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The Pianist (Widescreen Edition) | Year: 2003 Classification: Drama Directed: - Roman Polanski Actors/Actresses: - Adrien Brody - Thomas Kretschmann - Frank Finlay The Best Film About the Holocaust Shindler's List may be bigger, grimmer, more bloody, but The Pianist is better by far. Roman Polanski shares his own memories of German persection with Wladislaw Szpilman's riviting story of survival. Adrien Brody's performance as the detached, sensitive pianist is the core of this film. From the first moment of he appears on screen we understand his character - he plays on as bombs fall - music is more important than life. Contrast this with the numerous scenes Spielberg used to present Shindler's character. Polanski's ecomony is excellent. We understand relationships without interference, we live the anxiety of a throughly assimilated Jew forced into a nightmare of instant death. Polanski's filmmaking here is perfect. I can't think of another film I've seen lately that is so well-shot, yet unobtrusive. The director understands the strength of the story and the strengh of Spzilman to carry the film, and Polanski steps out of the way. As someone who is not only Jewish, but a decendant of Crackow Jews, I found Schindler's List almost too much to bear, yet I did not identify with any of the characters, and to be frank Rafe Fiennes Nazi steals the picture. In the Pianist, the focus is right where it belongs: on the character and suffering of Spzilman. The German animals who destroyed innocent lives are just that, animals, and the quiet dignity that Adrien Brody projects makes that quite clear. At the climax of the film when Spzilman is finally discovered by a German officer after hiding for over two years, he must play to save his life, just as he has done in the Warsaw Ghetto many times. The officer Hosenfeld, played with cool compassion by Thomas Kretschmann, gives Spzilman his life by treating him like a fellow human. Watching Brody protray this ray of light soak through Spzilman's emaciated body is moving beyond words. For once the Academy gives an acting Oscar to someone who really deserves one. I loved this film so much I watched it twice, then bought it, then found the amazing book and bought that. Do I identify with Spzilman? You bet. Watch this film. Read the book, which contains Hosenfeld's diary entries. Amazing work here. Everyone Should See This! A true story about the life of pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, and his life working in Polish labor camps during WWII, and how he escaped deportation and capture by living in Warsaw's ruins. It is a truly mesmerizing story. While it is somewhat slow in the beginning at sucking you in, you will be fully there by the end, I guarantee. <BR>The movie doesn't ever get political, nor does it get graphic or gory. It's simply one man's account of what it was like to be a Polish Jew and live through that time in history. Oh, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of death. It's just not dwelled on. Nor are the horrors of Auschwicz, though we know what's happening through what we studied in history class and what we do see on screen. When thousands of Jews are "relocated to the south" we know fully where they are going and what their fate will be. <BR>While I admit I have not seen all the nominated performaces as yet, Adrian Brody must surely have desreved his best actor Oscar. His performace was absorbing, as was the movie. Even if you're not a fan of Holocaust movies, this one is highly recommended. Not as a history lesson, but as an uplifting story of human survival even through the worst of times. For shame Even though barely deserving a rebuttal, some of the reviews here are so beyond asinine that I cannot restrain myself, particularly with regard to those reviewers who had the gall to call Mr. Szpilman a coward. Mr. Szpilman risked immediate death every time he helped to smuggle a weapon or ammunition into the ghetto. The ghetto uprising itself was essentially a suicide mission, and everyone involved probably knew that. So Mr. Szpilman was a coward because he wanted to live, then? How dare you. While I don't believe that any work of art should be above criticism no matter what its subject matter, I have not read a single negative review here that has any remotely intelligent criticism of this film whatsoever. They pretty much describe it as "boring" or "another Holocaust movie." Schmucks. One reviewer couldn't even remember the protagonist's name, yet had no shortage of would-be scathing things to say about the movie. Almost as absurd are the unfavorable comparisons to "Schindler's List." Yes, Oskar Schindler was a great man, but the very straightforward good vs. evil nature of the subject matter must have appealed to Steven Spielberg's very American sensibilities. "The Pianist," on the other hand, boldly treads a ground that is decidedly messier, morally less clear-cut, and I think that only a man like Roman Polanski, who understands the particular time and place where these events transpired, could have made this film. And Adrien Brody fully deserved the Academy Award for this performance. And, yes, he does spend a good deal of time searching like a "rat" for food. What do these buffoons think it means to survive in such an environment? Idiots. Anyhow, this film is a masterpiece, an artistic triumph of the highest rank. The naysayers have not been able to level a single legitimate criticism against it. 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