Awesome... You will bear witness!

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2003)

"The Pianist" is one of the most realistic and convincing films about the holocaust and about Poland in the war years. What makes it so grand is that it is told with honesty and without emotion, or dramatization. We see the events as they happen, without any added emphasis or, without what some would call "manipulation."
Watching "The Pianist" is like bearing witness to life in the Warsaw Ghetto. We see what Szpileman saw, and we never extend beyond his point of view. As a result, things are left unexplained; characters that help him or know him disappear, and we do not learn of their fates (like the blond female resistance fighter). Other events do not always have an explanation, but we see them anyway; the SS man who suddenly appears and randomly forces a bunch of workers to lie face down for execution never gives us a reason for his presence. Was it to keep the Reich's quota of dead Jews, was it "disciplinary" or was it simple bloodlust? In any case, this random sequence turns out to be one of the most disturbing and memorable scenes in the film. Watching, we often get one angle, from a distance, and often without close-ups (this is a film that really should be viewed on the big screen, and I understood this when I first saw it in the theater). We also witness horrors without any added emphasis; a family is cruely massacred, and inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto are forced to perform humiliating tasks and do unpleasant things (like eat food off the ground) just to survive.

"The Pianist" is a visual masterpiece. The perfect cinematography gives us a real vision of what happened in Poland. I felt like I was watching a real column of German troops as they goose-stepped through Warsaw. Again, Polanski does not give us a closeup: we see what Szpielman is watching and nothing more. For history buffs and historians, there are some extremely impressive recreated images, recreations that required an effort that those not familiar with this period would not appreciate. In particular, there is a shot of Jurgen Stroop, the SS man in charge of putting down the ghetto uprising, that completely matches (down to the soldier's faces) a photo taken of him and other soldiers watching ghetto buildings burn. Another scene has ghetto residents traveling over a bridge in the ghetto; the match to the real photo is so convincing its uncanny (I showed a friend the photos while I paused the dvd and he too, was amazed.)
I was also surprised at how good the film's few combat sequences were. Most of them are short and involve German/SS assault squads and resistance fighters. They are choreographed beautifully, and are filmed in the same sort of undramatized way as the rest of the movie. It will probably never happen, but I'd love to see Polanski direct a straight-war film.
Given Polanski's past, it is hard to endorse his works with a totally clear conscience. But one can not doubt the impact of his deeply troubled life on his very powerful works.
Grade: A