Triumph of a Film

Rating: Null/10 (12 April 2003)

The WWII life of Wladyslaw Szpilman could have been even more fascinating with forty minutes cut from the film. With attention spans being what they currently are, modern audiences may squirm uncomfortably from this series of long scenes with few dialogue and very little background music. And yet, these scenes we're subjected to are important and dramatic in a realist sense.
The piano playing sequences are breathtakingly dramatic, being what they are in this, Polanski's most personally directed film to date.
If things go a little slow for you, watch half of The Pianist one night, and the other half when your nerves are back to normal. It is genuinely a fantastic film, far better than "Schindler's List."