Perhaps Polanski's masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2003)

Every time I listen to Chopin or Paderewski, every time I read Gunther Grass or Grazyna Borkowska, or I see a film like `Schindler's List' (qv) or this one - `The Pianist' - I catch myself saying `poor Poland'.
A country that has been squashed uncomfortably between two erstwhile powerful nations, Germany and the then U.S.S.R., and that has even managed to disappear as a nation from the map, but has managed to maintain its national sense and feeling and identity, obviously imposes one's respect. There can be, I feel, no denying that Poland was probably the nation which most suffered in the Second World War. And including the more than two million Jews who then lived there. All attempts at genocide are deplorable, whether it be the massacres of ex-Jugoslavija in Bosnia and Kersovo; whether it be the annihilations in Timur; whether it be the endless conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia or the Congo.
It should be fairly easy then to understand why I rate `Schindler's List' as one of the best U.S. films - though almost entirely made in Europe - very high on my list, and why Roman Polanski's film runs nicely alongside. The fact that there is but just one decimal point between these two films on IMDb's `Top 250' listing does not surprise me in the least, and in fact I might - I repeat - might - even reverse the two on my own list. Yes, both are great films; both scoring around 8,7 on my own personal rating.
Roman Polanski has, for me, always been a rather up-and-down director, such that `Rosemary's Baby' is a fine horror film; but his adaptation of Arturo PÃ©rez-Reverte's novel for his film called `The Ninth Gate' (qv) was rather poor, not to say unacceptable. However, with `The Pianist' he has put together what must be his own personal masterpiece. Resorting to British, French, German, Russian and of course Polish commitment in the making of the film, and is thus a pan-European production, he managed to assemble some of the best possible means for making a tremendous film. And it is tremendous: from the scene setting to the interpretations of the the actors. It was all so terribly real; the Warsaw ghetto seizes your heart; the summary executions freeze your blood.

Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman, on whose autobiography the film is built, is most certainly excellent, not just for his acting of the character, but also for his piano playing: Brody himself descends from a Hungarian mother. Szpilman not only composed for the piano, but also composed numerous songs. He died only a few years ago, nearly 90 years of age. Maybe he was not the greatest perfectionist in interpretation - that kind of thing is for people like Dinu Lipatti, Vladimir Horowitz, the Russian Sviatoslav Richter, or even the great master Wilhelm Kempff. But he was another real person in the midst of the carnage of Warszawa (Warsaw). Brody's feeling for this part was really extraordinary; a highly commendable performance.
Fortunately the rest of the film's making was up to his standard, such that, without any doubt, Polanski's `The Pianist' is one of the great cinematographical classics of the last couple of decades.
Wojciech Kilar's music combines nicely with Nocturnes and Waltzes from Frydryk Chopin, the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, and I think I caught a piece by Franz Liszt, though I am not sure.
Brilliant photography and scene-setting rounds off a well-produced film.