The Pianist (2002)
Directed by Roman Polanski

Film Review

After two decades of comparative obscurity, director Roman Polanski regained his international reputation with a vengeance in 2002 when he won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for The Pianist , very probably his best film to date.  The film is based on the war-time experiences of a Polish Jew, Wladyslaw Szpilman, who narrowly escaped death during the Holocaust and became, after the war, one of the world's most distinguished pianists.

One of Szpilman's first acts after the war was to write up his war-time experiences in a novel, published in 1946 as “Death of a City”.  Soon after publication, the book was banned by Polish Communist officials and was not available in print until 1998, entitled “The Pianist”.  Polanki's film is a faithful adaptation of the book which graphically illustrates the terror of the war from the perspective of a man whose only wish is to stay alive - without resorting to stereotypical notions of heroism or cowardice.

Polanski himself was scarred by the Holocaust - his mother died at Auschwitz and he only survived because he was smuggled out of the Krakow ghetto as a baby.  It is perhaps this personal relationship with the subject which enabled Polanski to create one of cinema's most haunting and evocative films about the Holocaust, a film which is nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece and confirms Polanski's standing as one of true great directors in cinema history.

The film's impact lies in the way it places its principal character, Szpilman, at the centre of the drama and presents his experiences in a way which an outsider can relate to.  The character does not have to use words to articulate what he feels - we know what he feels because we can see ourselves in his predicament, to the extent that every shock he experiences passes directly into our consciousness and creates the illusion that we are sharing his trauma.   And there is plenty to shock.  The brutality of Nazi soldiers has rarely been depicted so graphically on a cinema screen as in this film.  There is a viciousness in their brutality which goes way beyond the bounds of human comprehension - this is human nature at its absolute worst, and it is horrifying to see it.

Although the film's depiction of the Nazis is generally as one might expect (consistent with the historical evidence), Polanski does not shrink from showing less palatable truths - the fact that some Poles were collaborators who were every bit as bad as their Nazi overlords, the fact that some non-Jewish Poles risked their lives to help their Jewish compatriots, and even that not all Nazis were bad.   As the film recounts in one of its most poignant sequences, Szpilman himself was saved from certain death by a German officer - although, tragically, he was unable to repay the debt.

As gripping and traumatic as the first half of the film is, it is only in the second half of The Pianist that Polanski shows his true genius.   Szpilman's struggle to survive after the sudden loss of his family is portrayed as an almost surreal nightmare - indeed some of the cinematography portraying the destruction of Warsaw sends the film over the edge into stark surrealism, so far is it from our own personal experiences.  So bleak, so desparingly devoid of hope are these images that the film's spectator is barely able to detach himself from the world he finds himself unexpectedly immersed in.   By projecting the viewer into the heart of an exceptional drama, The Pianist offers a unique and totally unforgettable experience.  This is cinema at its most devastatingly effective.

Having won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2002, The Pianist went on to win international critical acclaim and a brace of coveted awards.  The latter included no less than 7 Césars in 2003 (for best film, best director, best actor, best cinematography, best set design, best script and best musical score).

Film Synopsis

Warsaw, September 1939.  Wladyslaw Szpilman is making a comfortable living as a virtuoso pianist in Poland when the Nazis invade his country and begin their systematic persecution of its Jewish population.  Like many of his race, Szpilman is forced to move with his family into an enclosed ghetto, just as the mass deportations begin.  The pianist only just manages to avoid being deported himself, but the rest of his family are not so fortunate.  To survive, Szpilman is forced to become a manual worker whilst enduring the humiliations that the occupying Nazis give out so freely to the oppressed Polish Jews, whose numbers are rapidly thinning.

With the help of an old friend, Szpilman finds a place to hide, from which he witnesses an uprising in the ghetto and then its brutal defeat.  Spotted by a neighbour, he is forced to abandon his present sanctuary and is soon making a perilous journey across a devastated city.  He finds a safe refuge in a deserted building, but he is soon found by a German officer.  Recognising Szpilman's immense talent as a pianist, the latter decides to shelter him until the occupation of the city is over.  After the war, the pianist regrets being unable to repay the kindness of the man to whom he owes his life...