The Pianist

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The Pianist

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The Pianist

Adrien Brody, Anthony Milner, Daniel Caltagirone, Ed Stoppard, Emilia Fox

An adaptation based on the autobiography of the acclaimed Polish composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman, who detailed his survival during World War II, and narrowly escaped a roundup that sent his family to a d...( read more  read more... )eath camp. A composer and pianist, Szpilman played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. There, in Poland, Szpilman struggled to stay alive--even when cast away from those he loved. He spent the duration of the war hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and scavenging for food and shelter. Szpilman eventually reclaimed his artistic gifts, and confronted his fears--with aid from the unlikeliest of sources.

Id: 10895962

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The Pianist Recent Reviews
  • Galeocerdo
    December 13, 2009
    Galeocerdo
    Easily one of 2002's best. An important and fantastic true story, in league with Schindler's List.
  • BiologyBabe2012
    October 3, 2009
    BiologyBabe2012
    Much much better than 'Schindler's List'. This is a film that shows the gritty reality of the Holocaust while maintaining a non - political, sympathetic and unschmaltzy tone.

    Adrien Brody shines; a well - deserved Academy award winner, though once again I think the role would ha...( read more)ve been better filled by a Polish actor. The rest of the cast is pretty good too, though I didn't see any other standout performances (a bit like Johnny Depp in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'). Directed by Roman Polanski, 'The Pianist' avoids the Stephen Spielberg fail of falling into the glitz and glamour of a typical Hollywood movie. It is everything that 'Schindler's' is not.

    While this topic is still not one of my favourites, I did actually have a good time while learning something new from a different point of view. Highly recommended to those who disliked 'Schindler's List' and want to see a different treatment of the topic.
  • irisheyes686
    August 30, 2009
    irisheyes686
    It was a good movie, but it wasn't much different from other movies made about the Holocaust. It was really slow moving and a little too long. Maybe if it had focused more on his life as a piano player, it would've stood out more to me.
  • IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    February 26, 2009
    IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    I'm sure that Roman Polanski envisioned "The Pianist" as his Opus magnum. At the back of his mind, he always wanted to make a picture about his painful childhood in Cracov ghetto, but since he was always against autobiography, calling it "pointless", he was looking for a story. A...( read more) story that would be a way to show us, from the point of actual survivor, how the horror of war and opression really looked like.

    Well, if we look at the numbers concerning Warsaw at that time, it turns out disturbing. Himmler says it cut and dried: Warsaw is to be level to the ground. Let's make an example to the Russians and the rest of the world of what we're capable of. Result? Milion people are murdered and not much is left of the city. For almost five years, Warsaw is a place of thousands of big dramas: losses, arguments, fights, humiliations...

    "The Pianist" is a bold, realistic film. Polanski's concept is to present the events of occupied Warsaw through the eyes of a one man, Wladyslaw Szpilman, a famous Jewish pianist. When the bullets and bombs started to fly over his head, Szpilman, a fragile man, suited himself in a position of a passive observer, which is completely understandable. He saw the events of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and then Warsaw Uprising hidden in the apartments and that way Polanski was able to show the war as it is: without any pathos or special effects. People are hidden behind the walls and shot at each other to survive - that's a sign of courage enough...

    And yet after seeing the picture, I couldn't help but ask: why Polanski decided to materialize his vision through the story of a life of the one Wladyslaw Szpilman? Wasn't there at the time among Jewish community much more interesting story than Szpilman's undoubtely painful yet laborious and often dull misfortunes? I highly doubt it. The idea of unmilitarian point of view is fantastic, and yet... the result feels uninvolving and sometimes even heavy-handed. Szpilman's character itself (which I think is important even though he's not playing the key part here, War does) isn't interesting from the beginning, when he's left alone, he's apathetic, desperate, real and boring at the same time, and sometimes one get the feeling that he might as well disappear from the screen.

    With its striking scenography, lighting and atmosphere, Polanski's brutally realistic approach is the picture's biggest quality. No other war picture I've seen brings the atmosphere of fear of not knowing whether you lose your life now or in the next hour so powerfully. There're few shocking scenes that slowly yet consequently build that tension. The most disturbing scene would be seeing a nasty sociopath named Josef Blosche executing five Jewish workers who are, in his mind, expendable and unable to work anymore.

    Since I'm a Polish I probably should praise it like everyone else in my home country and aboard but I don't see any true reason to do so. I feels as if Polanski wanted to say something important here, but it remains unclear what theme he had in mind, other than present the cruelty of World War II. The scene with German capitan near the end of the film was supposed to be a symbol of universal power of art which can save us, suddenly awakening compassion and fragility? Possibly, but even if that was the point, to me, if we still stick to realism, it rather looked like a delusion of a starving Szpilman. In the end, "The Pianist" kept my attention, but ultimately, left plenty to ask for.
  • ceWEBrity
    December 21, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    Holocaust porn. Surely any audience for this film knows that what Hitler did was a Very Bad Thing; The Pianist, devoid of theme and unwilling to explore any deeper meaning for the atrocities it showcases, simply has nothing new to say. Where its critical support comes from is how...( read more) it says these things, with Roman Polanski's impeccable cinematic eye helming two and a half hours of unavoidable historical brutality. No one will say no this for fear of coming across as callous.

    The Pianist isn't a bad movie. In fact, I feel it could do a lot of could if it reached the right people. I just came out of it having not really learned anything. I've read Leon Uris, seen many other movies about the Holocaust and I paid attention in my history classes. Alongside these experiences, The Pianist simply doesn't offer anything new. There's no exploration or metaphor, no backbone to what we're seeing. It's a tempestuous, intelligent movie, but doesn't have the judgment or the patience to show its viewers anything but a stream of constant atrocities. It's basically a filmic headbutt.

    I haven't seen any of the other nominated actor performances from 2003, but Adrien Brody is fine here. He is convincing and expressive, but never truly excellent, simply because the character doesn't call for him to do anything but be sad and emaciated and react to scary things. This is simply another case of the movie letting him down (though I guess not too much, since he still won that Oscar).

    I could just be completely missing the boat here, or there's some element of The Pianist that I ignored that makes it a great movie, but I'm just not seeing much that lives up to the hype. As a Holocaust primer, it could be very valuable, but otherwise there's nothing here to shade in or deepen this horrific time in history.
  • F0XyF0x
    December 9, 2009
    F0XyF0x
    This was a magnificent movie. Well done to Adrian Brody.
  • OoHSoAmaZiNg
    December 8, 2009
    OoHSoAmaZiNg
    OMG!! This Movie is simply AMAZING!! How can u not love Adrian Brody in this. The Movie and Actors were Phenominal!!!
  • BetweenTheTrees
    December 4, 2009
    BetweenTheTrees
    The Pianist is gritty and devastating. Unlike most holocaust themed films, it strays away from the side of politics and focuses on the realism of living as a Jew during the atrocities of World War II.

    Some intense visuals and underlying moral values makes The Pianist special....( read more) To appreciate the horrific beauty of some scenes is agonizing and amazing at the same time. I can't place my finger on it, but something about this impressed me greatly. A painfully beautiful soundtrack featuring pieces from Frédéric Chopin and Wojciech Kilar brings the feeling of the film into focus.

    A bold film with a profound ending.
  • bigmamaoth
    December 2, 2009
    bigmamaoth
    very touching movie. i like this, so much!
  • iniaki6751
    November 24, 2009
    iniaki6751
    Expecting a lot of this one!!!!
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