a film of poignancy and precision

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2002)

I was in Brussels last week and my brother and I went to see the Pianist. Neither of us new anything about the movie or the subject matter - we simply wanted to see a different film than the one his children chose at the cinema. Imagine what your reaction would be to this film with no preconceived notion of the subject matter.
I am not Jewish, or Polish, or German. I was born 10 years after WW2 ended, and so one might think have no vested interest in being so deeply moved by the film. As most Canadians, I have grown up with the overpowering influence of the Americans and of their Hollywood versions of history. Perhaps because of this - or in spite of it - I found the film gripping. I thought Adrien Brody's performance mesmerizing. I felt Polanski served the subject with almost a dispassionate view of events unfolding - whose characters couldn't stop the madness from escalating and whose audience found ourselves forced to be spectators (again) 60 years after the fact.
The superlatives are already in place on this board - but there were 2 scenes which I find I revisit because of their poignancy and their precision: one is where the family is being rounded up from the ghetto, and he turns to his sister Halina and with a finality so powerful, says, "I wish I knew you better." The other is when he received the packet of bread and jam from Capt. Hosenfeld, and he tastes the jam. In an instant, with only a subtle change in his facial muscles, you sense all that Szpilman had been without. I will now purchase the book, and when the distributors in North America finally show this film, I will go to see it again and take every thinking person I know with me.
Sadly, when the film is made about September 11 (and knowing the way the Americans work, there are probably several versions being penned as we speak), I only hope that a man like Polanski can be relied upon to make a truthful, balanced account of yet another instance of man's capacity for committing atrocities.