David O'ConnellPolanski's The Pianist
December 16th 2008 03:47
With grave solemnity and an unwavering look at another dark chapter of history, director Roman Polanski brings vividly to life the true story of one man’s survival against the odds during the second World War.
He is Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a prodigiously talented pianist living in Warsaw whose rise to prominence is cut short by the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The memorable first scene sees a recording session interrupted by bomb blasts which quickly close in before creating a new hole in the studio walls.
Szpilman’s family are swept along with the tide of confusion as the Germans invade, taking control of the streets. Firstly the Jews are segregated and made to wear distinguishing armbands in public, before later being hoarded away to makeshift ghettos.
The turn of events feels like an unfolding dream drenched in ashen greys and washed-out blues, a world devoid of sunlight, Polanski admirably not reducing history to an agitated recreation of events marred by overt sentimentality and over-the-top gestures – rather a stark and faithful recollection as seen through the eyes of a lone individual.
But there is sufficient pause to dwell on the horrors which will soon pass with regularity, and gladly no fixations with evil Germans, as per the standard Hollywood traps - only a consensus of oppression to which the audience must somehow become desensitized.
Polanski’s faithfulness to Szpilman’s journey is what validates it as cinema, his critical eye honed to unflinching conclusions as we follow this ordinary man’s journey out of harm’s way, evading the ghetto, and into the arms of his protectors who shield him from capture time and again. These include sympathizers Emilia Fox as fellow artist Dorota and her husband. Szpilman can’t escape the horror around him however - even from the sidelines his glimpses of the effects of war are unavoidable, every person a spectator to events they can’t close their eyes to.
So many moments remain vivid even after the film ends: the burning pile of haphazardly stacked bodies, the woman shot point-blank in the head for asking where she is being taken, the man tussling with an old lady for her rations and then licking the spillage off the filthy street, the wheelchair-bound old man being tossed to his death for failing to rise in salute to the home-invading German officers. Then there’s the remarkable spectacle of the dazed lone figure of Szpilman walking down a bombed and ruined street.
Brody’s portrayal of this dour man is a controlled one, absorbing the separation from his family and the long stretches of isolation with great reserves of endurance and an unflagging will to survive. There’s also a noteworthy small role for Thomas Kretschmann as a sympathetic German officer towards the end.
Even if it’s not dramatically compelling for its entire length, The Pianist will awaken a strong emotional response in anyone; the fact that it never allows for sentimentality or melodramatic elements to intrude gives it more power, and its Oscar wins were well-deserved, especially for Brody and Polanski, who was a ghetto survivor himself.
Though not in the class of Schindler’s List which had a more gripping narrative and interesting, charismatic lead character, The Pianist is a faithful, important document of history and a fine film.
He is Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a prodigiously talented pianist living in Warsaw whose rise to prominence is cut short by the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The memorable first scene sees a recording session interrupted by bomb blasts which quickly close in before creating a new hole in the studio walls.
Szpilman’s family are swept along with the tide of confusion as the Germans invade, taking control of the streets. Firstly the Jews are segregated and made to wear distinguishing armbands in public, before later being hoarded away to makeshift ghettos.
The turn of events feels like an unfolding dream drenched in ashen greys and washed-out blues, a world devoid of sunlight, Polanski admirably not reducing history to an agitated recreation of events marred by overt sentimentality and over-the-top gestures – rather a stark and faithful recollection as seen through the eyes of a lone individual.
Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman
But there is sufficient pause to dwell on the horrors which will soon pass with regularity, and gladly no fixations with evil Germans, as per the standard Hollywood traps - only a consensus of oppression to which the audience must somehow become desensitized.
Polanski’s faithfulness to Szpilman’s journey is what validates it as cinema, his critical eye honed to unflinching conclusions as we follow this ordinary man’s journey out of harm’s way, evading the ghetto, and into the arms of his protectors who shield him from capture time and again. These include sympathizers Emilia Fox as fellow artist Dorota and her husband. Szpilman can’t escape the horror around him however - even from the sidelines his glimpses of the effects of war are unavoidable, every person a spectator to events they can’t close their eyes to.
So many moments remain vivid even after the film ends: the burning pile of haphazardly stacked bodies, the woman shot point-blank in the head for asking where she is being taken, the man tussling with an old lady for her rations and then licking the spillage off the filthy street, the wheelchair-bound old man being tossed to his death for failing to rise in salute to the home-invading German officers. Then there’s the remarkable spectacle of the dazed lone figure of Szpilman walking down a bombed and ruined street.
Brody’s portrayal of this dour man is a controlled one, absorbing the separation from his family and the long stretches of isolation with great reserves of endurance and an unflagging will to survive. There’s also a noteworthy small role for Thomas Kretschmann as a sympathetic German officer towards the end.
Polanski on set
Even if it’s not dramatically compelling for its entire length, The Pianist will awaken a strong emotional response in anyone; the fact that it never allows for sentimentality or melodramatic elements to intrude gives it more power, and its Oscar wins were well-deserved, especially for Brody and Polanski, who was a ghetto survivor himself.
Though not in the class of Schindler’s List which had a more gripping narrative and interesting, charismatic lead character, The Pianist is a faithful, important document of history and a fine film.
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
A trailer is here!