The Pianist
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Movie Reviews of The Pianist
Movie Review: Images of Progressive Dehumanization and Suffering...
Summary: 5 Stars
Neither a documentary nor a story of fictional characters set in a historical setting, The Pianist is the dramatization of the true survival story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist from Warsaw who died in 2000 and who can be seen and heard in the DVD Special Features. There are some things that come off more powerfully in this true drama format than in documentary testimonials, and particularly notable with The Pianist is the educative value of observing through time the stages of dehumanization against the Jews in Poland.
In the early part of the movie, an ominous feel develops as there is a move from "No Jews Allowed" signs to the requirement of wearing identifying Star of David armbands, to daily abuse on the street by "ordinary" people, the complicity of a Polish police force, the announcement that Jews would be expelled from neighborhoods, the confiscation of property, being forced into an overcrowded apartment and worse later, the walls of the ghetto going up, selection for forced labor, family survival by divvying up a tiny candy, gunshots to the head on whim, failed attempts of children to smuggle food...and yet still there was not utter despair, and still family members had each other...there were lineups where some were selected to step forward to be shot on the spot, bodies to be stepped over, starvation, and then Szpilman watching as his family was herded into railroad cars for deportation as he was pulled back and saved by a Jewish policeman.
From that point, Szpilman goes in and out of the ghetto to labor, and in so doing aids in smuggling in handguns for a planned Jewish resistance...but then he decides to escape the ghetto and not return. Adrian Brody is thoroughly convincing in his role as Szpilman, and the degree of suffering is increasingly apparent in Brody's face and gait. Continuing on with Szpilman's story we watch from Szpilman's hiding place as some Warsaw Jews resist, their molotav cocktails and guns no match for the tanks and flamethrowers. Szpilman escapes death on more than one occasion, and even the helpful non-Jews aren't so helpful. The burnt and gutted city panoramas, the bodies in pools of blood, the emaciation and disease, all these images...they hit, perhaps enduringly, in a place that a black and white photo montage with accompanying testimonials, valuable in its own way, just doesn't.
Movie Review: I only wish that I'd seen this movie sooner!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm ashamed to admit that it's taken me four years to finally see Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I guess I thought I wouldn't enjoy it for some strange reason. I will say that I've always considered Chinatown to be Mr. Polanski's best film, but I now have to change that and put The Pianist at the top of the list. This film is literally his masterpiece. Why it didn't beat out Chicago for the best movie of 2003, I don't know. Maybe the Academy members were smoking too much weed that year and didn't realize what film they were actually voting for. Whatever the reason, The Pianist is definitely an Oscar-caliber motion picture, while Chicago is only a decent musical. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. About the only thing I remember from the 2003 Academy Awards is Adrien Brody putting a real lip-lock on the beautiful Halle Berry when he won for Best Actor.
With over three hundred reviews, I think most everybody now knows that The Pianist is a true story based on the personal experiences of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist who lived in Warsaw during World War II and struggled to survive the Holocaust with the aid of both Jewish and non-Jewish lovers of music, especially a German officer who fed him and allowed him to hide in the attic of the German field station as the Russians made their way into Warsaw. That Mr. Szpilman was able to survive the horrors of what transpired in Warsaw is a testament to his perseverance, inner strength, and the kindness of others who risked their lives to hide him.
Mr. Polanski was able to bring to life the cold harshness of war-torn Warsaw and the infamous Ghetto through his brilliant Production Designer, Allan Starski and the Director of Photography, Pawel Edelman. There was one scene in particular when Szpilman climbs over a wall to escape from burning up in a deserted hospital and sees the skeleton remains of hundreds of buildings in the near distance. This was a jaw-dropping moment of pure movie magic. The cruelty of the German soldiers, though not as explicit as it was in Schindler's List, still resonates with the poignant message of what evil man is capable of perpetrating on his fellow human beings. There were scenes in the movie that left you utterly speechless like when the Germans throw an old man in a wheelchair off a third floor balcony because he's unable to stand when they enter his home, or when a German officer orders several Jewish prisoners to lie face down on a street for no apparent reason, and then shoots each of them in the back of the head, having to reload for the last person. That grabbed you in the gut and made you feel a deep sorrow for what was allowed to happen. It's difficult to believe that this was only sixty years ago and that forms of genocide are still taking place in the world of today. Needless to say, The Pianist is an extremely powerful movie with an amazing performance by Adrien Brody, who's in almost every single scene. This man certainly deserved his Academy Award, not to mention that delicious kiss with Halle Berry. I would highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed Schindler's List, or simply loves an excellent movie with great performances.
Movie Review: Uplifting real-life tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
Is there such thing as an uplifting tragedy? How contradictory would that be? Well to me Roman Polanski managed to do just that with his unparalleled account of the Poland occupation by the Nazis in this magnificent movie, "The Pianist". No wonder it has gotten all the attention and awards it has. After watching this incredibly moving and shocking and sad and at the same time uplifting story onscreen, you would say that the most appealing part of it is that it is based in actual real events, endured by a polish musician (the real Wladislaw Spilzman) during the occupation of Poland, and written down in a book by himself after the end of the war. But then you find out that the director (Roman Polanski himself) also survived the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland. Being just a kid, Polanski lived in the Warsaw ghetto and lost all of his family, killed by the Nazis. He was actually separated from his mother and father, and her was eventually sent to Auschwitz to finally die in the concentration camp. To this day he admits that from all the horrors he had to endure, to long for his parents and eventually finding out that they were dead, was the most painful one.
..And just then the real message of this movie reaches you, loud and clear. The capacity of the human being of surviving the most horrific and painful situations, hanging out firmly to willpower, inner strength and love. In the case of Wladislaw Spilzman, the love for music. A love that was also a way to redemption for the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld. Right there below the most sordid and dark depths of all horrors, lies a light of hope and faith. Adrien Brody's performance was one of the most powerful and genuine renditions I have ever seen onscreen. And Thomas Kretschmann in his role of the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld left me just speechless. This is simply put one of the greatest account of the events surrounding the occupation of Poland, ever.
Movie Review: the pianist
Summary: 5 Stars
I have actually never seen this movie, I bought it for my sister so that she could give it to her husband for christmas, but it is one of his favorite movies, so according to him its really good.Movie Review: Definitively an inspiring epic...
Summary: 5 Stars
'The Pianist' is definitively an inspiring epic that celebrates the tenacity and fortitude of the human spirit... It is a remarkable tale of human survival sensitively brought to life by Polanski... The film carries us to the horrible reign of terror, where condemned people wearing the emblem of humiliation and oppression, are deprived of their rights, their human values and dignity, before being shipped to 'labor camps.'
In Polanski's movie all the conventional elements of the drama are at peaks of excellence:
Family union: When a father has to bargain to buy a single piece of caramel and divide it in six pieces to share it with each member of his family...
Starvation: When a ghetto inhabitant assaults a helpless woman for a bowl of soup...
Confusion: When a distraught woman wails on a platform because she smothered the cries of her baby with her hand...
Love: When a young musician turns to his younger sister and utters with sad regret, "I wish I knew you better."
Survival: When one man observes the war through his hide-outs around the city...
Cruelty: When an old man in a wheelchair is thrown off the balcony by the Nazis because he failed to stand upon their entrance...
Fear: When a talented musician sits down at the old piano, and pretends to play his music, keeping his fingers flowing with control above the vertical ivories...
Discrimination: When bored Nazi guards entertain themselves by forcing grotesquely mismatched old and sick couples to dance to a Jewish street band by the ghetto gate...
Horror: When condemned Jewish workers lie face-down in the street, while one SS guard walks down the line, shooting without remorse each one in the back of the head...
Isolation: When a fugitive emerges from his harrowing hiding place and walks through a field of deserted ruins exactly like the last man alive on Polish soil..
Adrien Brody gives an absolutely moving performance (based on descriptive facial expressions) as the Polish composer and pianist who stays alive as a Jew, and remains true to his ideals... Brody captures the character's desperation, his anger and grief, his willpower and perseverance, his passion and love of music... Polanski gives us the chance to better know his shock and disbelief, his ordeal and tragedy, his hope for fairness and humanity...
Nominated for seven Academy Awards, this captivating drama went on to win three Oscars, including Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay... Once Brody took the stage to accept his Oscar, he was so overwhelmed with happiness, that he swept the gorgeous Academy Award-winning Halle Berry off her feet with a long, steamy kiss...