The Pianist
(2002) dir. Roman Polanski
viewed: 07/01/03
Roman Polanski’s The Pianist is a simply, but elegantly filmed adaptation of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s account of his survival, hiding out in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. It passingly reminded me of a film that I had always really liked, Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa (1990), as it was another remarkable tale of survival in the belly of the Nazi beast by a lone individual during the dark years of the war. Outside of this, I remember hearing another story of a family that immigrated during the war, and having commented on what an amazing true story it was, was told that every story that told of survival during these times was amazing, by its very nature. Whether that is true or not, I cannot say. But there is a power to the veracity of the tale told, that it actually happened, more or less according to the story woven in the film.
Polanski’s own life will no doubt one day be committed to film (probably after his death), as his own life story is as complex and incredible as anything filmed. Having moved to Poland at the age of three, just before the war broke out, Polanksi’s parents were both imprisoned in concentration camps and his mother perished there. He escaped the Jewish ghetto as a child and survived the war in the Polish countryside. I had read an interview with him when this film was in initial release and he seemed to heavily downplay any of his life experience being portrayed in this film. Whether or not such information adds a layer to this film or not, I don’t know, but it does cast it in a somewhat altered light.
I had this movie out from Netflix for over a month, I think, never getting around to watching it. It’s the kind of subject matter that one doesn’t really “enjoy” watching, though the film was not as brutally depressing as it could have been, I guess. Of course, Polanski is always interesting in some respect.
The star of this film, Adrien Brody, who I really liked in Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999), is good here; there is something imminently likeable about him. (I still think that Daniel Day-Lewis should have gotten the Oscar nod, but what-are-ya-gonna-do?)
