QUESTIONS ANSWERED (The Pianist (DVD))

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	The Pianist (DVD)
Date:	20/09/04 (476 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: TRUTHFUL

Disadvantages: VERY SAD

I have just watched a film that touched my very soul. It is a film about the life of a Jewish pianist living in Warsaw before, during and after the Nazi occupation. It was not what I call entertainment, although I believe that seeing it made my knowledge of the things that happened before I was born a little more complete.

The story starts with the pianist at the height of his career, playing a piece of melodic classical music for a recording, when he is interrupted by bombing and is forced to leave and go home. The music is almost hauntingly beautiful and sets the atmosphere for the film. What I particularly liked about the film was the way in which it portrayed reality. I did not cry at all during the film. The contents were too shocking to make me cry. Instead, I felt a numbness and a shame that mankind can ever have been so uncaring and so biased towards one particular race of people. I felt shame that mankind could ever have been so heartless.

During the story, you are pulled into the life of the Pianist and his family, and the way in which the personalities are portrayed is realism at its’ best. You feel the fear, you feel the dread and watch listlessly as the Germans take away the Jews rights little by little, starting with being able to walk on the pavement with other human beings, being able to sit on a park bench.

This is not a story for the fanciful and certainly one that I would never let a child watch. The scenes of inhumanity are atrocious to say the least, and I will not describe them here other than saying that they hurt enough to get the message over to mankind that a mistake of this magnitude should never be repeated, and it is for this reason that I believe that the film has its’ most merit.

This is a classic Roman Polanski film and one that I believe could not be ignored and deserved its award in that it portrays humanity at its most vulnerable. I have often wondered about the Jews in the war and why they did not fight back. This film really shows me and enlightened me as to the reasons. There was no fight. You cannot fight evil of this enormity. Those who did were shot. There was no question of escape from the horrors of war, and a war that broke all the rules of combat, where the very survival of the human soul was questionable, and the movie makes you wonder how you would have survived treatment like this, and whether you would have survived. It is not a story of survival against the odds. It is a story of the miracle of any survival at all, although I would have liked to have seen more about the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman after the war and what kind of survival and richness of life he managed to find after the horrors portrayed in the film.

The actors and actresses have been well chosen, and the parts they play in making the whole movie work are incredible. You can imagine them being real people, and the story is based on the life of a Warsaw Pianist, but not based in the land of fantasy, the movie world step away from reality. In fact, the contrary is true here. You are pulled into reality in a big way and I cannot believe there would be anyone who would not be touched by the horrendous cruelty, the meaningless waste of life, and be abhorred by how cheaply life was treated and how uncertain every day must have been for a people who were hounded and killed in a manner worse than a huntsman would treat his prey.

The film won recognition in the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, although I was a little astonished that it was well received in Countries all over the world, including Germany. Roman Polanski used a little of his own background, being a holocaust survivor himself and I believe that without this personal experience of loss, the film could not have been produced and directed in such a sensitive way.

The star of the film is without doubt Adrien Brody, whose portrayal of the Pianist takes the character through from normal life to total despair, almost to that point where the human spirit gives up. His ability to act out this part is amazingly convincing. The cast include :

Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman
Thomas Kretschmann Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Frank Finlay Father
Maureen Lipman Mother
Emilia Fox Dorota

And of course too many others to mention.

I would say that this is the most real feature film I have ever seen and most certainly the saddest and most heart wrenching.

Rated for adults, I believe that this is not suitable viewing for children at all, under any circumstances. 120 minutes of riveting viewing.

If you would like a taste of this movie and all it has to offer, do visit this link which will take you into the movie page.

http://www.thepianist-themovie.com/

As for me, I am enriched by watching it, enlightened by what went on in those times, and ashamed of humanity for its mistakes. An amazing film of truth. As quoted on the cover,

“The Pianist – Music was his passion – survival was his masterpiece”

Though it leaves me breathless. At what price ?

Summary: