The most intense, vivid, graphic and poignant Holocaust film yet!

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2003)

I thought there could be no Holocaust movie after "Schindler's
List," because... what more could be said, described... the horrors,
the brutality, the random cruelty, the savagery, the relentless
murders of the Final Solution. "Schindler's List" had a redemptive
ending, a message of hope, but "The Pianist," although much
more grim, still found a way for art, as embodied in the culture of
music, to find a common language for Nazi and Jew. Polanski
created a cinematic work of art of the first order, which I am sure
will become a classic. The acting performance of the Spijlman
character was incredible, of the highest order. The film drags the
viewer bodily into the nitty-gritty of the Holocaust, taking him/her on
a harrowing journey from upper middle class comfort and culture
to one dispossession after another, leaving countless Jews bereft
of possessions, self-respect, family, security, honor, loyalty and
ultimately life itself. There are numerous examples of
collaboration, capitulation, defiance, embattlement and
unbelievable courage and luck. I hope writers, playwrights and
film-makers never stop reminding us of what happened in Europe
during World War II. If we don't remember history, we will truly be
condemned to repeat it. Hopefully it will never happen again that a
people will be subject to genocide. The unwritten message is that
music is the saving grace and common language of civilization.