Rating: 
Summary: "SHOOT THE PIANIST??"
Review: ODD, I don't recall recent promos for this movie on local TV - it's not really in wide-distribution, and does not seem like the releasing studio really cares about this landmark work about man's continuous inhumanity towards man and the quaint little gray areas inbetween it all, nothing is quite what it seems in this movie as our hero - THE MAGNIFICENT Mr. Brody, movies like a Harold Lloyd figure, or better still like Marcel Marceau's "Bip" through this landscape of emotional and physical destruction - it is a very real gallows comedy of terror by auteur ROMAN POLANSKI, nasty, cruel, REAL. [The daily executions become 'matter of fact', hunger? A part of life, and the Bertayals? ... also part of it all.]It also stands quite on its own as an Oscar contender - nothing quite compares - one is moved, very moved and comments? "Couldn't possibly happen today ......" Technical credits are superior - especially the editing, photography, art direction [the very bleakness of it all] and the monumental costume preparation. ODD though - now it is termed a 'period' movie - how soon one forgets ... another mandatory experience for our children.
Rating:
Summary: Survival by serendipity
Review: THE PIANIST is based on an autobiography by the Polish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. Within minutes of the opening scene as Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is playing live over Warsaw radio, German bombs fall on the city. It's 1939, and the city's Jews, of whom the musician is one, are about to enter a long, dark night. In the first third of the film, Wladyslaw and his family - mother, father, and siblings - struggle to stay together and alive as the Nazi's anti-Semitic strictures become more rigorous. First, the mandated armbands with the Star of David. Then, the forced removal into the Warsaw Ghetto. Next, deportation unless one has a certificate of employment with a German business. And finally, deportation regardless in a railroad cattle car bound for Treblinka - trains that always came back empty. In the last two-thirds of the film, Szpilman somehow manages to survive in Warsaw alone after having been separated from the rest of his family. But THE PIANIST isn't the story of a hero. Rather, Brody portrays an ordinary individual much like most of us, who, in this case, more or less passively allows chance and circumstance, brutality or kindness, good luck or bad to determine his fate. And not since SCHINDLER'S LIST have we seen such casual brutality perpetuated by the oppressors. In one scene, an old man is tipped from his wheelchair off a third floor balcony. In another, after every third or fourth man is ordered out of a Jewish work detail and made to lie face-down on the street, an SS thug shoots each in the head. As the killer pulls the trigger on the last in line, his pistol's firing pin clicks on empty, and the poor devil on the ground must listen and wait as another bullet clip is loaded. But innocence and evil are not cleanly separated by lines of nationality. Not all of Szpilman's fellow Poles are good, and not all the Germans are bad. The excellence of Brody's understated and poignant performance is what elevates this film into the five-star class. Or, perhaps, four and a half. It remains a notch below SCHINDLER'S LIST in the power of its emotional impact. There were so many more scenes in the latter during which one might have been compelled to turn away in tears. Nevertheless, THE PIANIST is arguably a contender for the Best Picture Oscar, and it's certainly far and away superior to that other recent film concerning genocide - the well intentioned but confused ARARAT.
Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best films of 2002
Review: "The Pianist" is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and a brilliant pianist who lived in Warsaw during World War II. Beginning soon after the Blitzkrieg, the film follows Szpilman's experience as he witnesses all the oppression from the Germans, from restricting Jewish access to executing Jews in rows. Before long, Szpilman's family is brought together to be shipped off to Nazi labor camps, but he manages to elude deportation. From then on, Szpilman tries to survive among the devastated Warsaw ghetto. It is difficult to decide where to begin praising a film as good as this. Having also lived in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, director Roman Polanski has now created a marvelous film that unflinchingly shows the horrors of the Holocaust, yet has great moments of kindness and triumph as well. The film presents many disturbing images, and it is not for the faint of heart. However, Polanski always keeps Szpilman's survival to be the main focus throughout the film, with the cruelty of the Nazis as a secondary theme. Thus, "The Pianist" never shoves brutality in your face just for shock value. Instead, it comes off as both a thrilling tale of survival and a genuinely moving tribute to the human spirit. The meticulous direction leaves even the shortest of individual scenes lingering in the viewer's mind. For example, one scene shows a woman being shot in the back while running down the street, and Polanski had told the actress EXACTLY how to slump down and keel into a lifeless position; he said this was the way he had once seen a woman die while he was a child in Warsaw. Other equally memorable moments include images of Szpilman drinking whatever water he can find, and one of the most harrowing scenes involves a man in a wheelchair being thrown from his apartment into the street. The technical elements are superb as well; everything is done in such an incredibly realistic way that the audience virtually becomes a first-hand witness of everything Szpilman goes through. The cinematography, costume design, and sound effects editing make Warsaw come to life with all its sounds and sights. Particularly noteworthy: the desolate snow-covered buildings, the smoke rising into the clouds from burning corpses, and the momentary loss of sound as Szpilman is temporarily deafened by a tank blast. But the performance by lead actor Adrien Brody is what really makes the entire film so thoroughly memorable and engrossing. Brody is rarely seen off-camera, so a lot depends on him being able to tell much of the story himself. His actions and eyes speak so much without him having to say anything; I will never forget the look on his face after he accidentally broke a set of dishes. The other actors (such as Ed Stoppard, Thomas Kretschmann, and Emilia Fox) don't get nearly as much screen time, but they too do well with what they've been given. Finally, the denouement is unforgettable. No one will be breathing during the last half-hour of this film. It starts off remarkably tense, but the last 15 minutes progress with increasing poignancy. When the film came to its finish and the credits began to appear, no one in my local movie theater dared to move a muscle; everyone sat through all the credits and watched the film to its very end. Recommendations don't get much higher than that. Not easy to watch, but certainly rewarding, this independent film will leave its haunting spell in your mind for years to come. Truly amazing on all counts, "The Pianist" is one of the best films of 2002, and it will be a crying shame if it doesn't get at least a few Oscar nominations. See it now.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I'm really not going to write anything new here, because many of the other reviewers have already said it for me. Nonetheless, this movie should be seen for a number of reasons. For one thing, this is one of the most outstanding Holocaust movies I have seen for a long time. The extraordinary is rendered ordinary by the increasing horror of day to day life. This movie also marks a major comeback for Roman Polanski, who's last movie, The Ninth Gate, was not up to par with some of his past movies. And, last but not least, Adrien Brody is fantastic. I have been watching him for several years, and am very excited by the recognition that he has received for his performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Different in that it shows the Holocaust journey of one
Review: The movie shows Adrien Brody's character, a famous Polish Jew pianist path through the devastation of the Holocaust. It is epic in that it sprawls through the whole period focusing mainly on Brody. It does show scenes of him with his family prior to the start of extermination, but after that it is just Brody and his attempts to survive and hopefully return to some normalcy. The movie is also different in that it seems to seek to show not just the extreme cruelty that humanity can unfortunately display but how it impacted the victims. I could almost feel their feelings thats how well acted and directed this film was. I mean it really tears at your emotions because it is so well done. Brody's character near the end was also extremely well acted. The way he held his mouth in reflecting the constant stress and hunger he had survived through. His body resembling that of an old man, the way he held it with fatique and his eyes, his eyes are what really draw you in, you can really see the difference between the beginning and the end of the picture. The movie is of the makings of best picture material, although it is doubtful that it will get that, it may win for best foreign film, although Roman Polanski, may be looked over. I have seen Brody in another compelling drama dealing with discrimination, a film by Ken Loach, Bread and Roses, its worth taking a look at as well. The film again is epic and it does draw you in, I would have rated it 5 but I only give that if the movie really grabs me and haunts me for a long time. I have seen many Holocaust films and this is one of the good ones, because of the audiences ability to emphathize and to feel the pain. Lisa Nary
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and stirring work of art.
Review: I am not by nature an emotional person, but this movie made me cry. It has been said in different ways that at times only art can convey reality, and here is surely an example. My interest in Holocaust films comes from the knowledge as a Jew that these people would have been my executioners, but for the accident of time and place. I have not seen a documentary, nor another dramatic film (Schindler's List came the closest) that seemed to put me so effectively into that horrible world as did The Pianist. Superb acting from all of the protagonists...
My tears came at the end, during the credits. After all the horror, the film managed to depict the triumph of beauty.
If you have an interest in the Holocaust, you must see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-felt and powerful
Review: Far too many films use war(s) to make their points. For Speilberg, it's a venue for manipulation (Schindler's List being a prime example of bending
history to accommodate the director's message); for Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket) it was an opportunity to illustrate the eternal madness of
sending children to war (Viet Nam) and the irreparable damage caused by the experience. For Polanski, it is a solemn ode to the whims of fate and the
power of one man's life force. The Pianist is, in all ways, an understated film. Polanski makes the sensational matter-of-fact. The bodies of dead Jews in the streets is so horrific to the
occupants of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto that they simply cease seeing them. We the audience see them and are lifted into the mindset of the nearly
half-million people who were bricked into that small area where constant acts of casual madness (people selected at random to take one step forward
and then get shot down, while those not chosen contain their reactions and look away) are routine. Polanski's view is unsentimental, clear-eyed and
imbued with the knowledge of someone who survived the horrors and lived to tell about it. Brody as pianist Szpilman gives a wonderfully understated performance, his dark soulful eyes haunted; his body is curved inward from perpetual fear
and hunger. And yet, in what has to be one of the most powerful scenes in the film, when a young German officer encounters Brody/Szpilman in an
empty house and asks who he is, what he does, why he's hiding, and Szpilman admits, "I used to be a pianist," and then, at the officer's invitation, sits
down to play--what the music achieves is everything the film needs to say. It's one of the most wrenching scenes ever filmed, profoundly moving and
evocative of both the interior life of the artist, the timelessness of music and, finally, the truth that music is, indeed, the universal language. The only jarring moment (my daughter and I had a dispute over this scene) was Brody's emerging from hiding in the German officer's greatcoat and
being shocked and surprised at being denounced as a German. My daughter thought it didn't ring true, that someone who'd so scrupulously kept
himself safe and hidden would do something so stupid. My take was that in his leap of joy at realizing freedom was before him, Szpilman simply
forgot about the coat. I'll have to read the book to find out if this is described in more detail. This is not your feel-good, Hollywood war movie but something rooted firmly in historical reality. But it is important viewing.
My highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful film that transcends the Holocaust it portrays
Review: Roman Polanski's powerful portrait of wartime life in the Jewish ghetto of German-occupied Warsaw, the site of the famous Jewish uprising of 1943, is a film that will really knock the wind out of you. Polanski himself barely avoided being trapped in the Polish ghettoes; his parents and family died at Auschwitz, along with countless others -- mothers, fathers, children; innocent people from all walks of life. The film opens with renowned concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, on whose life this film is based, performing Chopin on Polish state radio, at the very moment that the bombs start dropping on the capital city. Characteristically, Szpilman refuses, or is unable to stop playing, until literally forced out of the building by eminent disaster. This serves as an opening metaphor for Szpilman's coming struggle, as his mix of stubborn pride, ongoing haplessness, sheer luck, and artistic soulfulness all prove, inexplicably, to be the combination that enables him to survive one of the most horrific chapters in human history. The day by day degradation and oppression of the Polish Jews is shown in precise, undeniable, haunting detail -- Polanski doesn't linger on the most tawdry details of the Nazi sadism, but he does give one of the most coherent and heartbreaking pictures of what happened to Warsaw's once-vibrant Jewish community, which was all but annihilated during Hitler's genocidal "final solution." Szpilman is actually one of the few Warsaw Jews who never left the city -- he survived the war in the most precarious circumstances, and took up his concertizing career again after the conflict ended. What he saw, as shown in this movie, is truly amazing, and a profound testament to the beauty and resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of the worst horrors our species can conjure. Actor Adrien Brody portrays Szpilman in an astounding performance, not only learning to play Chopin himself, but also introjecting an astonishing range of subtle, crushing emotions into a mostly-nonverbal role. Although in some ways it is "just another" Holocaust movie, it is also one of the best made, most meaningful films you are ever likely to see.
Rating:
Summary: The Pianist Exquisitely Beautiful
Review: I walked out of this movie in a trance, the acting, music and of course the horror of it all and the stoic behavior of the Jews in Warsaw. All the young people in this country should see this to realize what did happen and how beautifully this movie portrays such an evil time in history. Chopin's music is exquisite. I came right home and ordered the soundtrack CD. Now I must read the book. This will be with me for a long time.The music is still sounding in my ears.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Emotion, beyond a film
Review: The Pianist is a film that transcends being your normal everyday film. The Pianist transcends the genre of Holocaust films. The Pianist is a truly original work created by Roman Polansky, and it may be the last film dealing with Nazi occupied Poland that I ever need to see.
To begin the film, we are treated to a myriad of pictures of old Warsaw, which conveys the thriving community that it once was, only to set us up for one of the biggest urban devastation's in human history. Throughout the film we are treated to several instances of inhumanity and hopelessness, making the need for conveying any sense of emotion through standard cinema tricks, completely futile. We, as an audience, learn what it is to be numbed by the pain and violence that the Nazi's created during World War II.
Wladyslaw Szpilman is our designated protagonist for this terrorizing tale, and so it turns out, he is the perfect catalyst for this film. The trials and tribulations that this musician goes through, are beyond what anyone could expect in one lifetime. The inner person of Wladyslaw Szpilman is not revealed. Character development is not explored, and with good reason. There is no way one human being could possibly be the same person that they were before Warsaw got occupied and partially converted into a ghetto for the Jews.
We are consequently not treated to a host of long conversations, nor thriving music which builds to a climax, nor soft focus and dream sequences. Instead we are shown a harsh world which has no room for emotions. Plenty of room however, for the will to live. This film makes you fully realize what it is to be FREE.
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