Polanski's clinical, straightforward vision of Nazi atrocities is far more mature and involving than Spielberg's overrated, overbearing attempt at the same thing.

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2003)

Having dealt firsthand with Nazi terrors, it was perhaps inevitable that director Roman Polanski would finally present his interpretation of it. His film offers a strong, clinical take on the Nazi inhumanities with a relatively detached emotionalism, personifying some key elements to understanding how individuals managed to deal with the horrors of the time. Adrien Brody is absorbing as an artist overwhelmed in the escalating nightmare; his characteristically expressive mug reminding me very much of the Giancarlo Giannini protagonist in Lina Wertmuller's SEVEN BEAUTIES (still my favorite movie dealing with Nazi persecution). THE PIANIST is another great film by Roman Polanski. From the resoundingly ominous explosion at it's start,to the tragic vista of Warsaw as a devastated wasteland, THE PIANIST turns out to be another unique chiller from a film-making master.