Polanski's THE PIANIST

I agree with you 100%. My only complaint, and it is not a fault with the film, is that I didn't particularly like the guy so I had to wait until the situation got really dire before I could empathize with him.

I'm not really a film-goer anymore, but this one caught my eye, and i'm looking for it to get to the Carlton here.

Larry Richette,
I agree with your opinion of "The Pianist." The whole milieu of the Warsaw Ghetto was amazingly real. One thing you said sailed over my head.
" a heartbreaking yet blackly comic epic."

First, we had Cicerone wondering about the humorous element in "About Schmidt." Now, it's my turn to ask how you saw "blackly comic." elements in 'The Pianist." (I'm aware that "blackly" does not refer to race)
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Cicerone,
Schmidt is a funny guy. "Funny" in the sense of: "Isn't it funny how Harry and Gladys liked each other, wanted to get married, but something always got in the way." "Funny, how often things seem to turn out for the best.
After his wife dies, Schmidts kitchen is such a mess that we chuckle about it but at the same time it's sad.
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This is not a modern problem. At th turn of the century (1900), the Russian playright Anton Checkov wrote "The Cherry Orchard". It was directed by the great Russian acting teacher Constantine Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky treated the play as a tragedy. Chekhov fought with him and insisted his play was
a comedy.

I thought there were elements of black comedy in THE PIANIST, especially in the second half when the hero is in hiding. The sequence where he finds a jar of food and can't open it was comic. If you recall, he is still carrying it around liker a silent film clown when the Nazi officer appears in his hiding place. Polanski definitely underlined the absurdities of life under the conditions of hiding and running for your life.

It's a masterpiece!
I think "The Pianist" is the best movie of 2002 I've seen so far. It's a shame that it wasn't so popular in the USA, so I fear that it won't get a Best Film and Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards (tomorrow we will know more), but at least Adrien Brody is a sure bet...

I'm a newbie here, but a regular poster at the Internet Movie Database, and here's my two week old review of that movie:

The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002) (theatre, first viewing)
Roman Polanski tells in a very personal film the true story of the survival of the Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during WWII. Szpilman and his family have to endure humiliation and violation of their rights after the Germans invaded in Poland in 1939. They are soon forced into a walled ghetto along with the rest of the city's Jewish community. A lucky chance escape separates Szpilman from his family and, as the ghetto's occupants forced onto trains bound for concentration camps, he becomes a fugitive. Living in terror and isolation, he evades capture and tries to stay alive...
This moving film is in my eyes the best movie of Roman Polanski. It is - unlike most of Polanski's movies - a very emotional experience, even if the emotions are hidden in the apathy of Szpilman, beautifully played by Adrien Brody (I am curious how good Nicholson in "About Schmidt" is, if be was able to beat Day-Lewis and Brody at the Golden Globe Awards...).
I really loved Spielberg's "Schindler's List", which showed us what the Holocaust was. "The Pianist" shows us now how it was to survive the Holocaust. This movie is less manipulative, it doesn't need to horrify us to tell us the message (but I wonder if "The Pianist" would've been possible without "Schindler's List", since it didn't have to show us the Concentration camps. But we still know what happened to Szpilman's family after they had to enter the train...). Unlike "Schindler's List" is doesn't have heroes and villains - to survive has here to do with fate, luck and knowing enough persons to are willing to risk their lives for another human being, independent of race or religion.
This seems to be less attractive to the viewers (Szpilman is in the second half of the movie just a spectator of the things happening in the Ghetto, but we never see a reation) - but for me it was very impressive. The fact that Szpilman didn't mourn the loss of his family says more than thousand words... 10/10

I must say, since I've written this review my admiration for that movie even grew - I am still thinking about adding this movie to my Top 100 movies list...

Brunt:

I agree with you that THE PIANIST was the best movie of 2002. Your fears about the Oscars were unfounded, as you know by now. I also think it's a much better film than SCHINDLER's LIST, which I saw again after seeing this and liked even less than before. Spielberg was trying to do too much, covver too much ground, and the result is muddled. Also it is not true to the Holocaust to make a hopeful movie that "restores your faith in humanity" the way SCHINDLER tries to. THE PIANIST deserves to win Best Picture, but it won't--I predict honors will go to CHICAGO.

Brunt, what a wonderful review! I've yet to see the film, but you've provided much more incentive.

Brunt, where did you get the idea that emotion is rare in Polanski's films? You must have missed TESS, CHINATOWN, MACBETH, ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE TENANT, REPULSION, to name just a few.

The Pianist... on its way to the Oscars???
It looks like that "The Pianist" is getting more and more recognition in the USA - I've read several enthusiastic user comments on other Message Boards in the last few weeks.

And since it's winning more and more prices (7 Cesars at the French Film Awards last week, 2 Baftas for Best Film and Best Director yesterday in London) there could be a little chance that it could also win an Oscar next month...

What do you think - does it have any chance against the Hollywood movies in the Oscar race???

I doubt THE PIANIST will win any major Oscars. Which is too bad, because it deserves to. The girl Polanski had sex with when she was underage went on TV the other night and pleaded with the Motion Picture Academy "to be fair to him." Maybe they will be, but I have my doubts.

I liked the film The Pianist and do agree that it captured things about the Holocaust no other film does. It replaces Au Revoir mon Enfants as my favorite Holocaust movie, although I think the raves for Brody's performance are misplaced.

It might be that Szpilman didn't have much personality but I thought other than the causing me to forget completely that he is an American, Brody was a bit wimpy.

Frank Finlay as the father and whoever played the German officer (couldn't catch his name) were excellent.

I don't see how you can like The Pianist and not like Brody's performance, especially considering that he is alone onscreen for a good 1/3 of the movie.

How can I like the movie and not be impressed with Brody's performance? Simple, I think Brody was selected because he looks like a Polish Jewish intellectual. As for starving himself and spending up to six hours a day playing piano, ho hum. I do get tired of these method actors and their bizarre disciplines.

Brody's performance IS the movie. He is in every scene and almost every shot. Subtract Brody from the movie and there is no movie.

Larry, you did pick a winner: "The Pianist" Best picture. British "Oscar'
 
Bafta winners:

Best Film: The Pianist - Roman Polanski/Robert Benmussa/Alain Sarde.

The David Lean Award for achievement in direction: The Pianist - Roman Polanski.

Screenplay (original): Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) - Pedro Almodsvar.

Screenplay (adapted): Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman/Donald Kaufman.

Performance by an actress in a leading role: Nicole Kidman - The Hours.

Performance by an actor in a leading role: Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York.Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Catherine Zeta Jones - Chicago.
Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can.

The Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in film music: The Hours - Philip Glass.

Film not in the English language: Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) - Augustmn Almodsvar/Pedro Almodsvar.

plainoldme, I agree that The Pianist is one of the best movies ever about the holocaust. Two other movies come to mind. They are not well known and contain no brutality, at least not physical. (I have no objection to brutality in holocaust movies).

The first is a Czech movie called "The Shop on Main Street." Some critics call it the best movie ever made about the holocaust.

The second is a French movie called "Shoah." It is a documentaary with no violence, no pictures of dead bodies, no brutality. If I recall, there is no narrator. The movie consists of eleven or twelve hours of interviews with Germans, Poles, Americans and others. And slowly, very slowly, bit by tiny bit a self inflicted codemnation is created by those interviewed, about themselves.

Billy Falcon -- I know of the documentary Shoah but never saw it. It was made by that Frenchman that Simone de Beauvoir lived with. BTW, she never lived with Sartre.
I did not see it although it does appear now and again at festivals.

I disagree that Brody's performance is the movie. This movie is so authentic in its atmosphere, that it doesn't matter much that Brody was a little lame. Caught sight of Szpilman's book at a local bookstore last night...it seems he caught a lot of flack for portraying the German officer as humane and heroic.

Plainoldme, SHOAH was not made by a lover of Simone de Beauvoir! It was directed by Claude Lanzmann who was a friend of both Beauvoir and Sartre's.

Larry, You need to look at Toril Moi's excellent bio of Simone de Beauvoir. Lanzmann was her lover and the only man she ever lived with. What a cocky response! BTW:I taught a course on de Beauvoir. Perhaps, you are too confident in yourself as a source of information.