The Pianist Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)January 13th, 2003
THE PIANIST
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A violent and harrowing true account of
Warsaw under the heel of the Nazis. We see the
painful years through the eyes of Wladyslaw
Szpilman, a brilliant Jewish pianist who survived
the war as much though luck as through his own
ability. Roman Polanski's film, his best, draws
on his own experience to create one of the most
realistic accounts of Warsaw's two uprisings.
Rating: 9 (0 to 10), +3 (-4 to +4)
The Holocaust, once a subject that feature films avoided, now has been represented many times in film with filmmakers using different styles. Of course, most films about survivors distort history even if the story is true since for the vast majority of people caught up in the Holocaust the end of the story was murder. Killing the main characters makes for unpopular drama, though some films, like television's ANNE FRANK, risk telling the story to the main characters' deaths. Usually the events are seen through the eyes of one of the rare survivors of those years. Then the story is frequently told almost as a triumph. Stealth and cleverness keep the main character alive. In EUROPA, EUROPA; ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR; and SCHINDLER'S LIST the main characters find ways to circumvent the Nazis. SEVEN BEAUTIES and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL distort the history to cushion the viewer from the shocks that a more accurate version would have. THE PIANIST is more accurate and though it is not as disturbing as THE GREY ZONE, it is more disturbing than SCHINDLER'S LIST because of the total lack of hope. THE PIANIST is a true story about Wladyslaw Szpilman, a survivor but one who did not win through courage, cleverness, or stealth. Each of those played a small part but for the most part he survived though luck. He was one of the statistical few who survived time and time again by luck and chance. Szpilman survives close escapes, but there is no feeling of triumph and no excitement from them. The tone is more like it would be if Szpilman barely survived a disease that took so many other lives.
Szpilman bore witness to the atrocities in his memoirs, which were published after the war, suppressed by the Soviets, and finally becoming available in the 1990s. He tells how his family is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. He does what he must to survive. He escapes, lives as a slave laborer for a while, and eventually goes into hiding. He sees the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and later the general Warsaw Uprising. Finally, looking through little holes from his many hiding places, he sees the defeat of the Germans. It is as much Warsaw's story as Szpilman's.
As the film opens Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody) plays piano for Warsaw Radio. The music is almost like an organ of his body that he cannot abandon, even as the station is bombed by the advancing Germans. Szpilman's father (Frank Finley) tries to be optimistic in the face of the mounting tragedy and horror, much as Guido does in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Almost as if it is Polanski's response to LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, the elder Szpilman finds how powerless he is to protect his family and even himself. His family has all they own stolen from them and are forced to live in a small room in the ghetto. To earn a little money Szpilman plays piano in a restaurant. Meanwhile in the ghetto disease and starvation have reduced the people to animals struggling over the little scraps of remaining food they are allowed. All of this was buffering and preparing the Jews to be transported to the camps to be slaughtered. Chance saves Szpilman and he is able to get unexpected help from friends inside the ghetto and later friends outside where he goes into hiding.
As films of the Holocaust go, this adaptation by Ronald Harwood of Szpilman's book, is one of the more grim and violent. That is no accident. Roman Polanski, a Polish Jew, was a boy in Krakow, Poland when the Holocaust came. He lost his mother to the Nazis and who went into hiding not too differently from the way Szpilman does. Polanski was apparently intent on recreating for the world the horrors he saw and experienced at that time. He shot the film mostly in Warsaw where the events actually occurred.
There are images of this film that will stay with the viewer for a long time. That may not be a good or welcome thing. THE PIANIST is a powerful and bitter account of the Holocaust, this is certainly one of the best films of the year. I rate it a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
