Bland and Obscene

Rating: 1/10 (8 February 2003)

So this film has won the Palme D'Or? I didn't see any reason why...
The film is well executed in its use of the usual Hollywood visual clichés, rendered in a more "European" style. A fusion of the worst of Hollywood and the worst of Europe. The result unfortunately is even less than the sum of its parts.
I am extremely concerned by the lack of any real ideas beneath the thin veneer of story. I felt that the film rubbed my nose in one awful even after the other while presenting only caricatures (or often no characterisation at all) of the participants and victims - especially the German characters. So we have caricatures versus caricatures, without a caricaturist's sense of humour or insight.
I found these caricatures quite obscene - they obscured the fact that the Germans who committed such atrocities were ordinary men and women - not merely evil-laughing "monsters". That European Jews who survived this period went on to murder and torture Palestinians and reproduce the exact same ghettos imposed on them for every year since 1945 is testament to that. I wonder if I'd win the Palme D'Or by switching the roles and making a film about the Israeli organised Chatila massacres or atrocities by the Israeli Army in the West Bank?
The result is that the real power of the film was completely lost in the process of presenting the facts of Szpilman's experience of that period. I found no insights in this movie - either into art/music nor the Holocaust, and certainly nothing about Szpilman.
Is it true to fact in its unrelenting depiction of atrocities committed? I didn't care anymore after 30 minutes. I am no historical revisionist so after the 4th violent atrocity in the first section, not only these acts, but the whole film became silly and patronising.
A far more unsettling and profound film about evil, art, personal responsibility and racism from this period is definitely István Szabó's "Taking Sides". It leaves Polanski's film far behind in every filmic and intellectual aspect.
The Holocaust compels us to think and act, even if entirely beyond comprehension. In this regard, Polanski's movie is both bland and abhorrent.

And no, I don't mean that to be a complement.