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Adrien
Brody is "The Pianist" in his Oscar winning characterization.
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Mikometer rating: 10 OF 10
"Anyone is capable of anything, at a given time in history." Roman Polanski, in the documentary on the DVD
"The Pianist"
Directed by
Roman Polanski
on DVD
Mikometer Rating: 10
of 10
Academy Awards: 2002 : Best Director: Roman Polanski Best Actor: Adrien Brody
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood
Roman Polanski is, along with a select few aging directors, one of the cinema's
last true artistic geniuses. The palpable sense of dread, the immense feelings
of desertion and despair, and the attention to detail in the cinematography,
no matter who is actually holding the camera, give the best of his body of
work a continuity of theme and gives the moviegoer the immersive experience
of this palpable sense of dread, and in the best moments of his canon, his
films can become a much greater commentary on life, death, history, perserverence,
and survival. Sadly, some of the personal tragedies suffered by Polanski himself
add this quality to the best of his films, and are responsible for the lack
of quality evident in much of the product after the seventies. It was in 1978
that the director chose to leave America for France. (Rather than be arrested
for the consensual "rape" of a minor and be thrown in jail.) Subsequently,
his work can be dazzling at times, but also a bit uneven and mediocre. When
all the pieces fall into place, as they do in "The Pianist", which
rightly deserves the awards bestowed upon it,the result is a masterwork by
a master artist. "The Pianist" is, to date, Polanski's "Quintessential
Movie". It is, as of this writing,the capstone to his career. Like Martin
Scorsese's "The Gangs of New York", this is a film imbued with it's
director's life experiences. We are taught a vital lesson about history (The
book is a true recollection by the real Wladyslaw Szpilman) but are not beat
over the head with a message. With a deliberate almost excruciating pace,
which unfolds as a series of "Postcards From the Edge of Hell",
the audience lives in the skin of the protaganist, and experiences the total
tragedy of war, occupation, the fragility of life, the kindness of strangers,
and the instinct for survival.
I began "The Pianist" by watching analytically. After all, this
is the film that took Best Director away from Marty Scorsese, and Polanski
has always been at least as personal an artist as Marty, so my "need
to see" quotient was high. I rented it on DVD finally, after seeing empty
boxes on the shelf at Hollywood Video for three weeks running. I made a pact
that I was buying it this weekend if a rental wasn't available, and a copy
came in the store while I was there. I would most certainly have paid the
$17.95 to buy it, except I had read there was no director's commentary, usually
a sure sign that there is a special edition in the works. The present edition
is complete, however, even without the commentary. There are a wealth of special
features on the other side of the disc, including an involving "making
of" documentary that is far more informative and insightful than the
common HBO special. The usual DVD docs are nothing more than extended commercial/trailers
for the films."Story of Survival" incorporates a lengthy interview
with the director, who details his experiences as a child in Poland and how
this influences his telling of the tale of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the pianist,
who survives the invasion of Poland, the occupation of the Nazis, the extermination
of the Jews, and the destruction of his nation, possessions, and home. I am
astounded now, after having seen this beautiful, haunting, brutal, elegaic
masterpiece, that I didn't take the time to see it in a theater when it opened.
I remember hearing a friend say, upon reading it was up for oscars last year, that he didn't really want to see it because it was "just another holocaust film."
"The Pianist"
might just very well be the definitive holocaust film. The plot is simple
to describe, unlike some of the director's ouevre. Szpilman is a pianist for
Warsaw Radio when the Germans invade Poland in 1939 and start the gathering,
relocation, and decimation of the Jewish population. The character is helped
to escape his family's eventual relocation to the death camps and returns
to the empty ghetto where he survives as one of the Jewish Laborers. Next
he is helped by members in the underground and is "hidden" in a
series of flats. After four years of starvation and sickness, he is helped
by a German Officer just as the Russians invade. He ends the film as he begins
it, playing piano. The universal message of despair and hope plays beautiful,
and this is by far Polanski's finest film.
Roman Polanski has had a hisory of creating art in spite of personal tragedy
and despair. Even though most critics would pick "Chinatown" as
his quintessential work, I always liked "Rosemary's Baby" and "The
Tenant" (which is being released on DVD July 1, 2003) His films, even
as far back as "Knife In The Water" (1962) and "Repulsion"
(1965) dealt with some pretty gruesome subject matter. Polanski's story of
the holocaust treats the grusomeness of the imagery very matter of factly.
The Szpilman family are artistic, comfortable, and happy when the film begins.
The early scenes play as scenes from any family, any where, any time. But
Polanski's sense of realism and attention to detail serve all the more to
show the audience that these events did happen, and could happen to anyone,
at any time, and as unthinkable as it might seem, Polanski shows the audience
exactly what happened in all the terrible detail. "The Pianist"
is a work of art that deserves it's accolades, and silently and effectively
shows us a personal view of events which have been shown to us many times,
but remain unspeakable and horrific. This is a personal work in more ways
than one. Roman Polanski survived the same events. Adrien Brody, who plays
Szpilman in his oscar winning performance, models his character in part on
Polanski.
The manner in which the
story is told is very simple and yet a stroke of genius. The first thing we
see are black and white "newsreel" films of "Warsaw, Poland
1939". Next we see a close up of the Pianist's hands as he plays a concerto
in the radio station downtown where he works. A technician looks at him from
the broadcasting booth enjoying the music. Abruptly, without notice, before
one has time to think, the bombs explode. First, far away, then closer. Then
the windows blow out of the building. The Pianist stops playing. Chaos ensues.
We meet the energetic, outgoing, funny and likable Szpilman just as his life
is going to change drastically. The series of scenes, by now nearly ubiquitous
in "holocaust films", of his Jewish family's fate, the selling of
the possessions, the relocation to the ghetto, the indignities suffered by
the elderly, the crowding while being boarded onto the death trains, all these
are shown with warts and all as a series of "blackouts" which do
not dwell on any one aspect of, but by their brevity and that particular sense
of detail, seem fresh and horrible all over again. Most people probably would
think of Stephen Spielberg's "Schindler's List" (1993) as the Quintessential
Holocaust movie. For me it was the 1978 NBC miniseries "Holocaust".
The scenes detailing the same "subject" are masterfully detailed
in another miniseries, "War and Remembrance" (1988) "Schindler's
List" is mighty. omnipresent and grandiose. A bit overblown as well.
The Pianist is up close and personal. I haven't "cried" at the movies
in a while. That has always been one of the indicators that the director was
taking me on a particular emotional trip. With this film, it is near the end
of the best scene in the movie, and undoubtedly the one which convinced Academy
voters to give Brody the prize. (Another upset for me, who picked Nicholson)
Nearing the advance of the Russians and about to face retreat, a German officer
discovers Szpilman in the attic of an abandoned building and in the interrogation,
asks him what he does. After finding out he is a pianist, the officer points
to a piano and asks him to play. The audience has only seen him play in the
first scenes, and the character has been hungry and desparate at this point
for many years. He begins slowly, his fingers instinctively hitting the notes.
(Brody studied piano for the role, and we see his own hands, by the way.)
As the music fills the air, with an increasing vibrancy and ebulliance, we
see the look in the officer's eyes, and know that he is astounded that such
beauty can exist amid such horror. In fact, it is this beauty, the art of
music, that fuels Szpilman's survival, and the officer decides to help the
fugitive, rather than mindlessly kill him as we have seen all the other Germans
do. These kinds of scenes are special to me, and are of merit to humanity.
They are what elevate some films to exist as works of art, and "The Piansit"
qualifies. Production design is excellent. As Scorsese duplicated Five Points
in New York in the late 1890's, Polanski and his production designer Allan
Starski have recreated Warsaw before and during WWII. Created not in the computer,
but in Poland on a "set" built into one of the few remaining districts
in Warsaw, the look of this film is lush, sweeping, and realistic. That Polanski
tells a "personal story" focusing on one man, and his struggles
as he is claustrophobically trapped in this horror ( a major theme in "The
Tenant") helps to create the sense that the audience isn't "watching
a movie" like "Schindler's List" with the symbolic little girl
in the red hat, but actually experiencing the horror themselves. All told,
in spite of the terror and matter of fact way Polanski presents the macabre
scenes, "The Pianist" is an uplifting portrait of humanity's ultimate
sense of good and decency. Martin Scorsese will have to make another masterpiece
now, because Roman Polanski did deserve the Best Director Oscar for "The
Pianist". It's "just another holocaust movie" that matters!
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"The Pianist" Alain Sarde and Robert Benmussa present a Roman Polanski film, released by Focus Features. Director Roman Polanski. Writer Ronald Harwood. Based on the book by Wladyslaw Szpilman. Director of photography Pawel Edelman. Production designer Allan Starski. Editor Herve de Luze. Costume designer Anna Sheppard. Music Wojciech Kilar. Running time: 2 hours, 28 minutes MPAA Rating: R CAST: MFN 6/15/03 |
