At first i thought that The Pianist was a odd name for a war film, but then when i saw it, it all made much more sense. This is not a war film as such, more a film set during the war (second). It follows the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman as he and his family are moved out of thier houses in Warsaw and sent to the concentration camps. Szpilman doesn't share the fate of his family but is set to struggle alone in an empty Warsaw. The title to me is how that to him it doesnt matter that he is a Jew, its just who he is. But what really matters is that he is a Pianist. Its a simple profession and one that doesnt make him a hero, or anything special. Yet it ...  Read the complete review

A review of the Optimum DVD, available from amazon for £5.50 at time of writing. This is a hugely acclaimed, multiple-award-winning film from 2002. It tells the true story of classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman and what happens to him and his family during the Second World War. Szpilman - whose memoirs the film is based on - is a Polish Jew, and following the German invasion we witness the escalation of German atrocities towards him and his fellow Jews - the petty regulations, the casual brutality, then the ghetto, the murders, the deportations and slave labour. It's not exactly a cheerful film, but it's essential viewing. There are broadly ...  Read the complete review

How do I start to review one of the most amazing films I have ever seen? When I first heard about The Pianist, I knew immediately that it was something I would have to see. I read a lot about World War II, my main interests being Hiroshima, the Holocaust and Anne Frank. So the subject area of the movie was enough to attract my attention. For once, I didn’t care who acted in it. I hired this out on DVD for my birthday, but watched it the day after. I had expected it to be depressing, which is why I had delayed seeing it, but it wasn’t. Yes, it was horrific, harrowing and bleak, but it was much, much more. It was beautiful, moving, charming and ...  Read the complete review

The horrors of the Holocaust have been tackled on film to great critical success in recent years. Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful are perhaps the most obvious examples, both winning Oscars for very different portrayals of this most difficult of subjects. Roman Polanski's The Pianist can now be added to the essential viewing list after deservedly triumphing at the Academy Awards this week with Oscars for both Director Polanski and his leading man Adrien Brody. In both cases the award was unexpected with Martin Scorsese expected to take the award for Best Director whilst nobody gave Brody too much chance against ..  Read the complete review

This is a wonderful film that won plaudits, oscars and awards at the Cannes film festival in 2002 upon its release, it is an honest, thoughtful and powerful recreation of the Warsaw Ghetto during the holocaust based on the memoirs of a survivor. As anyone who has read the girl in the Red Coat will know, Roman Polanski had a very real experience of the Holocaust in Warsaw during the second World war and this film is a chance for him to recreate and share his own view of this awful time from the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody). Szpilman and his family (Mainly Brit Actors), are a happy well off Jewish family in Warsaw who are enjoying life ...  Read the complete review