When Polanski was eight his parents were taken from their Cracow home to a Nazi concentration camp, where his mother died. This is especially so because he felt this tragedy himself through his first-hand experience. Roman Polanski, himself a Holocaust survivor from Poland, is more than capable of making such a true story about his fellow Polish Holocaust survivor, the composer and pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, into such a captivating and moving film. Cinematographer Pawel Edelman deserves a lion’s share of the credit for that startling look. It strikes a balance between the human spirit acting out of kindness and the senseless brutality of the Nazis, so much so that it fuses into a strange work of raw beauty. The film is so wonderfully enriched by its conventional way of shooting and also by its unconventional way of not relying on such conventional devices to get its story across, that it makes a deep impression on the sensitivity of the viewer. That’s a subject both Jew and gentile can relate to and despite all such trepidations one might have about wading through such heavy material, the film results in a realistic and eye-opening look at the Holocaust that refuses to flinch at how low humanity sunk and is just as unflinching in its belief in how resilient the human spirit is. The film becomes enlivened as a character study of someone faced with a nightmare scenario of his world collapsing before him while he’s helpless to do anything but fight for survival and dignity, as he’s trapped like a wounded animal who happens to be witnessing the destruction of civilization as he knew it. Nevertheless, “The Pianist” is such a delicate depiction of world history as viewed from a dramatic personal point of view, that it seems fresh even if it isn’t quite so fresh. One can point to the definitive 1985 work by Claude Lanzmann, “Shoah,” arguably the best Holocaust film ever made, and claim enough is enough. As entertainment it’s admittedly heavy going and one can easily argue that the human misery of that event has been well covered and documented by so many such Holocaust sub-genre films that there’s no need for another. Though, in all probability such films are mostly preaching to the choir. “The Pianist” is one of those important films about the Holocaust that is necessary to be filmed from time to time so that the horrors of it will remain fresh in the world’s mind. ![]() ![]() “There is no denying the power of Polanski’s film…” ![]() (director: Roman Polanski screenwriters: Ronald Harwood/from the autobiography by Wladyslaw Szpilman cinematographer: Pawel Edelman editor: Herve de Luze music: Wojciech Kilar cast: Adrien Brody (Wladyslaw Szpilman), Thomas Kretschmann (Captain Wilm Hosenfeld), Daniel Caltagirone (Majorek), Frank Finlay (The Father), Maureen Lipman (The Mother), Emilia Fox (Dorota), Paul Bradley (Yehuda), Ed Stoppard (Henryk) Runtime: 148 MPAA Rating: R producers: Robert Benmussa/Alain Sarde/Roman Polanski Focus Feature Films 2002- UK/ France/Germany /Poland /Netherlands)
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