily one of the best films of 2002

  
  By ASU3THM5ZUTUI on 2003-02-07
  "The Pianist" is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and a brilliant pianist who lived in Warsaw during World War II. Beginning soon after the Blitzkrieg, the film follows Szpilman�s experience as he witnesses all the oppression from the Germans, from restricting Jewish access to executing Jews in rows. Before long, Szpilman�s family is brought together to be shipped off to Nazi labor camps, but he manages to elude deportation. From then on, Szpilman tries to survive among the devastated Warsaw ghetto.

  It is difficult to decide where to begin praising a film as good as this. Having also lived in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, director Roman Polanski has now created a marvelous film that unflinchingly shows the horrors of the Holocaust, yet has great moments of kindness and triumph as well. The film presents many disturbing images, and it is not for the faint of heart. However, Polanski always keeps Szpilman�s survival to be the main focus throughout the film, with the cruelty of the Nazis as a secondary theme. Thus, "The Pianist" never shoves brutality in your face just for shock value. Instead, it comes off as both a thrilling tale of survival and a genuinely moving tribute to the human spirit.

  The meticulous direction leaves even the shortest of individual scenes lingering in the viewer�s mind. For example, one scene shows a woman being shot in the back while running down the street, and Polanski had told the actress EXACTLY how to slump down and keel into a lifeless position; he said this was the way he had once seen a woman die while he was a child in Warsaw. Other equally memorable moments include images of Szpilman drinking whatever water he can find, and one of the most harrowing scenes involves a man in a wheelchair being thrown from his apartment into the street.

  The technical elements are superb as well; everything is done in such an incredibly realistic way that the audience virtually becomes a first-hand witness of everything Szpilman goes through. The cinematography, costume design, and sound effects editing make Warsaw come to life with all its sounds and sights. Particularly noteworthy: the desolate snow-covered buildings, the smoke rising into the clouds from burning corpses, and the momentary loss of sound as Szpilman is temporarily deafened by a tank blast.

  But the performance by lead actor Adrien Brody is what really makes the entire film so thoroughly memorable and engrossing. Brody is rarely seen off-camera, so a lot depends on him being able to tell much of the story himself. His actions and eyes speak so much without him having to say anything; I will never forget the look on his face after he accidentally broke a set of dishes. The other actors (such as Ed Stoppard, Thomas Kretschmann, and Emilia Fox) don�t get nearly as much screen time, but they too do well with what they�ve been given.

  Finally, the denouement is unforgettable. No one will be breathing during the last half-hour of this film. It starts off remarkably tense, but the last 15 minutes progress with increasing poignancy. When the film came to its finish and the credits began to appear, no one in my local movie theater dared to move a muscle; everyone sat through all the credits and watched the film to its very end.

  Recommendations don�t get much higher than that.

  Not easy to watch, but certainly rewarding, this independent film will leave its haunting spell in your mind for years to come. Truly amazing on all counts, "The Pianist" is one of the best films of 2002, and it will be a crying shame if it doesn't get at least a few Oscar nominations. See it now.
  
  

• Polanski's Paean to Poland

  
  By A1NPNGWBVD9AK3 on 2003-04-05
  After suffering through the excruciating experience of viewing "The Ninth Gate", I despaired that a once creative and vital director had lost his touch.

  "The Pianist" more than compensates for that chaotic, unintended farce. Polanski has let the world know loud (and I do mean that literally and figuratively) and clear that he still possesses the artistic goods.

  This is his first film since "Knife in the Water" to be set in his native Poland. His feeling for his native land rings forth in every frame. From the music of Chopin, to the scenes of the Warsaw trains on their way to Treblinka, packed to the absolute extreme with their human cargo, Polanski lets us experience, practically first hand, what it meant in the late 30s, early 40s, to be a Jew in Warsaw. It was precisely the wrong thing to be at precisely the wrong time in human history.

  Whereas the other great Holocost movie of recent years "Schindler's List" relies so heavily on visual representation (though it does have a moving soundtrack), Polanski combines brutal images with high decibal sound to stun and startle us into a deeper, more visceral understanding of what the title character, Wladyslaw Szpilman, experienced as a young artist in WWII Poland. During one scene, a bomb explodes so loudly that I actually thought for a few seconds that my hearing had been damaged, as a ringing noise on the soundtrack synchronizes with Szpilman's gesture as he winces and cups his ear with his hand . That's about as visceral as I want to go in a cinema experience. It's also one aspect that wont be as effective at home, unless one is blessed with a state of the art sound system.

  While this film is exceedingly stark, grim and shocking (you will understand from where the term "shock troops" derives), it also contains moments of great beauty and humanity. Even in moments of the most extreme deprivation and isolation, a human hand comes to Szpilman's assistance and helps him survive.

  Oscar awards were certainly deserved for both Polanski and Adrian Brody (Best Actor). It is essentially their film. Though the supporting roles are well played, Brody is in every scene of the film, so it is his to carry. It is a bravura performance. He never overacts or overreacts. He subtly displays the gradual despair and increasing horror as Warsaw crumbles around him.

  No matter how one feels about Polanski, personally, "The Pianist" proves that he remains among the top ten directors of his generation. This love letter to his native land is tinged with tears, a combination which renders it amazingly effective.
  
  

• The Real Thing

  
  By AKSCA0P2Y4QRU on 2002-10-03
  Almost a documentary.

  This movie is true to the life story of Szpilman, the pianist, and almost to the letter follows the book Szpilman wrote. The only major licencia poetica I noticed is the placement of Szpilman's hideout in the routinely destroyed and totally deserted city - a result of the two uprisings: in 1943 and most definitely that of 1944 - at the very same building that the good natured German officer selected for army offices.

  Polanski wanted the true and most dramatic story to speak for itself and on purpose gave up on these well known movie tricks that make less powerful stories squeeze our tears so generously in the movie theaters. To be honest - this is a pity. A real story AND a popular touch make for the most effective works. But perhaps I understand Polanski's reasons for this and I certainly respect them. You just do not want any semblance between depiction of tragedy of such proportions and the regular every year productions. And also - Polanski was part of the drama of 1939-1945, living not further than two hundred miles from the place where the Pianist lived and survived, too.

  "The Pianist" has a feel of a documentary. The movie structure - a series of glimpses of Szpilman's life, each of them grabing your total attention, because each of them is almost more than an average human being experience in a whole life, at least as most of us know life today. A word said, the timing of entering a staircase, a positioning taken in a row of forced laborers is a decision - or - a circumstance of life and death consequences.

  Being from that country I will not dodge the sensitive issue. There are many bad people and some good people in this true story. There are many good Jews, and some bad Jews. There are many good Poles, and many bad Poles. There are many bad Germans and one good German. The last one stands out. Courtesy of that "national background" his decent acts - not killing Szpilman (a heroism in pure form it is not), and giving him food and a coat stand out.

  I watched this movie at 9:15 a.m. in a cinema filled with youngsters sent by the schools. The silence in the room, all over those 130 minutes or so, was stunning.
  
  

• Mesmerizing,Incredible,Must See

  
  By A1FZMCVUBXZ4MH on 2003-02-11
  I have a PhD in history and have been a student of WW2 for a number of years. This film was so gripping that NO ONE moved from their seats. There was NO TALKING, NO COUGHING. The theatre was absolutely silent and at the end NO ONE got up to leave.
  This is because this film is so incredibly well done that you cannot help but become personally involved. It is a true story as well. I urge everyone who wants to see what life under the 3rd Reich was like in their Eastern Conquests to see this. Not only are Jews murdered indiscriminately, it also shows the effects on Poles and the scenes of a destroyed Warsaw stop you in your tracks.
  When you leave this film, you will know you have seen one of the finest films EVER made, Polanski's masterpiece. It tells of events that are changed from words into visual scenes, and individual people. The effect is awesome. Please go see it.
  
  

• "The Pianist" - Polanski's Magnificent Epic of Redemption

  
  By A2FQYTHR1K0ISY on 2003-01-16
  Only twice in my forty years on this earth has a movie of such power and grace literally pinned me to the back of my chair with rapt appreciation and respect. "The Pianist" was one of those films. Roman Polanski rightly won the coveted "Palme D'Or" at last May's Cannes Film Festival for his evocative and respectful treatment of the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a talented pianist who barely escaped the Nazi terror in 1940s Poland. Polanski's subtle mastery of the art of filmmaking draws us in to the story of a young man whose entire family was exterminated by Nazi bestiality, yet who managed - again and again - to escape the nagging jaws of death and evil. Drawing upon his musical skills and his own strength of will, Szpilman was able to not only survive but to prosper in post-war Poland, his musical gifts intact. "The Pianist" is a staggeringly brilliant film that conveys the strength and beauty of the human spirit in the wake of overweening barbarity - and the power and dignity of music in the midst of roiling terror and uncertainty. Not insignificantly, it is the 69-year-old Polanski's triumph as well. Forty years after leaving his homeland, the director has made his finest film. Sixty years after barely escaping the Nazi occupation of Poland, Polanski has once again gifted us with his singular talents and meticulous attention to detail. "The Pianist" is indelibly stamped with the director's genius for subtlety (he powerfully draws us into the story without gratuitously presenting the myriad horrors of the Holocaust), and it makes for an unforgettable experience. It's the kind of movie this reviewer walked several miles in her own (well-worn) shoes to see. It's the kind of film I gladly risked hypothermia to enjoy - and I am a better person for it.
  
  
• The Watcher
  By A1TJPMB7N776WS on 2003-01-05
  Somber, serious, with only a hint of his trademark wit and sarcasm ("Why are you wearing that Nazi Coat?"..."I'm Cold," replies Szpilman (Adrien Brody) Roman Polanski presents a film of the Holocaust from the point of view of those in Poland; specifically The Warsaw Ghetto.
  "The Pianist" is a true story based on the experiences of the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman but unlike say Otto Schindler, Szpilman is a watcher rather than a participant in the action of his own story. He's an Artist not a Fighter, you might say. Actually he's a very lucky person in many ways, for because of his celebrity as a radio pianist he has many friends who help him escape the concentration camps and thereby survive the war.
  There is an over-riding sense of truth to the way Polanski handles this material as there are very few big dramatic, handkerchief at the ready scenes and more business-as-usual scenes of the atrocities of the Nazi's. Polanski is smart enough to realize that we've seen it all before and seeing it through the eyes of Szpilman: the public executions, the beatings, the starvation, the vermin, the degradations become so commonplace that it takes us a second to realize how very horrible it all is: he's saying there was so much of it that we all got used to it...it became commonplace, a natural occurrence and consequently more horrendous in the viewing and in the contemplation afterwards.
  Adrien Brody plays Szpilman very quietly; very passively...he is more acted upon that acting. As the movie unfolds he loses more and more weight, grows a beard and his eyes get bigger and bigger and more vacant: since he spends most of the film alone in hiding much of his role is really silent film acting; done with the eyes and body language: truly a masterful performance.
  Polanski's "The Pianist" is Polanski at the top of his form very much unlike "Chinatown" for example but just as resonant with feeling, superior move-making and respect for his audience's intelligence.
  
  
• Tour-de-Force of Mans Brutality
  By A1F8JG3FFF7I10 on 2003-01-08
  When you watch a movie about a massive tragic event, it is hard not to become desensitized. Often, the images on the screen, no matter how horrible they are, lose some meaning after a constant stream of them. The hard part for the director of such movies is too keep the message fresh, to make the violence and death last inside a persons mind. The Holocaust is a prime example, as brutal cruelty was so common in the actual era. This barrage of violence anesthetizes the viewer to some extent. The Pianist manages to buck that trend, by providing a dramatic and breathtaking visual narrative of mankind's darkest era, through the eyes of a truly remarkable man.

  The Pianist begins on the first day of World War II, as the Germans invaded Poland. We are introduced to the main character, the young Jewish pianist from Warsaw, Wladyslaw Szpilman. He and his family, along with much of Warsaw, are heartened when they hear of Britain and France declaring war on Germany. They sense little danger. Unfortunately for them, the Germans quickly conquered Warsaw, and the 350,000 Jews of the city were at their mercy. The movie makes the important point that the deportation and liquidation of the Jews was a somewhat gradual process of confinement and starvation. This gave many Jews hope that they would be able to grit their teeth and bare the occupation, that any kind of resistance was foolish. How could anyone at the time, especially the Jews, imagine death on such a titanic scale? However, as the months passed and more and more were slaughtered, it became apparent that the outcome would be total destruction. Wladyslaw manages to survive the ghetto system by a combination of cleverness and shear luck. His closest associates are not so lucky. He works on a labor detail, until, using pre-war contacts, he manages to escape. Amazingly, it gets almost as bad on the outside. It's one man's tale, but that makes it even more intriguing.

  Following up on that prior point, the Pianist tells the story of the Holocaust through one mans eyes. This makes it fairly unique among Holocaust movies, but no less poignant. In fact, I felt the personal view was even more effective. It made the events almost personal, as you looked down and watched the world collapse around your narrator. Much of the movie is shot in this first person witness style, which is as unique as it is fascinating. The set is great, everything is effective down to the last detail. Some moments are amazingly tense, and the viewer is just spellbound. The acting, especially by Adrien Brody as Szpilman, is top notch. Brody really undergoes a striking transformation that drives the movies point home. His love for music and the piano is his one connection to the real world, as he is surrounded by such inhuman horror. This is one of Polanski's best films and should be considered as one of 2002's best pictures.

  Never forget.
  
  

• Better Than Schindler's List
  By on 2003-06-14
  There have been many films over the years dealing with the Holocaust and the atrocities in Europe during the Second World War. The best known of course is, Schindler's List. While Schindler's List will be the film by which all other films about this dark period of history will be judged, it has met its match in The Pianist. While Schindler gave us the viewers the story of one very flawed man who saved many lives in the guise of Jewish Labor, The Pianist is far different. The story of one man who managed to survive Warsaw during the Occupation and was ultimately the reciepant of some kindness from the most unlikely person,a German solider. The difference between the two films is that while Schindler's took a rather aneseptic and 'Hollywood' view of the flawed man Oskar Schindler, The Pianist drew on the real life experiences of its director to make the film much more personal. It not only becomes personal to the director himself, but to the viewer. Polanski himself was a boy during the Occupation, injected small things that he remembered during the Occuapation into the film. Little things like someone telling Spzilman not to run as he is pulled from the lines of people, including his family, being forced into cattle cars on their way to a certain death.It is things like this that bring the viewer closer to the characters and even to the director. Adrien Brody gave the performance of his life in this film. It deserved every Oscar it got and it is a true masterpiece to be treasured.
  
  
• The Best Movie of 2002.
  By A38U2M9OAEJAXJ on 2003-03-08
  It's hardly surprising that Roman Polanski would film "The Pianist" and even less surprising that it's the best and most skillfully crafted movie of 2002. Polanski himself is a Holocaust survivor and suffered the loss of his mother who died in the gas chambers. This firsthand experience, along with his talent as a superb filmmaker, enables Polanski to direct this film so brilliantly while snubbing Hollywood conventions. This is easily his third masterpiece, following "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) and "Chinatown" (1974). 29-year-old Adrien Brody is near-miraculous as Wladyslaw Szpilman, the pianist who, through luck and God-given perseverance, survives the Holocaust in the Warsaw ghetto. This isn't a showoffy performance that begs for an Oscar (though it deserves one); like the movie itself, it's quietly elegant and beautifully understated. And while we never actually see the concentration camps, Polanski paints an all-too-vivid picture of one of the most shameful atrocities in history. We witness starvation, senseless killings, and other forms of unfiltered brutality that aren't for the squeamish. But "The Pianist" isn't really about Holocaust but rather about the will and tenacity of the human spirit against frightening odds. Sure, it's a topic that's been covered before, but never in a movie as unforgettable as this. Some films do little more than occupy 2 hours of your time, while others leave an imprint on your soul and may even change the way you view life. At this point, I don't need to tell you which of these two categories "The Pianist" falls into.
  
  
• Sometimes survival comes down to just being very lucky...
  By A2NJO6YE954DBH on 2003-06-05
  I full appreciate and endorse the idea that there will be one film in your experience that brings home the horrors of the Holocaust for you, and after that point nothing else has quite the same effect. This is true for me and actually came when I was editing out commercials of the television mini-series "Holocaust," which had none of the graphic depictions found in theatrical films such as "Schnidler's List" and "The Pianist," or even later television efforts such as "War and Remembrance." But just because the full horror truly overwhelms you that first time and never with quite the same force again, does not mean other similar tales are not worth the telling. I know I will never see a film that conveys the horror of war more than the opening sequences of "Saving Private Ryan," but that does not stop me from seeing more movies about World War II.

  "The Pianist" is an atypical story of a European Jew during this period because the title character, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody is his Oscar winning performance), survives the Holocaust. There is a memorable shot of Szpilman walking down the street of the Warsaw ghetto after the deportation of the Jews and the streets are littered with their possessions. Hundreds of characters in the film, thousands from the ghetto, millions throughout Europe were exterminated by the Nazis. Szpilman is the exception, not the rule.

  The horror of his survival is that is so random and very little of what Szpilman does contributes to his being alive at the end of the film. The explanation, such director Roman Polanski provides in this film, is that Szpilman has value as a classical pianist, a cultural icon of sorts to the people of Warsaw, whether they are Jewish or not. That is the key factor in the decisions, often impromptu ones, that save Szpilman's life. But there is also the factor of luck, whether it is both German and Russian soldiers being poor shots, or simply where you stand in line. You can see where the story would resonate with Polanski, who was pushed through the fence of the concentration camp by his father, who also survived.

  In many ways "The Pianist" is a fitting counterpart to "Schindler's List" as a different sort of survivor's tale. In Steven Spielberg's film the story is heroic because of the effort to fight the system and the odds (Oskar Schindler ended a lot high on the list of AFI's Heroes this week than Moses). But there is little of the hero in Szpilman. Instead he is a witness, who often has to do nothing more than look out the window to see both the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the turning tide of the war. He is a mute witness as well, as much by temperament as by his vocation, although there is only one piano piece in the entire film where we sense that he is articulating his feelings rather than playing what he has been told to play. But Brody plays many scenes without ever uttering a word and despite the title very few scenes have music if his character is not the one playing it.

  �The Pianist� falls between triumph and tragedy, which may well prove unsettling to many viewers who want the security of provided by such categorization. I have seen comparisons to the second half of this film with �Castaway,� and while I understand the comparison it falls through simply because Szpilman is a less than active agent in his own survival too many times. But that is just another small reminder that �The Pianist� is history and not fiction and that the greatest horror is not the we are the victims of a grand design but rather of the arbitrariness of the fickle finger of fate.
  
  

• Beautifully captures the resilience of the human spirit
  By A1POFVVXUZR3IQ on 2009-02-01
  I've watched "The Pianist" twice since it's 2002 release, and felt compelled to write a review after watching it tonight. This is a well-directed Holocaust movie by Roman Polanski, and the stellar acting by Adrien Brody [who deservedly won an Oscar for his role] makes "The Pianist" a truly memorable viewing experience.
  
  The story is based on the real-life experiences of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman [played by Adrien Brody] during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in WW II. The movie follows him from his piano playing days at Polish Radio, through the restrictions imposed upon the Jews by the Nazis, the move by Szpilman and his family to the Warsaw ghetto,how he is saved from deportation [whilst the rest of his family gets deported to Treblinka, an extermination camp], his role in the Jewish resistance movement, and finally his struggles in hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw till war's end.
  
  The brutality of the Nazis is very effectively portrayed in this movie without being over-the-top - scenes of Nazi violence against the Jews are usually portrayed in brief but potent scenes, leaving an indelible mark in the viewer's memory. One particular scene still haunts me - the Nazis have selected a group of Jews for deportation [including four members of Szpilman's family] and a young woman innocently asks the SS officer in charge where they're being taken. His response is a shot to her head - just like that, and her only crime was to speak up. There are many poignant scenes that are heartrending in their portrayal of human suffering - a grieving young mother who is beside herself as she smothered her own child to death to prevent the baby's cries from being heard, bodies of Nazi victims including young children, and also one particularly disturbing scene where an old man in a wheelchair is picked up by the Nazis [for being unable to stand up when the Nazis stomp into his family dinner] and thrown off the balcony. Though the scenes may appear random, the viewer is well aware that there was nothing random about the Nazis' intent - that of decimating the Jews.
  
  Adrien Brody as the pianist Szpilman effectively portrays a man who is tortured by his circumstances, yet bears all his suffering in silence - witnessing the atrocities around him, being separated from his family and learning of their tragic fates later, and being forced to endure the agony of incessant hunger whilst trying to stay alive. His indomitable spirit shines through in many scenes, especially the scene where he is asked by a German officer to play the piano - even in the midst of great hunger, and with fingers gnarled by sickness and starvation, Szpilman is able to play an achingly haunting piece that would have done a concert pianist proud.
  
  "The Pianist" is definitely a memorable Holocaust film - it even shows that not all Germans were monsters as exemplified by the humane German officer who helped Spzilman when he was in hiding. Though the movie evokes the horrors of the time it also captures the resilience of the human spirit under the most harrowing circumstances.
  
  
  
• Love- Life-Music-War... The Pianist Is A Masterpiece.
  By A1FYLVHQWSR8O5 on 2003-05-01
  I saw The Pianist on my birthday 3 months ago.
  I had heard some good reviews and was very interested to see what Polanski had been up to lately.
  I was astonished, moved, and speechless.
  The movie embodies everything that I love about film....a true story being told with love and great care for the past, and in a way that makes you feel the pain that the characters experience.

  Adrien Brody will now get the credit he deserves after his 10+ years in the industry. His performance was genuine and brilliant. He has been my favorite actor for a few years and out did all of his previous work with his role as Wladyslaw Szpilman. I cannot think of a more deserving performance of the Best Actor Oscar in recent years.

  The Pianist is an unforgettable film about a simple man who hangs on when all hope and life is lost from the world he knows.
  
  

• A moving story of courage and the fierce will to survive.
  By AC1K4OQOZ90RS on 2003-03-27
  Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a brilliant young pianist who lives with his family in Poland when the Germans march in and take over the country. Szpilman and his family struggle to survive under increasingly difficult conditions, and through their eyes we experience the increasingly tight noose that the Nazis wrap around the neck of the Polish Jews. Soon, the Nazis herd the Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto, and ultimately, into cattle cars headed for concentration camps.

  It was a fluke that Szpilman did not go with his family to the camps. He went into hiding in Poland and was helped by some compassionate people who kept him alive with meager amounts of food and drink. However, he suffered horrifying days and nights of fear and loneliness and it is a miracle that he did not go mad. It is clear that Szpilman's love of music (he played the piano in his mind) helped keep him going during his ordeal.

  Polanski direction is fine, although he breaks little new thematic ground in this film. What makes this movie special is the superb performance of Adrien Brody, who plays Szpilman with restraint and great sensitivity. Brody captures Szpilman's obsession with his music as well as his desperate struggle to survive each day, knowing that it might be his last. Brody's transformation from a dapper and poised professional into a starving and desperate refugee is amazing. Kudos go to cinematographer Pawel Edelman for his apocalyptic scenes of rubble strewn Warsaw.

  "The Pianist" is a little too long at 148 minutes. It could easily have been trimmed to two hours without losing any of its impact. However, I recommend this film mostly for the soulful performance of Adrien Brody, who plays Szpilman as if he were born for this role.
  
  

• For shame
  By on 2004-06-30
  Even though barely deserving a rebuttal, some of the reviews here are so beyond asinine that I cannot restrain myself, particularly with regard to those reviewers who had the gall to call Mr. Szpilman a coward. Mr. Szpilman risked immediate death every time he helped to smuggle a weapon or ammunition into the ghetto. The ghetto uprising itself was essentially a suicide mission, and everyone involved probably knew that. So Mr. Szpilman was a coward because he wanted to live, then? How dare you. While I don't believe that any work of art should be above criticism no matter what its subject matter, I have not read a single negative review here that has any remotely intelligent criticism of this film whatsoever. They pretty much describe it as "boring" or "another Holocaust movie." Schmucks. One reviewer couldn't even remember the protagonist's name, yet had no shortage of would-be scathing things to say about the movie. Almost as absurd are the unfavorable comparisons to "Schindler's List." Yes, Oskar Schindler was a great man, but the very straightforward good vs. evil nature of the subject matter must have appealed to Steven Spielberg's very American sensibilities. "The Pianist," on the other hand, boldly treads a ground that is decidedly messier, morally less clear-cut, and I think that only a man like Roman Polanski, who understands the particular time and place where these events transpired, could have made this film. And Adrien Brody fully deserved the Academy Award for this performance. And, yes, he does spend a good deal of time searching like a "rat" for food. What do these buffoons think it means to survive in such an environment? Idiots. Anyhow, this film is a masterpiece, an artistic triumph of the highest rank. The naysayers have not been able to level a single legitimate criticism against it.
  
  
• This is a keeper. Required viewing!
  By A1L8HRCM60W0W7 on 2003-03-24
  I thought, another stereotypical albeit well-baked movie about a minority group (Jewish) in the throes of the holocaust. How big a deal could that be?

  Boy, did I underestimate Polanski's (China Town, Ninth Gate) mettle as a story teller! Half-way through the movie, you'll be far too immersed in the vein of the story to worry about your preconceived notions about an archetypic war movie.

  Theme-wise, this is a story of Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Jewish pianist who is ghettoised when the Nazis invade Poland. A frail and delicate man, he is ill-equipped to cope with the rigours imposed, or the political shenanigans his colleagues employ to try and gain favour. His music is his continual companion and his sole retreat from the misery. All the elements of a WWII movie are smooshed in -- the litany of Nazi cruelty, the change in the Jews from helpless victims to freedom fighters, the triumph of the human spirit etc etc. So those of you anticipating some sort of action and suspense won't be disappointed. But where the movie transcends expectations is its superlative control of the characters -- Germans or Jews -- as flesh-and-blood human beings, highlighting their fears and the motivations behind why they did what they did.

  The Pianist potrays a vivid barbaric spectre of WW II as poignant as La Vita è bella or Sophie's Choice, as visually stunning as Saving Private Ryan or Platoon, and as emotionally epic as Full Metal Jacket or Schindler's List. IN fact, more like La Vita è bella or Sophie's Choice perhaps, this is a deeply personal narrative that real and genuine people can relate to and will treasure for the lessons that may be draw from it.

  I appreciated its honesty -- Polanski refuses to trade on sentimentality to achieve its power. Szpilman's reluctance to let us in on his thoughts about his family, friends, and the people who helped keep him alive make him appear aloof, but the reality is so far beyond normal comprehension that emotional numbness may be the only appropriate response. When Brody finds a kindred soul in the German Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann) who discovers his hiding place, however, we are finally drawn into the humanity of his character. It is here that the soulful music of Chopin's Nocturne in C played by Szpilman in a hollowed-out apartment in the midst of desolation lends a bizarre beauty to the unfathomable night. An important message, this -- not all the Germans were evil.

  While you may occasionally feel that Polanski was a bit too obvious with the good/bad personifications (e.g., the evil Germans were all rugged & scowling whereas the protagonists heroic underground rebel Jews were all fairly handsome and jovial), you'll nevertheless finish the movie with some very beautiful imagery that'll linger in your mind for a while, in fact if my weak-kneed experience is any indication, perhaps in your eyes too. And what an incredibly ironic timing it will be given the supposed "shock and awe" we are being served in Iraq as I write.
  
  

• Survival Story
  By A1GN8UJIZLCA59 on 2003-06-09
  Roman Polanski's The Pianist is the real life story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a Polish Jew who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland. Adrien Brody plays Szpilman and he gives a star-making performance. Szpilman is a concert pianist who plays on Polish radio and as the film begins he is playing on the radio when the area of Warsaw the station is in is bombed. The Szpilman family is defiant at first towards the news of the German occupation, but then like all Jewish families, they are forced to follow the strict rules the Nazis set forth regarding Jews. They are made to move from their spacious and homey apartment into a [cramped], run down space in the designated Jewish ghetto. The family struggles for money, but Wladyslaw is still able to play piano in a Jewish restaurant for meager earnings. Eventually the family is in line to be sent to a concentration camp, but through sheer fate, Wladyslaw is pulled from the line boarding the train and is spared certain death. He then spends time working a slave laborer building the wall separating the Jewish section of Warsaw from the rest of the city. Again, he escapes through the gracious help of others and through the underground resistance is kept hid in an apartment away from detection. Although free from the ghetto, he is a prisoner in the apartment and at the mercy of others. He is facing starvation when he is forced to flee the apartment when it is bombed. He hides out in a hospital for a while and eventually ends up in the bombed out ruins of Warsaw. It is while he is hiding in the ruins that he again faces almost certain death when he is discovered by a German officer, Captain Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann). Hosenfeld speaks with him and asks what Szpilman's profession was and Szpilman replies he is a pianist. There happens to be a piano in the house and Hosenfeld makes Szpilman play. Szpilman plays a gorgeous piece and Hosenfeld is moved to spare Szpilman's life. He brings him food and when the Germans are retreating from the Russians, Hosenfeld gives Szpilman his coat to keep warm. It is the exchange between Hosenfeld and Szpilman that is the heart of the film and shows that despite the horror of war and the atrocities of the Nazis, that the true spirit of humanity can still shine through. Ironically, Szpilman survived the war and went on to continue his career as a pianist and Hosenfeld ended up a prisoner in a Russian war camp where he died several years after the war ended. Mr. Brody is incredible in his part. His facial expressions convey the sense of fear and hopelessness that Szpilman must have felt through his tragic journey. Never once does go over the top, it a truly genuine performance. Mr. Polanski also does a brilliant job of directing. He details the senseless brutality and omnipresence of the German occupation of Poland, but never sinks into gratuitous violence. The film was nominated for seven academy awards including Best Picture. Both Mr. Brody and Mr. Polanski scored unexpected, but richly deserved Oscars for Best Actor and Best Director respectively and Ronald Harwood won the film's third Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
  
  
• Quietude generates a sense of premonition
  By A1ARA52HB238HT on 2003-04-07
  A picture is better than a thousand words. This saying is especially true for The Pianist, a film based on the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who escaped the fate of being put into concentration camp and survived in Warsaw by a fluke. That is not to downgrade or take anything away from the Mr. Szpilman's memoir that procreates a personal attachment to Szpilman. Director Roman Polanski commented, 'Until The Pianist, I have never read a piece so moving that I felt I had to bring it to the screen.'

  On September 23, 1939, Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp Minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside in Warsaw. The bombing was so loud that he could not even hear his piano. It was the day that marked the last airing of Warsaw radio station. The city went starkly quiet as the Germans laid out boundaries of Jewish Ghetto and roamed through which to manhunt Jews to be hurled into concentration camps. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding, in homes of his non-Jewish friends, in attics of empty apartments, in rubbles. A German officer who heard him play the same Chopin nocturne on a piano found among the rubble saved his life.

  The Pianist achieves the same caliber of sobriety and grief though this filming does not take into the concentration camps. The scenes of Szpilman's parting from his own family is just as provocative as the horrible bloodshed images shown in many documentary films. Viewers immediately develop a personal and sentimental tie with Szpilman and feel his pain. The film, for the most part, delineates life in Warsaw during the occupation and the starkness of which lends it a verisimilitude that no other filming can afford. The quietude and the prolonged shots generate a sense of imminent danger, threat, and premonition. When is Szpilman going to be caught? What will he do when he runs out of food? Will shrapnel kill him? The mental threat is far greater than physical suffering. In the sense the film is powerful in what it doesn't do.

  The film is almost 2 hours and 30 minutes long and yet none of the scenes are excessively long. The prolonged shots produce an ominous effect that is crucial in setting the mood of the film. Andrien Brody's performance is superb as if he himself went through the fugitive life. Brody really acts out the physical disintegration and emotional devastation of the protagonist. He has adroitly projected Szpilman's refusal to die and his endurance to live. The fact that Roman Polanski himself is a Holocaust survivor makes the film a valuable piece of the Holocaust history and its studies. 4.5 stars.
  
  

• Where was God in the Warsaw ghetto?
  By A2HII4U9WQ0XUV on 2003-09-24
  Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is a hard film for me to review, because it was a hard film to watch. I am an admirer of Polanski, and have watched everthing he's made---right down to "The Fearless Vampire Killers"---scores of times. I approached "The Pianist" with a combination of intrigue and ambivalence: on the one hand, doubtless I would get a hearty serving of Holocaust horror and grue, which I wasn't looking forward to. On the other hand, Polanski is a master filmmaker at the height of his craft, and if he had a story to tell about the Nazi occupation of Poland, I wanted to hear it.

  I wasn't expecting this.

  "The Pianist" is not a normal film; it is certainly not a normal "Holocaust film", if there is even such a thing. And contrary to the way the film was marketed, it is not a story of hope, of redemption amidst the ruins, of a ray of light in humanity's darkness. Not at all.

  This is a story of stupid, brute, hard-scrabble survival. The fact that it is set in 1939 Warsaw is almost incidental, in that the character of Wladyslaw Szpilman (played masterfully by Adrien Brody) could as easily have been stranded on a desert island, crashed in the snowy heights of the Andes, or buried in the bowels of some Stygian cave.

  So viewer beware: this is not a hopeful tale, this is a brutal, harrowing, horrifying first-person journey told entirely from the viewpoint of its eponymous protagonist. And from the moment we encounter the pianist playing Chopin for the Polish state radio, until the closing credits, the camera literally never leaves his side.

  With that in mind, "The Pianist" is the story of a young Jewish man's struggle to survive as the Nazi darkness falls across Poland. The story is set, and takes place entirely, in Warsaw, begins with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 (with a shell literally crashing into the Pianist's formerly serene world), and culminates in the "liberation" of the city by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

  The sequences are terse, starkly filmed, often brutal, and mercilessly chronological: Szpilman's family, along with the other Jewish citizens of Warsaw, is quickly humiliated and segregated. One by one come the cold Nazi dictums: no Jews in the parks, no Jews in cafes, no Jews sitting on public benches, all Jews must wear self-made Stars of David on the right arm of their clothing. Ultimately Szpilman's family is moved to the Warsaw ghetto, and things quickly go downhill from there.

  When the credits rolled, I was stunned, I was utterly in shock. I recall the initial line of "Moby Dick" from Melville: "And I alone escaped to tell thee." That, for me, is "The Pianist." Szpilman is nothing more than a brute survivor, his humanity is reduced by degrees, as before our horrified eyes he begins to die a death of a thousand cuts. And that, I think, explains why this movie was so maddening for me, and at times so repulsive.

  It's hard to identify with Szpilman, this man who trades everything for survival, for the ability to once again play Chopin on his beloved ivories (and boy does he get his chance!). Adrien Brody here is truly masterful: I completely forgot that I was watching an actor on a screen play a role, and became completely absorbed in the character. It is an amazing role, but also a creepily unattractive one: Szpilman is no hero. The heroes in this movie get shot, burned, executed with no quarter and no mourners. Indeed, I became increasingly frustrated with this strangest of protagonists, who is both massively lucky and massively foolish; those familiar with the sequences where Szpilman fumbles with dishware and ambles out to Russian rescuers will understand what I'm talking about here.

  Szpilman, meanwhile, survives---but there is a catch to his survival, and in it I think Polanski provides an antidote to an otherwise mesmerizing but nihilistic film that seems to whisper about the silence of God in a blindly uncaring, insane universe. And even more remarkably, despite my initial loathing for the character---my God, man, grab a rifle and get revenge!---I began to care very deeply for him.

  Polanski makes a bold decision in attaching the camera solely to Szpilman, and it is a gambit that pays off handsomely. Szpilman becomes our eyes on this brutal, searingly horrific world; his ears are our ears, and we flinch when he fumbles with a cabinet and brings a cupboard full of china crashing down on the floor of his hiding place. Polanski has worked seamlessly with Director of Photography Pawel Edelman to create a totally authentic nightmare world which becomes unbearably horrible---and then, without flinching, spirals down into even more unimaginable horror.

  The acting here is all first-rate. Particularly surprising is the excellent work by Thomas Kretschmann (an elegant German actor with fine poise who appeared, amazingly, as the Vampire overlord Damaskinos in Blade II), who portrays a German officer who---no, I'll let you see for yourself. In a sense, Kretschmann's character serves as the mirror image of the pianist, and puts a fine coda to the film. And while the film features the most haunting piano works of Beethoven and Chopin, composer Wojciech Kilar (who produced the astounding soundtrack to Polanski's "The Ninth Gate") returns with a haunting, moving score that serves the movie well.

  I am not finished with "The Pianist." It was not an easy film to watch; indeed, it was often repulsive and maddening, and yet I imagine I'll be watching it again. If you find yourself reacting in the same way to the film, if you're tempted to turn it off---resist!---stay with it: you'll be richly rewarded. It is a bold film, a masterful movie, and a film which I contend again is not strictly a Holocaust piece: it is about survival, and centers on the question of how much of himself a man is willing to surrender in order to survive---and after the surrender, what remains of the man? What makes him human?

  One question continues to trouble me, though: is Szpilman changed after his ordeal? Is he a different man---or is he the same? Did he change, after all?
  
  

• A great movie, but recommended with caveats
  By A3N5XIM9R2OQH0 on 2003-12-28
  "The Pianist" wasn't an easy movie to watch, and it's proven even harder for me to review. To put it mildly, this isn't a feel-good movie, and I certainly wouldn't recommmend it to everyone. Telling the story of a young Jewish piano prodigy who manages to survive the Nazi occupation of Poland, this film is almost unfailingly bleak and depressing, practically making "Schindler's List" seem cheery by comparison. I've read about the Nazis' incredibly harsh rule in the conquered territories of eastern Europe, but seeing it on screen is still daunting, and Roman Polanski's camera is there to capture the physical and mental devastation that World War II brought to Poland. Not a movie you'd go to on a first date, to be sure.

  Throughout the harrowing first half of the movie, we see the humanity of the ghettoized Jews reduced by degrees until their lives have become as meaningless and disposable as those of cattle. There are some brutal scenes of schockingly callous violence perpetrated by German soldiers, but the violence itself isn't even the worst part. The systematic denial of humanity that enabled such senseless mass killing is much worse, especially since we still see this going on in various conflicts today. And unfortunately, you can't remind yourself that it's just a movie.

  As reviewers more eloquent than I have pointed out, protagonist Wladyslaw Spzilman isn't even really a hero. Those Jews smart enough to realize their impending fate and brave enough to fight back are killed just like the rest. His experiences during the German occupation of Poland don't constitute a tale of heroism so much as they illustrate the power of man's primal urge to survive. Once Spzilman goes into hiding with the help of a few good Samaritans, nothing much happens; by then the psychological damage has been done anyway. The prevailing failing of this second hour is one of the overwhelming emptiness that characterizes a country turned into a wasteland.

  By hiding out Spzilman has escaped the death camps, but his fight certainly isn't over. Not only does he have to worry about getting through the rest of the war in the most hostile environment imaginable, but there's a question that nagged at me throughout the movie: does Spzilman even manage to retain any of what made life worth living in the first place? How could anyone? That's why the famous late-movie piano-playing scene assumes such importance. When Spzilman plays for a sympathetic German officer, it's not only a moment of catharsis for the audience, it's a reaffirmation of his very humanity.

  In the end, "The Pianist" is worth watching, even if, like me, you may decide afterwards that you have no urge to see it again. If nothing else, it serves as an example of what can result from failure to acknowledge our shared humanity. That said, Polanski's portrayal of the Holocaust is surprisingly free of political correctness, making clear that there were good Germans and bad Jews to be found. Unfortunately, moral ambiguity is often in short supply in Hollywood, but this is hardly a Hollywood movie. It doesn't go down anywhere near that easily, which is part of what makes it so compelling.
  
  

• a masterwork
  By A11GM9T45T7DDL on 2003-10-08
  The Pianist is a unique and beautiful film in that it tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman without marring the truth with pretense or bravado. The film, as a whole, presents a vision of world war 2 Poland that was painstakingly crafted as to give the viewer an idea of the chaos, cruelty, and reality that was the backdrop for the life of the protagonist. The plot is essentialy about the survival of Szpilman as Nazi Germany invaded his homeland, sending his family to concentration and labor camps to die.The cinematography is an achievement in itself and the film is historically accurate, in one scene even showing a Nazi cameraman filming the proceedings as the Nazis truly kept thorough records. This film does not hide the ungodly practices that were Nazi doctrine, and throughout the film, we see the arbitrary brutality that was the fate of so many polish citizens. A young woman is shot in the forehead when she asks what soldiers intend to do with their prisoners and a young boy is beaten to death trying to escape a prison wall, a scene that diector polanski lived through when he escaped nazi occupied Poland through a wall. However, because Wladyslaw Szpilman is a great artist , and more importantly, because he is very lucky, he manages to escape this ill-fates of his family members. It is through this journey that we become aquainted with the other characters in the film. These characters form the incredible depth of the film. The Polish people as a whole are not made out to be saintly patriots,one dimensional sufferers, or the subhuman manifestaion of Nazi theories.They are more accurately sculpted as human beings with weaknesses and strengths, and their own dark sides. Wladyslaw Szpilman's family represents a side of Poland that was intellegent and artistic, with strong and cohesive families, the embodiment of what so many of us strive for. For them, we feel sympathy. Their loss is truly tragic, because their fall is so great. They are not without their imperfections though, and this is shown succinctly when Wladyslaw's brother lets his sister know that he ," Wished I could have known you better..." before being sent to a camp. Also depicted, are characters who would steal a guandis and dying musician's money for survial, a below average intellegence propaghandist newspaper distibutor and prisoners who fight old women for food. On the other hand, we are not introduced to many Germans on an intimate level. The soldiers who are represented are usually brutal and murderous, fufilling the grand design of the Nazi plan. From soldiers, this behavior was solicited and required, but we also encounter a nasty german woman who would have the protagonist shot for being Jewish. This seems to suggest an evil nature of the society as a whole... until Wladyslaw meets a german officer who saves his life. The scene of their meeting is particularily striking and beautiful. Up until this point we have really only seen Wladyslaw Szpilman reacting to the chaos around him. Here he is confronted by the officer with the question of "who are you". Wladyslaw explains that he is a Pianist, but then stutters and stops..." I was a Pianist". And this is the state to which he has been reduced. He is no longer an artist. He is no longer human, nand does not look more alive than dead. He has been stripped of his humanity completely, and thus of his identity as THE PIANIST. But instead of killing him, the soldier asks him to play, and so is the character revealed to us. He is revelaed by his music, and while he plays, the officer listens, overwhelmed by the identity that Wladyslaw has recovered.
  
  
• Heart-felt and powerful
  By A29IYGR7SNPRIV on 2003-01-28
  Far too many films use war(s) to make their points. For Speilberg, it's a venue for manipulation (Schindler's List being a prime example of bending
  history to accommodate the director's message); for Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket) it was an opportunity to illustrate the eternal madness of
  sending children to war (Viet Nam) and the irreparable damage caused by the experience. For Polanski, it is a solemn ode to the whims of fate and the
  power of one man's life force.

  The Pianist is, in all ways, an understated film. Polanski makes the sensational matter-of-fact. The bodies of dead Jews in the streets is so horrific to the
  occupants of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto that they simply cease seeing them. We the audience see them and are lifted into the mindset of the nearly
  half-million people who were bricked into that small area where constant acts of casual madness (people selected at random to take one step forward
  and then get shot down, while those not chosen contain their reactions and look away) are routine. Polanski's view is unsentimental, clear-eyed and
  imbued with the knowledge of someone who survived the horrors and lived to tell about it.

  Brody as pianist Szpilman gives a wonderfully understated performance, his dark soulful eyes haunted; his body is curved inward from perpetual fear
  and hunger. And yet, in what has to be one of the most powerful scenes in the film, when a young German officer encounters Brody/Szpilman in an
  empty house and asks who he is, what he does, why he's hiding, and Szpilman admits, "I used to be a pianist," and then, at the officer's invitation, sits
  down to play--what the music achieves is everything the film needs to say. It's one of the most wrenching scenes ever filmed, profoundly moving and
  evocative of both the interior life of the artist, the timelessness of music and, finally, the truth that music is, indeed, the universal language.

  The only jarring moment (my daughter and I had a dispute over this scene) was Brody's emerging from hiding in the German officer's greatcoat and
  being shocked and surprised at being denounced as a German. My daughter thought it didn't ring true, that someone who'd so scrupulously kept
  himself safe and hidden would do something so stupid. My take was that in his leap of joy at realizing freedom was before him, Szpilman simply
  forgot about the coat. I'll have to read the book to find out if this is described in more detail.

  This is not your feel-good, Hollywood war movie but something rooted firmly in historical reality. But it is important viewing.
  My highest recommendation.
  
  

• mesmerizing
  By on 2004-03-14
  The whole time my wife amd I watched this film, we couldn't leave it for a minute. Aside from the incredible acting, the film showed disturbingly clear how a whole sect of the human race could be isolated and left open for violation. It was so slow and subtle, that people didn't realize what was happening before it was too big to stop. I have also watched Schindler's List which was more disturbing as a whole, but much more stark in it's telling. This movie is on a more intimate level and I consider it to be one of the best I've ever seen. Warning- there are some extremely disturbing scenes in this movie-stark, and brutal that will stay with you. And one note to the person from New York that wrote-BORING-, did you know that this was a true story? That the effort by people to hide the pianist was because he was considered a national treasure? Or are you really that narrow-minded that nobody suffers like us? Buy this movie? Most definitely!!!
  
  
• An Extraordinary and True Story--
  By A2EMP366TTS6E1 on 2004-01-25
  THE PIANIST is one of the best films that I've seen in a long time. The music, acting, cinematography and the superb direction of Roman Pulanski have all combined to make an extraordinary film. It's the true story of a Jewish pianist and takes place in Poland during World War II. Adrien Brody's performance in the part of Wladyslaw Szpilman was sensitive and believable.

  The story begins with Szpilman playing the piano on live radio as the Germans are bombing Warsaw. Wladyslaw is so into his music that he continues to play even after the station's radio manager signals for him to stop. Thus begins the story of Hilter's war on Poland and the Jews living there. The portrayal of the home life of the Szpilman family was intriguing. It gave me a good idea of what it was like for them to live day to day under the increasing threat of Nazi violence towards the Jewish community. All of the Jewish families are made to wear arm bands and sent to live in one area that became known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Some Jews have permits to work outside the Ghetto. Wladyslaw is a radio star and has some influence. He obtains work permits for his family, hoping that would save them all, but it's too late. Before his family can even use the permits, the Nazis begin to evacuate them from the Ghetto and load them into cattle cars to be sent to concentration camps. Wladyslaw is standing with his family and just before they are loaded up, he's pulled off by a friend who's a Jewish policeman. He escapes from the Nazis, and spends the war years hiding in various buildings. He survived with the help of Christian friends and by his sheer tenacity.

  Since Wladyslaw Szpilman wrote his memoirs shortly after the war, his account is considered to be very accurate of what took place during those terrible years. I've visited Warsaw three times, and felt that THE PIANIST gave me the real feeling of that city. I've seen many photographs of the ruins of Warsaw, and this film gave a clear idea of what was left after the bombing. The Old Town has been rebuilt and its a monument to the dedication and hard work of the people of Poland
  
  

• stunning
  By A3CIF37R5VT5WP on 2003-02-18
  Whew, is this some movie. It's a serious drama and doesn't seem very much like a "movie" after 10 minutes, its filled with sadness and desperation and horrible scenes that stay in your mind for time to come. but dont get me wrong, its one of the best movies of the year, and movies of this substance rarely get mad. if you liked schindlers list, youll love this.
  The Story of Wladyslaw Szpielman, A world famous Polish Pianist who happens to be stuck in the circumstance of being Jewish..during the Holocaust, right at the time when the Germans want to start the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, the most notorious area where jews were held during ww2.
  taken from being a pianist, and turned into a hopeless man, Szpielman lives and dies in his rebirth and life in short existences again and again being terribly afraid of the germans.The movie traces the arc from Szpilman's pre-war days as a comfortable and already famous cultural figure in Poland through to the end of the war.
  there is so much tension running throughout this movie,mostly because we know what a horrible fate the characters are going to endure...and see....and its so painful to watch, its one man's journey to hell shown from his eyes very realistically....the director's mother was also executed at auschwitz and he escaped..he finds some hope in telling this story of great suffering.
  Szpilman is shown as a survivor from day to day trying to stay alive and getting ready for his end, he isnt shown as a fighter or a hero.

  the film is technically brilliant, directed by the famous roman polanski. adrien brody as the main character DESERVES an oscar....i cannot say enough, one of the best acting ive seen in years...he disintegrated from a upright moral somewhat rich man to a homeless bum right in front of our eyes...not by makeup and costume alone but by his eyes..and mannerisms..it truly is a heartbreaking performance and film...such powerful films takes guts to make...and it should be seen...if you dont like moving dramas or want action or excitement or the rhythm of an avg hollywood movie,..your not going to like this..but if its the opposite..youll love it

  its a true story.

  A portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake.
  
  

• A powerful film that transcends the Holocaust it portrays
  By A3CN9CCJUNIPKT on 2003-01-28
  Roman Polanski's powerful portrait of wartime life in the Jewish ghetto of German-occupied Warsaw, the site of the famous Jewish uprising of 1943, is a film that will really knock the wind out of you. Polanski himself barely avoided being trapped in the Polish ghettoes; his parents and family died at Auschwitz, along with countless others -- mothers, fathers, children; innocent people from all walks of life. The film opens with renowned concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, on whose life this film is based, performing Chopin on Polish state radio, at the very moment that the bombs start dropping on the capital city. Characteristically, Szpilman refuses, or is unable to stop playing, until literally forced out of the building by eminent disaster. This serves as an opening metaphor for Szpilman's coming struggle, as his mix of stubborn pride, ongoing haplessness, sheer luck, and artistic soulfulness all prove, inexplicably, to be the combination that enables him to survive one of the most horrific chapters in human history. The day by day degradation and oppression of the Polish Jews is shown in precise, undeniable, haunting detail -- Polanski doesn't linger on the most tawdry details of the Nazi sadism, but he does give one of the most coherent and heartbreaking pictures of what happened to Warsaw's once-vibrant Jewish community, which was all but annihilated during Hitler's genocidal "final solution." Szpilman is actually one of the few Warsaw Jews who never left the city -- he survived the war in the most precarious circumstances, and took up his concertizing career again after the conflict ended. What he saw, as shown in this movie, is truly amazing, and a profound testament to the beauty and resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of the worst horrors our species can conjure. Actor Adrien Brody portrays Szpilman in an astounding performance, not only learning to play Chopin himself, but also introjecting an astonishing range of subtle, crushing emotions into a mostly-nonverbal role. Although in some ways it is "just another" Holocaust movie, it is also one of the best made, most meaningful films you are ever likely to see.
  
  
• Master filmmaking
  By A3DWUM6SN3N3NR on 2003-04-28
  Polanski proves that being adept at the surreal or fantastical does not preclude a director from composing an effectively thoughtful and linear story. If anything, Polanski demonstrates that true vision knows no bounds. Like many, I wasn't sure how much more of the Nazi regime imagery I could stomach. Quickly I became endeared to the character and found myself pulling for his survival as if it was really taking place. These days it is so difficult to become so absorbed in a film. For a movie to pull this off requires an amazing vision and a successful unfurling of that vision and all its detail. Many forces seemed to work together to achieve this accomplishment.
  
  What is so profound about this film is the degree to which the viewer becomes transmogrified through the course of following the central character in his determination to survive.
  The war scenes and depictions of brutality are, in my opinion, done truthfully and in a manner that lends credence to the story.
  
  This movie captures the fundamental human feelings that ultimately pull us all together. It does so without catering to any sense of "political correctness." Good and evil are demonstrated by Nazis AND prisoners.
  
  More than another "war movie," this film transcends genres and moves into the realm of greatness. Whatever you think of Polanski the man, this film is brilliant.
  
  
• ***Adrien Brody at His Best!***
  By A1362KVPBN6GV6 on 2005-03-11
  Adrien Brody is definitely at his best in this movie. I love Brody, and after this movie, I declare that I have now found my lifetime obsession-Adrien Brody.
  
  In order to play the famous pianist that survived the agony of war during the years of Nazi terrorism, Brody isolated himself throughout the journey before and during the making of the movie. He learned to play the piano for this role in a few short months. He became one with the character by ridding himself of earthly possessions and disconnecting himself with family and friends. He got in touch with the true feelings of loneliness and despair. Brody certainly captured the true essence of suffering in his acting. Many scenes were of himself, by himself, where the actor is put to the greatest test--to act. He pulls his audience in with expressions, his body language, and he intrigues the audience with his talents. This is an incredible challenge because there are no distractions to muddle up these scenes where he is by himself. Brody expresses a musician's passion, an artist's love for music, as he fantasizes about playing piano when he should not. It is evident in his performance that it is the passion for music that saved Szpilman's life. It kept him moving through the harshest moments in his life, and ultimately draws out the beauty in the beast of a German Nazi soldier. Brody's acting shows Szpilman's strength as a member in his family, and the subtleness of his actions and words signify the bonds he yearns to have with others but never can.
  
  The movie is incredibly done with a symmetry of the beginning and ending. Fear settles in quickly, such an upheaval in a musician's world of talent and popularity is torn apart by war and loss, and then brought back together again with order and grace at the end. The noncommercialization of this extraordinary film and Brody's win of the academy award proves that this movie is one of the best movies ever made.
  
  
• ALL THE RIGHT NOTES
  By A3LZGLA88K0LA0 on 2004-09-15
  THE PIANIST is a devastatingly simple, yet moving, singular viewpoint of the dreadful Holocaust. Adrian Brody plays the title role, a quiet, brilliant pianist who watches his family being hauled off to a concentration camp. Scene by scene, over years of pain and anguish, Brody sees others killed brutally and manages to survive by doing what he's told and hiding out in various buildings in the destroyed city of Warsaw. Director Roman Polanski's Oscar winning guidance gives us Brody's view of this event, and supports him with actors of fine quality: Frank Finlay as his father, and most notably Thomas Kretschman as the German soldier who in the last segment of the movie joins Brody in the most moving and evocative scenes in the film. Krestschmann is an actor to watch---he is brilliant in this small but unforgettable role.
  The music is awesome, and the movie's dramatic thrust is heightened by its inclusion.
  Not an easy movie to watch, but deeply moving and memorable. Brody's Oscar is surely deserved.
  
  
• Lyrical True Story of Survival
  By A3UPYGJKZ0XTU4 on 2003-05-31
  Jewish pianist Wladyshaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is considered to be the most gifted pianist in pre-World War II Poland. Music lovers eagerly await his shows on Polish radio, and fans travel to Warsaw to meet him. But when Nazi Germany invades Poland, Polish Jews begin to be persecuted. At first they are forbidden from public places, required to wear arm bands identifying them as Jews, and are restricted in the amount of money they can keep. Then all of the Jews in Poland were relocated to a small part of Warsaw that became a Jewish ghetto and confined there. Wladyshaw Szpilman and his family were among them. Szpilman managed to survive the difficult and terrifying life in the Warsaw ghetto for several years, until only 60,000 of the original half million Jewish occupants remained. He escaped to the outside before the ghetto was burned and was hidden by some friends in the Polish underground. Even with the aid of others, Szpilman became deathly ill and nearly starved to death on several occasions before the Russian army finally drove the Germans from Poland and he was free to come out of hiding.

  "The Pianist" is the story of Wladyshaw Szpilman's struggle to survive the desperate circumstances that Polish Jews faced under Nazi occupation, based on Szpilman's autobiography. "The Pianist" was directed by another Polish Jew who survived the Nazi occupation, Roman Polanski (whose parents paid for a rural Christian family to keep their son while they were taken to a concentration camp). Roman Polanski has said that he would never make his own story into a movie, and he waited a very long time to direct someone else's. "The Pianist" is a long movie, and it contains a lot of material that would not be essential to tell Szpilman's story. The extra material helps pace the film and is included in such a way as to give the film a lyrical quality, create mood, and enhance our understanding of the environment in which Szpilman and his countrymen were living. Presumably for personal reasons, Roman Polanski did not cut this one to the bare bones. That's fine because the added length gives us a chance to see more characters, some very fine cinematography, and more of Adrien Brody's excellent performance. "The Pianist" is engrossing enough that its length doesn't produce boredom. There are a lot of minor characters, and all of the film's performances are impressive. I highly recommend "The Pianist" for its incredible story of perseverance, great performances, beautiful cinematography, and inspiring tribute to the power of music.
  
  

• Is There More to Say? To This I Answer Affirmatively
  By APUHDIL2CEI3C on 2004-02-20
  There are so many ways to review a film. So many angles, perspectives. Criticisms are as easy to find (Brody's long hair toward the end is not that convincing) as laurels (Polanski's brilliant use of original black and white footage (much viewable on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial website) of pre-war Warsaw integrated into the scenes of film--reconstructions, if you will.

  In all respects a brilliant film.

  I will therefore focus on only one aspect. This is the encounter between Szpilman, the Pianist, and Wehrmacht Hauptmann des Reserves Wilm Hosenfeld (pulled from the Reserves out of wartime necessity), the man who provided the means for him to survive the few weeks left before the Red Army enters Warsaw, which, using Computer Graphic Imaging, is in color as startlingly real as the actual black and white photographs of the period--near total destruction and decimation of a great city.

  That encounter, which of course one must live through the film to appreciate, is acted to perfection by Brody and Thomas Kretschmer, the German actor. I have before me an actual photograph of Captain Hosenfeld in 1940, having what appears to be a pleasant conversation with a Jew, on the street, in the snow, in Wegrow.

  Hosenfeld was an unusual man, leaving behind many letters to home. He died in ingnominity in some Soviet prison camp--only 5,000 of some 90,000 Prisoners of War returned to Germany--a Holocaust unto itself about which we know little.

  Hosenfeld was a Captain of Reserves, if anything, a rather stunning man in contrast to what we normally think of when we see the Wehrmacht officer in uniform, the Reichsadler (Reich Eagle holding the Swastika, or Hackenkreuz in German), prominently over the right upper breast pocket of the Waffenrock (four pocket tunic).

  Even in the winter of 1939/1940 (the photo is in a recent German book, "Retter in Uniform"--Rescuers in Uniform--showing Hosenfeld and Schindler to be hardly unique. Schindler a war profiteer who seemingly regains, or assumes, his humanity in Schindler's list....Hosenfeld, a busy leader organizing retreat who can take the time to listen to Szpilman play, and to say ironically, with a smile--good name for a Pianist. In German, it would be Spielman--one who plays. These contrasts--the emaciated Szpilman, the robust, dutiful if resigned Hosenfeld, make the film unforgettable--you will not have to worry about placing it in a "favorite's" place. You can never forget the moment when Kretschmer, as Hosenfeld, says. "Speil was"--play something.

  This film lasted, possibly, four weeks in Austin, Texas, at one, two, maybe three theaters, often nearly empty. I recommend it most highly, for its tragic and ecstatic moments, one of the most dramatic being Szpilman's ultimately failed search for Hosenfeld. Mr. Polanski has not lost his filmmaking touch.
  
  

• Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)
• Life is Beautiful
• The Pianist: Music from the Motion Picture
• The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
• Downfall