absolutely stunning

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2005)

Polanski, unlike any other filmmaker, has a way of getting into your very core and evoking unconcsious emotions that seem to manifest themselves for days after. The Pianist is the type of film that initially strikes one as powerful, but perhaps so much so that its core essence requires time to settle and be processed. As several days have passed, I find my focus of attention ever more on the film and the ingenious manner in which it was designed. Really, few words will do the film justice but if I may say visually stunning and existentially powerful, perhaps that may be a meager start. The film is less a story of the main character's nightmarish struggle for survival during the unspeakable occupation of the Nazis in Warsaw; it is a pure visual study of hell observed primarily through the character. My God, how Polanski orchestrates this feat of cinematic power is hard to discern but his consistency in doing so is nothing less than pure genius. From the character's hideaway in an abandoned flat and the brutality of German soldiers always occurring at a distance as a panoramic backdrop to the character is an element I've never really seen done on this type of scale. If I may say Polanski has succeeded in creating a new cinematic dynamic, that wouldn't be an exaggeration. In the present climate of Hollywood silliness and superficiality, The Pianist is a rare achievement that rates it among the best films of all time, if not for its incredible usage of technique, but for its utter message of human evil and the struggle for survival against that evil which we, as the present generation, must always remember and never forget. Go see it.