Pictures at an Exhibition

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2003)

The viewer should note that, describing this film using those familiar euphemisms as 'intense' or 'disturbing' severely understates the impact it will have on you.
'The Pianist' depicts the life and death struggle for survival of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the pianist, during the Nazi conquest of Warsaw, from 1939, to the city's Soviet 'liberation' in 1945.
Ardian Brody earned that Oscar, for his transformation from sensitive, intelligent musician, to a hunted, pitiful refugee, just surviving and staying one step ahead of the evil that intends to destroy him.
Roman Polanski's masterful direction, blended with Pawel Edelman's extraordinary cinematography have created a visual symphony and brings to the light, belatedly, another story of the struggle for justice, in Europe, during the Holocaust.