Relentless, harrowing tale of survival

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2007)

There is a certain hallmark in a Polanski film and I have used the words "relentless" and "harrowing" out of respect and observation. Polanski often wields his art in challenging, aggressive and disturbing ways. Some have complained that his predilection to violence and blood are sometimes a bit much. However, though this film has all of that and then some, the sum of the parts is equal to the incredible story of Wladyslaw Szpilman. Having not heard of him before, the first time I saw this film I was shocked on many levels. As a Jew, of course, I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the screen as the details of Nazi brutality were presented like a hard slap on the face. As a pianist myself, I was stunned at how I had missed this mans story and amazed at how good he was as an artist.
There will always be comparisons made by critics when a so-called holocaust movie is made. People draw lines, in this case, to Schindler's List and other fine films. It is odd, isn't it, that Schindler's story took place in Crackow and this film in Warsaw and in each case we feel that humanity had reached the nadir point of misery. Of course that is not true: the death camps, where so many ended up, were the bottom of the pit. "The Pianist" shows us the story of the great Warsaw Jewish population and how it was rounded up, put to work, then obliterated or shipped to death camps. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was one of the few occasions during the war when Jews rose up against the Nazi war machine. But let me return to the movie as such.
I have no doubts in my mind that the hand of fate came to protect Szpilman. The obvious philosophical question then becomes: why him and not his whole family? It's an impossible question when we ask it but the whole film begs the question. It is an imponderable conundrum but for me the hand of fate was as plain to see as anything. His survival comes in many flavors. He is aided by the hated "capos", the Jewish police in the ghetto. He is helped by artists in the Christian community who knew of his own fame and took enormous risks to help him as best they could. He was assisted by the Polish underground. Finally, in the most moving part of the film, he is aided in the most unexpected manner, by a high ranking German officer, who, upon discovering him hiding in a totally bombed out quarter of the city (we never know why the officer was there, seeing that the blocks and blocks of city were reduced to total rubble)....asks him to play the piano for him; incredibly he plays and to break your heart. The officer inexplicably has sympathy for him and provides him with food and in the end his own winter coat. Our emotions by this time are so overwrought with seeing what Szpilman had suffered that to see him saved yet again by a German soldier.....leaves us raw.
This film has the look and feel of what it must have been like, Polanski having taken pains to hold little back in terms of the brutality, random murder and deprivation of such huge numbers of people. Adrien Brody, what can you say of this performance? He is one of those rare number of actors who can say everything with their eyes. Giancarlo Gianini always does that. Brody often reduces his thoughts and feelings into wordless cries that pour out of his eyes; if you cannot feel moved to tears when he says nothing then you just don't have the receptors to pick it up. To say that his evocation of Szpilman was sensational is too weak a summary. Would that more actors could reach into their souls to pull together such depth, cinema would be graced with more masterpieces. This film is so powerful I doubt we have the ability to drink it all in in one go. So richly deserving of the 3 Oscars. Brodie's performance is so staggering, he will probably not eclipse it again. A monumental story of survival amidst mountains of death, destruction and heart break. A rare cinema event indeed.