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The Pianist review
:. Director: Roman Polanski
:. Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann
:. Running Time: 2:28
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: Poland/UK
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A talented Polish Jewish pianist escapes deportation. He is transferred to the Warsaw ghetto, from which he escapes to find refuge in the ruins of the capital. From one hideout to another, he gets help from people, and unexpectedly from a German officer who is struck by his genius.
Three years after the poor Ninth Gate, Polanski returns with very traditional direction. The Pianist is the academic and literal adaptation of musician Wladislaw Szpilman's memories. This fictional reconstitution of a tragic episode of the Shoah doesn't shine by its formal inventiveness, at least in the first part. Admittedly, Polanski thoroughly describes the inescapable process of dehumanization implemented by the Nazis. Jews are slowly relegated, deprived of the most elementary rights and humiliated before being exterminated. Divided between incomprehension, fear and absurdity, the protagonists quietly undergo the Nazi oppression, before revolting: it is the famous episode of the Warsaw ghetto's resistance.
Adrien Brody (already noticed in Bread and Roses) lends his slender silhouette and emaciated face to this pianist genius. Through the portrait of a musician caught into events, arises of course the theme of the place and usefulness of art during wartime. Deprived of his instrument, the artist is nothing. However, he owes his survival to a haunting performance in front of a German officer who's discovered his hideaway. This scene, one of strongest of the film, restores Szpilman's integrity as an artist, while bringing a dash of humanity to the German officer.
Unfortunately, you have to wait 110 minutes before getting to the most successful scenes. The film becomes truly enthralling when, isolated, the pianist must ensure his survival in the ruins of Warsaw (haunting sequences of devastation). With fear and hunger in his belly, he's anguished to be uncovered. Polanski renders this fear palpable. The lack of food also becomes a dramatic stake.
In spite of an accumulation of stereotyped scenes, the film is successful in the point of view adopted by Polanski: the war is seen only by the small end of the spyglass. Indeed, Szpilman is a character who hides and flees throughout film. He sees war only through windows, half-opened doors and holes in the walls.... Even the few days of the resistance in the ghetto are seen through a window. Some explosions and shots: this is how Polanski approaches this glorious episode: with stupefying scarcity. He could have chosen to show the desperate fighting of the Jewish resistance, but here the fiction gains in intensity.
The audience is put in the same position as the hero, sharing the same vision of the event. It is regrettable that the accuracy of the direction does not carry the whole film from beginning to end.
While Polanski manages to evacuate a certain number of stereotypes from his story, the film is nevertheless consensual. A passionless Palme d'Or was awarded to The Pianist.
Sandrine Marques
 Movie Reviews: European Films
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