I just wanted to jump in to say that:

1. The Pianist is a brilliant film
2. That it is better than Schindler's List which is too sentimentalized and too earnest for its own good

Schindler's List is Platoon: All realism, all earnest, and w/ all the trappings of "importance"

Where as The Pianist is Apocalypse Now: Surreal, phantasmagoric, twistedly funny, nightmarishly sick.



Here's a compendium of everything I said in the Movie Talk Pianist thread (a sort of greatest hits if you will):

It is a truely stunning film. WWII through a keyhole.

It's In the great tradition of claustraphobic, apartment dwelling Polanski suspense. With generous nods to Rear Window.

Tense, brutal, unsentimental violence, just like Come and See (one of my favorites).

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I think it is Polanski's best film in a loooong time and perhaps IS his very best. Better than Rosemary's Baby? It just might be.

What did you guys make of the scene early in the film where the little boy that Szpielman pulls out from under the wall is being beaten to death by some unseen person on the other side of the wall? I read this as being autobiographical. Polanski is either trying to comment on his own escape from the Warsaw ghetto (I understand his father pushed him through a hole in the barb wire) or is making a statement about the Tate murder where his unborn child was killed (something he also referenced in Macbeth). The image of the boy ariving headfirst under the wall is symbolic of a birth (or re-birth) but at the same time the child is dead. He is being delivered into a world already dead, or something like that. I'm not trying to turn up the pretentious cinaeste meter too high, but I find that scene, which at first seems like an odd throughaway moment, to possibly be the key to the whole film.




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Originally posted by Ian11
I'm not saying he was a coward. Not at all. Nor do I blame him for wanting to survive. But what does it say about the jews in the Warsaw Ghetto or the Poles who fought knowing they would die anyways? He lived and enjoyed the rest of his life because of the people who fought the Nazis. This film is about a "survivor"
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And that's why, more than anything, Polanski's film is autobiographical. Polanski is a survivor. Not just of the Holocaust, but of many tragedies and mistakes throughout his life.

He may never have been a hero of his own life, but he made it out alive (so far). As unheroic as that is, isn't that all that any of us can hope to do

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Not to pick on YOU in particular Badger, but it is bothersome when films THIS good get nominated for Oscars because instead of focusing on just HOW TRUELY EXCELLENT the film is, everybody just deflects the conversation over to, "was Brody really as good as Nicholas Cage...", "Does the Pianist have broad enough appeal to win", etc.

Enough w/ the Oscar talk already! This is the best film not of 2003, NOT OF 2002, but of the last 5 years. It is an extraordinary achievement. As each day passes I'm more and more convinced that it is Polanski's best film, even beter than Rosemary's Baby. It is a true work of art.

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a boring retread of effective Holocaust movies of the past
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What other holocaust movies? I can think of one: Schindler's List. And since the Pianist is in many ways beter than Schindler's List, then I think it is worthy of distinction.

I also admire the Pianist for having a dark sense of humor and not being afraid to have laughs in a holocaust film. Something that the achingly earnest Schindler's List could barely attempt.

The truth is that the Pianist's subject (the holocaust) is of minimal importance to me. What I like about it more is the range of sensation that it transmits to me. The only film that comes close is the Russian film Come and See

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Ignore the subject matter completely, like I said the fact that this is about the Holocaust ranks third in importance. Number one is that the Pianist has some of the most exquisetly crafted suspense scenes I've seen in a long, LONG time. Second is that subtextually the film is more about Polanski and his own life than it is about the Holocaust

I'm one of those who loved this movie. Saw it once, had to watch it again the next night. Simply captivating. Brody's character was not a hero per se, nor was he an evil force in society. You had a fairly normal human being, blessed in many ways by extraordinary circumstances dealing with his art and pure luck. You saw the breakdown of a noble figure into a scavenging loner in a wasteland of death and war. Hiding for fear of his life. This movie deals with the subtleties of character, the nuances of the situations and the affect they would have on an average person. The character's art, piano playing, I felt was less important towards how other's perceived him than as a character trait that helped keep him alive for all those years. While stories of people who rise above the situation are very intriguing, the horrors this man dealt with...and the complete helplessness he lives is a wonderful, heartbreaking story in itself. It is far less specific than "this man was great" or "this man was evil." Instead we get a fearful look at the Holocaust from a would-be victim, who mostly by chance managed to live through a horrible time. It affected me in many ways because quite frankly...you me and most people if in this position would not be a grand hero mowing down Nazi's left or right but a scared prisoner, hiding, alone, and simply trying to retain sanity.

Pluto Nash sucked

Battlefield Earth sucked

Showgirls sucked

The Pianist While I can understand why some people were let by down by this movie, it certainly doesn't deserve to be placed in the suckage category.

No, it means i didn't like it. I don't think there was anything really wrong with the movie, just wasn't for me.

Showgirls did not suck. Best comedy of the nineties.

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On topic -

I think The Pianist would not be that great a film if Polanski were not the director. With him helming it...it feels "truer". If that makes any sense. He actually lived through that.

Brody does an excellent job. Of course, he probably got the Oscar for being the only one of the nominees without one, but he did a very, very good job and is a great actor.

I am no reviewer, but this film was no where near being called out as "sucked".