Review of The Pianist (2002) by Zachary Y — 27 Jul 2014

Winning Roman Polanski an Academy Award for directing and Adrien Brody one for acting, The Pianist sounded like a collaboration of powerful talent.

The Pianist is great because viewers who are tired of seeing films all about how evil the Nazis were or seeing tales about concentration camps get an entirely new story this time around, a tale of the Warsaw Ghetto. I had no idea that Warsaw was segregated from the rest of society, and that was the first thing that The Pianist explained to me. It covered a side of the holocaust that I was previously unfamiliar with, and so it was an interesting and refreshing examination of another story that I had not been told about World War II.

The thing about The Pianist which separates itself from all other Holocaust movies is that instead of having an atmosphere which is constantly hard hitting with sadness, it is mainly focused on being melancholic. The film has some truly sad moments, but the general focus of things is on how Wladyslaw Szpilman witnessed everything unfold around him while becoming so damaged by the experience that his emotions gradually became numb to the negativity around him. The emotional experience of The Pianist reveals to viewers that they will never understand the pain of the Holocaust because they were not there to witness it, and so it ends up being focused both on the sadness of the deaths and tragedy around Wladyslaw Szpilman as well as the fact that he managed to survive it. It has some elements of uplift to it which separates it from countless other holocaust films, and so the emotional experience of The Pianist is very interesting. Thanks to Roman Polanski's restrained direction, it hits a certain level of atmosphere which is powerful while maintaining a certain level of subtly to it. He manages to give some of his best direction to date and makes the film a truly personal piece, so it is no surprise that it comes out as such an emotional and poetic feature. His win for the Academy Award for Best Director was certainly due, because he handled the story greatly. And although the slow pace of the film and the lack of consistent stimulation may faze some as it did for me to a certain but small extent, its beauty is hard to look away from. The only thing that really bothered me was that despite the film's title, there is really little focus on Wladyslaw Szpilman as a Pianist. I know the importance lies more in what he survived, but it leaves me wondering specifically if there was all that much meaning behind the films title as a whole. It is key in certain scenes, but I just feel like the connection that Wladyslaw Szpilman had to music and being a Pianist was not emphasised all that well. But nevertheless, that is just a minor fault in the story and not enough to lay any serious damage down to the real quality of The Pianist.

Visually, The Pianist is absolutely magnificent. The recreation of the setting of the Warsaw ghetto is exceptional because the detail in it is just beautiful. It makes the film feel genuine and takes its viewers on an excellent trip back in time to the setting of the time period. It all looks beautiful, and thanks to the production design as well as the costumes against the backdrop of beautiful scenery, it all feels realistic. It is captured with beautifully crafted cinematography as well, and so the entire visual experience of The Pianist is just spot on. The musical score also assists in adding to the atmosphere.

And to add to the experience, The Pianist also manages to draw a lot of strength from the talents of a skilled cast.

Adrien Brody leads it all in an exceptional performance. Although it is not my opinion that he deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, a nomination for the award is definitely deserving. It is a challenge to give a leading performance in the film where the actor must not do too much aside from standing around and conveying his or her emotions in a strictly physical manner, but Adrien Brody does it exceptionally. When he delivers his lines, he has already established the emotions that Wladyslaw Szpilman is experiencing so easily strictly because he stands in the part with a perfect sense of physical acting, and the entire time he manages to channel himself into the atmosphere so that he fits the profile for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman perfectly. Adrien Brody manages to easily capture the emotionally damaging melancholia that Wladyslaw Szpilman experiences and keeps it going at a consistent rate for the entire running time in The Pianist. He looks the part very well, and he manages to capture some subtle emotional damage and stoicism which fits the part perfectly. The best moments in Adrien Brody's performance comes from his chemistry with Thomas Kretschmann in the later scenes of the film. So Adrien Brody's performance is an impressive example of how far physical acting can take you, and it is certainly the finest of his career.

Thomas Kretschmann also turns in a powerful performance. Since so many films have established that Nazi's were always the bad guys, The Pianist stands out as an example where one of its Nazis did heroic things. In thjs case, it was aiding the survival of Wladyslaw Szpilman, and so Captain Wilm Hosenfeld is a character who also needed his story to be told. With Thomas Kretschmann in the role, he makes him an easily sympathetic figure and he shares a powerful chemistry with Adrien Brody which establishes an interesting relationship between the two. Thomas Kretschmann puts a lot of heart into the role within a short timeframe in The Pianist, and manages to turn in a memorable performance of his own.

So despite a few minor issues, The Pianist is an exceptionally acted and realistic looking look at the Warsaw Ghetto with some of the most dedicated and heartfelt direction that Roman Polanski has been able to offer in his entire career.