Long Time Coming

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2003)

This is what you wait for if you're a movie buff. An eagerly anticipated film that gets great reviews and a number of awards across the Northern Hemisphere...that is actually worth waiting for. And if said film happens to be made by a personal favourite director ('Rosemary's Baby,' 'Chinatown' & 'Repulsion') fallen on hard times ('Pirates,' 'Frantic' & ugh 'Bitter Moon') so much the better.
What I really liked about this film was the wonderful simplicity with which Polanski tells the story, while at the same time displaying his mastery of cinematic technique. Much like the pianist of the title, he hits the right notes throughout; from the opening scene where Germans bomb the radio station where he is performing, through the tribulations of his Jewish family, to the 'Schindler's List'-esque Warsaw ghetto scenes and on to the final grim struggle for survival, this is a tour-de-force for the aging director.
The plot builds steadily to the final section of the film, where the pianist wanders, frightened and shaking, among the ruins of a bombed and burning Warsaw, still trying to dodge the few retreating Germans still in the city. He is finally caught by one, a general, in the ruins of a formerly grand house...a scene that is sure to go down as a classic.
I saw this film on the day it opened in Australia and the cinema was packed. There were the usual packed-cinema sounds; coughing, munching of chips, slurping of drinks, muted conversation. By the time the film had reached it's devastating conclusion, the cinema was silent...high praise for any film.