Review of The Pianist (2002) by Filipeneto — 13 Feb 2022

There are some films that are so powerful and remarkable that they remain in the collective memory. This is one of them... not because it is a film about the Jewish holocaust, because there are a lot of films about that, but because of the raw way in which it approached it, without artifice or heroism. Directed with absolute mastery by Roman Polanski - himself a Holocaust survivor, with many harsh memories of the time, some of them used here - the film seeks to mirror the personal account of the difficulties experienced by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who worked on the radio when the Poland is invaded by Nazi Germany.

I have not read the original account written by Szpilman, who would die at a time when the film was being made, but I give credit to Polanski's efforts. The director wanted a faithful, realistic and sincere account, and managed to turn his film into a historically faithful and credible portrayal of the facts and events that took place in Warsaw during the German invasion, including the occupation of the city, the forced relocation of Jews to the ghetto and transport to the extermination camps, the harsh living conditions experienced by those who lived in the ghetto and the way in which the Polish resistance and confined Jews collaborated to oppose the invaders, in a work that reached its peak with the Ghetto Revolt, suppressed with extreme violence, as we know. The pianist's story unfolds among all these facts, making Szpilman the eyewitness of all this. In the midst of absolute barbarism, dissonant notes that help us not to see reality in black and white: a Jewish police that collaborates with the Nazis by oppressing their ethnic brothers, a Polish housewife who does not hesitate to denounce that Jew that hides in the apartment next door, and a German officer who, against all odds, is willing to help him, even giving him his military coat, so he won't get cold. War and life have these things.

Adrien Brody, still young, achieved with this film the most striking and powerful interpretation of his career to date. He's a great actor, he'll have a lot of opportunities to do something as good or better, but I have to admit that it's going to be difficult to give us something so powerful and intense. Next to him, we have good performances by Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox, Michal Zebrowski and Thomas Kretschmann, among other actors, all of them two or three steps below Brody.

Technically, the film makes the most of the chosen filming locations in Warsaw, where filming was concentrated. The sets and costumes are loaded with detail and realism, transporting us to the time and historical context with a truly enviable rigor, worthy of a documentary. To this work, we have to associate impeccable and beautifully thought out cinematography, where light and color gradually disappear, as all the action progresses and the atrocities become more and more evident. There are also some very well executed CGI effects that take us through a city devastated by bombing and fighting. The tension and harshness of the events keep us stuck with the film until the end, and the brutality and destruction of the war are the icing on the cake. The soundtrack brings together a series of magnificent melodies by Chopin, a composer who knew how to explore the harmony and nostalgia of the piano as almost no one else knew how to do after him. Ironically or not, this Polish composer was anti-Semitic (like many people in his time), which did not prevent pianists of Jewish blood like Arthur Rubinstein from poring over his scores to the great delight of music lovers...