The Pianist review

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2003)

Unlike several directors prior, Roman Polanski captures the personalities of the people involved in the world's greatest known horror, the holocaust. The Pianist is a landmark film that strikes not only the emotion of the event, but allows the viewers to connect and see what the, usually led to be, faceless were facing. In a particular scene, a Jewish man is offered a cigarette by one of the Nazi soldiers in a camp held outside by the Germans. With everyone around him looking hopeless, the elder does his best to convey faithfulness to the Nazi with his uttermost graciousness. It's a rather silly episode; but it's one that depicts how desperate these people were. The scene gives many in such a discouraging time a little bit of astonishment, even for a mere second. The scene also leads the youngest of Jewish victims some decent stray of hope.
Our eyes naturally are going to jump at the big German men with the even bigger guns. The Jewish man does his best to distract our attention away from them with some flair, a little twirling dance of immaculate reception. Dominant, still, are the intimidating foot soldiers. No matter how dominant, there doesn't seem to be a high contrast between the heavy blues and grays of the Nazi party to the dark grays of the ghetto streets, buildings, and coats of the Jewish. With the camera head on, we feel as if we're a bystander also; the only indication of empowerment from the Nazi's are their formal wear and rifles. Polanski does a wonderful job indicating that everyone stuck in this situation is just another number. The guards are no better than the Jews and perhaps even some feel forced to do what they do for Hitler and Germany.
Many of the scenes in The Pianist focus on Adrien's Brody's breakout performance of Wladyslaw Szpilman, which earned the role an Academy Award for best actor. Usually, Szpilman is isolated in the many locations he's hiding from-even with some help from the Nazi's-set with an intimate rendering of an artist going mad. He's famous, he's talented, but he's also helpless; his star can do nothing about his hefty family's looming fate. Even helping himself can only go for so long. Aside from this portion of the film, Wlayslaw Szpilman is like every other Holocaust victim, taking to the ghettos, doing anything for his next meal ticket. The audience, in turn, receives a stronger familiarity with the diverse number of personas also searching for their last string of hope.
The old man secluding only one-fourth of the abovementioned dancing and prancing scene is not necessarily the sign of a turncoat. His eyes, slightly angled to illustrate sentiment, tell the whole story; they show desperation, almost forgiveness, and begging til Hitler come. Yet, the Nazi soldiers enjoy this sort of thing, parodying everyone in their part to entertain at the expense of others. The subsidiary contrasts set little children wandering around and showing amusement, perhaps joy, at the cohesion between the old smoker and the cigarette peddling Germans. This type of brief solidity between the two parties startles another clash between two in the next scene: a Jewish woman is robbed of her meal from a fellow Jewish man. Terror certainly came from both ends and it is Polanski's brilliant directing that allows you to see it.
5/5 stars