A riveting, powerfully envisioned, and at most times evocatively stirring work of personal filmmaking. Roman Polanski somewhat like created an artwork, a painter's masterpiece, pouring and emptying all his experience, sadness, wrath, vengeance and skill that created such a movie that would have a huge impact on humanity. Sometimes it moves, sometimes it makes us get near into tears, makes us angry and fearful - but there's only one thing that would stay on us for so long, the film gives us a potent view to how humans strive against all instinct to survive in the darkest of hours. Obviousy following Mr. Spielberg's 1993 classic Schindler's List (I haven't seen that one yet, but it's on my list now so I'll watch it no sooner than later), The Pianist is a such a visage of the Holocaust, but only more on the one-man journey, fighting against all odds, battling evils and dilemmas that nearly cost his life. We know that this was based on a true story, and it seems indeed so cruel and horrifying to look back into the years of the Holocaust of Europe, where Jews were discriminated, tortured and killed. Polanski nonetheless creates that graphic; he was never afraid to slap his audience with brutal scenes, gore and graphic R-18 material that would leave people wide-eyed, mouth hanging open and tears almost flowing out of their faces. He puts so much knowledge in these years that made you believe that those times were the most terrifying times in human history. It painted so many unrestrained forces that made this movie so compelling like the story of the families, especially Wladislaw Szpilman's, whose struggle became so poignant. There was this scene where the father bought a caramel candy and then cut it into tiny little pieces for the whole family to enjoy in such a brief time. The making of this scene is simple, but it becomes so powerful that it stirs up the very edges of your heart.
As a one-man journey kind of movie, Adrien Brody makes this more satisfying. It's very difficult to act especially if you're in so many scenes alone, with a situation battling a kind madness difficult to go through, facing ultimate threats of war. Of course, he won the Oscar Best Actor for this.
This is a definitive film, rich, complex and visceraly haunting. Polanski makes this such a bold feat. He knew how to create hell in earth, and made human suffering more real than just history. Winning three Oscar nods, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay, it's really that hard to resist.
The Pianist, in my own opinion, somehow awakes the master in you, to let you believe in your own talent in the shades of life. No matter how difficult it is to bear such thing as belief in your own self, especially when no one believes, there is indeed one place for each one of us is destined to go to. Let it be war, problems, heartaches and all the troubles in life - belief pushes us through anything, makes us more powerful, makes us become larger than life and makes us survive through the battle of the fittest. It a true fable about survival, and The Pianist just proved that us. If only Wladislaw Szpilman was alive right now and could meet him, I would congratulate him with all my heart. His music was indeed his passion, but his survival became his masterpiece.
Rating: A+
