I just saw this and it was great. I have a question about the storyline though.

Is this the only Pianist thread? - it was all I could find with a search.

Saw this yesterday and thought it was good, but not all that good (as a Palme D'or winner.)

Re: the question above - I assume you mean the guy in the Jewish police. Szpilman was a well known celebrity and thats why he got helped.

I liked the non-preachy emotional-coldness of the film and the points where the story just unfolds without the need for dialogue - the mark of a good director just telling a story. We've seen enough Holocaust films so everything doesn't have to be explained.

Adrian Brody plays his role perfectly - to get at the almost uncaring coldness of the story. Its almost the point of the film - all the rules of the Nazis were accepted with civility when the scope demanded an uprising.

There was a nod to Come and See and from what I read in Ebert's answer man, To be or not to be.

8/10

Yeah, that To Be or Not to Be reference is great. I saw The Pianist, read the Answer Man column, then saw that the Jack Benny film was part of a local art-house's Ernst Lubitsch retrospective. So I was on that and managed to see a masterpiece of a black comedy. And the reference really is spot-on.

Back to The Pianist, which I thought was great. What I think people are reacting to is the utter passivity of Brody's Szpilman and how that relates to Polanski's own experiences in the ghetto. What we get is a gripping portrait sans the sentimentality that may come from a more active "hero." It's all about the limited point-of-view and how deftly Polanski manipulates it.

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).

BTW, I love the first post. Did he really think that was Hitler?

Why hasn't there been more discussion of this film around here? I've already seen it twice.

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.

I saw it yesterday as well, very good movie. Very non-preachy doesn't try to slam its point across.

I'm not familiar enough with the Polanski ouevre to make such precise assumptions. (how's that pretentious cineaste?)

But I agree that the image is important. It makes the wall even more imposing as it cuts the boy in half, even making a statement on how fast it was built. Fast enough to be built over bodies in its path (going figurative here, but it may be relevent).

What I found interesting was that Szpilman was always ascending and descending. When the station is bombed he goes down to the street. But then back up to his family's flat. There's the overpass between the two ghettos. He carries bricks up scaffolds. His hideout flats are well above the street level. He hides in the piano riser. Even in the final sequence he goes up into the attic. Being grounded represents danger (in the courtyard, hiding on the ground floor of the hospital, the streets are littered with bodies, the execution of the workers as they lay on the ground). It seems like he's being protected.

Very good point sundog. Polanski is very careful when choosing to show things from Szpielman's privledged, subjective angle vs. the camera's objective angle. We watch the batle in the streets from a bird's eye view, but at pivitol moments we are jolted down to street level (an angle impossible for Szpielman to see. Very Hitchcockian.

I'm looking forward to seeing this movie.

Does anyone know what music plays in the trailer?

stoolie

Many times I didn't sympatize with him. While other jews and Poles were fighting and dying in front of his eyes he hid. And Szpilman held onto those things that made jews and various European countries susceptible to criminals and murderers like the Nazis.

Throughout the movie and even towards the very end he was constantly reminded by family and friends around him that its important to take a stand and fight for what is right. That its more important to die with dignity than without. But Szpilman always seemed detached from what's going on around him. There are moments where he has to confront it and is capable of heroic acts but only when he feels compelled to. He constantly wants to get away from it. All he wants is to play the piano, even when bombs are going off all around him. To him that is his escape (and for the German officer as well). He was able to survive partly because he wanted to be oblivious and he was capable of it.

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" and for Roman Polanski thats good enough and for people who never had to live through that that should be good enough too.

I did like the movie.

Excellent... I'll be sure to check this one out.

I was hoping to see this film yesterday, but I fell asleep on my futon instead, lol. Sooo, I hope to see it today. I was on the fence about whether or not I should see this in theaters, but it was some of the threads I've read here that convinced me to make the effort (mainly, I think, how several people mentioned this film in their best films of the 2000s thread).

Found myself on the road with some time to kill so I checked out The Pianist early last week (thankfully I was in an area that offered some variety for moviegoers).

Though I thought the runtime could have been shortened just a little bit by some editing during the last 1/3 of the film, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It felt to me like a mix of Empire of the Sun, Life is Beautiful, and Schindler's List. I did think that The Pianist was more evenly entertaining than Empire of the Sun and Life is Beautiful (I'm not as high on these two films as some others might be). Others here have already done a better job describing the film than I ever could, but to those who might be avoiding it because it's "too artsy", perhaps reconsider and give this film a look as it's pretty darned good.

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

While being a very good film that sucks you into that harrowing period during WWII in Poland, the sense of detachment between us and the protagonist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, in the 3rd act of the film keeps the film as non-sentimental as possible. It may be intentional by Polanski (the director), but I think it's what keeps it from being a superb film, but it's still very well done, and worth seeing and hearing on the big screen.

Adrien Brody does a phenomenal job in the film, able to articulate the plight of Szpilman with minimal dialog in the final act, while imparting all the fears and anxiety and self-preservational urges in his portrayal of Szpilman from a very personal prospective from German occupation of Poland to the end of WWII.

I give it 3.5 stars, or a grade of B+

I have to disagree... MrN, this is not a personal attack. I just wanted to post my thoughts, cool. Anyway, everytime I get any information of the Holocaust, I feel tremendous sadness of how humanity once failed. In addition, I feel it is important to keep repeating this, so the younger generations do not forget or let it repeat itself again. There are numerous films I can think of that is about the Holocaust, and it is just as disturbing everytime. I will not let myself disregard the pain other human beings suffered, we need to keep honoring them and not forget them.

A side note, that is probably already mentioned here is that Polanski he himself is a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, at least that is what I ave read. Through his directing I felt the pain and suffering that was depicted on the screen and it was unavoidable as it was for them in the ghetto. The pain and fear in the story was remarkably well done as well as the acting, cinematography and score, which leads me to think that this is the best film of 2002 IMHO.

Cheers ,

DVD Smurf

PS: Let it not happen again.

Why is this important? Why would breaking the tone and formal structure of the entire film in the last act make the film more of a success?

I agree. I was glad to see a movie about the Holocaust that did not resort to sentimental manipulation at the end of the film.

Is it still playing? My gf wanted to see it. She went to jr high school with the guy and wants to see his movie.

It hasn't gotten a wide release, I think it will in a couple weeks, after they announce the Oscar nominations.

I don't think we're disagreeing - when I said 'things don't have to be explained', I meant we, the veiwers understand what it means when people get on those trains. The film assumes a knowledge of the holocaust and its methods.

I recently saw the 'making of' vignette on IFC. The scene where the old man is struck and told to walk in the gutter is based on something that happened to Polanski's father. And it appears Polanski is quite liberal giving line readings, but hey, he lived this story.

Definitely on my Top 5 movies for last year and right behind "The Hours."
Two movies that are not lite in tone but make for great viewing experiences.


I saw The Pianist with my Father. None of my friends wanted to go see it because of the subject matter. Well worth it though.

Cambodia, Rwanda, the Balkans, Sierra Leone ...

Sadly, genocide has been repeated, although to a lesser extent than the Holocaust. Maybe the 21st century will see some improvement.

On to the movie, which I just saw tonight. Wow. I was blown away. Definetly one of my favorite films of 2002. Before reading this thread, I had no idea that Polanski was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. I think I need to see the film again with that in mind and see what else I get out of it.

Has anyone hre read the book? I'm now interested in checking it out.

I can't wait to see this one.

One of life's little ironies: The film closes by saying that Szpilman died at the age of 88 years.....

Know how many keys there are on a piano?