Volume 3, No. 15 February 28, 2003
‘The Pianist’ plays a haunting melody A Review By Kim Herrington A little girl holding a birdcage walks through the desolate and crowded streets of 1940s Poland in search of her parents. A starving man kneels to eat a puddle of spilled soup in the middle of a street. A paraplegic is hurled from a high-rise apartment window when asked to stand by Nazis. A family of six shares a caramel that cost 20 zloty before boarding a cattle bus. The above are a few unsettling scenes from the recently released film, “The Pianist,” produced and directed by Roman Polanski. “The Pianist” is the film adaptation of “Death of a City,” an autobiography of classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. The film chronicles the events of the Holocaust in Warsaw Poland as described by Szpilman (Adrian Brody), who speaks of the slow process of dehumanization as experienced by Polish Jews. At first, they were made to wear Star of David armbands for identification. Then they were banned from all public facilities. Finally, they were herded into the ghetto to await their death. Polanski starts Szpilman’s story after he escapes Warsaw and goes into hiding, making “The Pianist” a one-man epic. Polanski takes the audience through the many twists of fate that help Szpilman escape death. This personalizes the holocaust experience for audiences and, in my opinion, has more impact than previous attempts at summarizing. For instance, the most powerful scene in this film is that of a breathtaking performance by Szpilman on a piano left behind in an abandoned building. A Nazi officer discovers Szpilman, who has spent years evading capture. Emaciated, he is struggling to open a can of vegetables, and the officer asks him what he is doing and what he did for a living before the Nazi invasion. Szpilman tells the officer that he is trying to fix a meal and that he was a pianist. The officer then asks Szpilman to play a nearby abandoned piano. Szpilman then plays a beautiful piece of music for the officer. The music compels the officer to spare Szpilman’s life. This scene epitomizes the capabilities of the human spirit. It is my understanding that Adrian Brody lost 30 pounds to accurately portray Szpilman’s physique at that moment. Overall his performance is remarkable and shows tremendous dedication to the role. Brody reaches within to capture the essence of quite a few desperate moments. Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay and Maureen Lipman support him well. All in all, “The Pianist” is a phenomenal film that will leave an indelible mark on your heart.
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