powerful

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2003)

This is going to be a difficult review as difficult and disturbing the movie "The Pianist" was. Even though our world is saturated with crime and violence I still had close my eyes for some of the scenes in this movie. At one point I thought that it was too much. I have seen many, many movies about the WW2, but a have never seen violence in such a blunt way. One has to be in a lot of pain to be able to make such a movie, which is pretty much the case with Mr. Polanski.
The movie tells the true story of a man who survives the holocaust by pure chance, luck, stoicism, and the good will of few good people. Or maybe everything was just a fate. Don't expect to see a hero or fighter kind of story. No, he is just a man fighting for his own survival. This is not a thriller.
I knew that there would be a scene where the pianist is supposed to play for a German solder so I was looking forward to seeing it. I wanted to see the direction of the scene, the acting of them both (the pianist and the officer), and of course, hear the music. Well, it was a breathtaking experience. See it for yourself
P.S. At the end I think that the Russians a very much in debt to that genre-movies dealing with the WW2. They used to make such a great movies about the war, but not anymore. I think it is about time to see a high budget Russian WW2 movie, a film about those who carried out the entire war on their shoulders.