Movie Description
Roman Polanski's THE PIANIST is based on the memoirs of the talented pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrian Brody), a Polish Jew, who miraculously survived World War II. The first half of the film transports viewers to 1939 Poland, and brings it to life clearly and believably. Szpilman is a tall, handsome, winsome man who is revered for his piano performances on public radio. He lives with his family--an intelligent, loving, and spirited bunch--in an upscale flat in central Warsaw. Bombings have begun to torment the citizens of Warsaw, and step by step, the Nazis infiltrate, the Jews are branded and set apart from their neighbors, imprisoned in a ghetto, and slowly exterminated. The story is told through Szpilman's eyes, and thus carries as much confusion and fear as disgust and torment. Polanski paints Warsaw in bleak shades of gray and black, expressing the helplessness of the Jewish people and the cruelty of the Nazis with captivating photography. In the second half of the film, which takes place in the early 1940s, Szpilman is alone, having managed to avoid the trains to the death camps. His struggle to survive, with some help from non-Jews but mostly his own will to thrive, takes place in long, silent, languid stretches filled with the imagined piano music that inspires Szpilman to live. In a climactic scene of immense beauty and spine-tingling tension, Szpilman must actually perform for a German soldier who is inexplicably patrolling the near-deserted and utterly dilapidated Warsaw ghetto. THE PIANIST, in the subtlety of its sublime and heartbreaking tale, is carried by the intensely moving performance of Brody, whose transformation is truly unforgettable.
| Credits | | Producer: | Alain Sarde, Robert Benmussa | | Cast: | Julia Rayner, Michael Zebrowski, Ruth Platt |
| Details | | Edition: | Full Frame |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Pan & Scan - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
DTS Surround 5.1 - English
Dolby Surround - Spanish
Additional Release Materials:
Featurette - 1. STORY OF SURVIVAL
Trailers
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes, Theatrical release: December 27, 2002 (Limited)
Editorial Reviews
"...THE PIANIST is a worthy Holocaust drama and a welcome return to form for Roman Polanski..."
Box Office - p.55 - Mark Keizer (08/01/2002)
"...A monument to the indestructibility of the human spirit..."
Film Comment - p.77 - Chris Chang (11/01/2002)
"...THE PIANIST achieves the monumental without abandoning the modesty of its origins....Polanski's strange genius serves Szpilman's remembrance..."
Los Angeles Times - p.C1 - Manohla Dargis (12/27/2002)
"...Mr. Polanski approaches this material with a calm, fierce authority. This is certainly the best work Mr. Polanski has done in many years..."
New York Times - p.E19 - A. O. Scott (12/27/2002)
"...[Polanski] brings history to life....It stays with you..."
USA Today - p.11D - Mike Clark (12/18/2002)
"...One of the most quietly moving stories in survivor literature, and now the cinema....Polanski tells the story with all of his cinematic mastery..."
Premiere - p.18 - Glenn Kenny (02/01/2003)
"...[A film] of riveting power and sadness, a great match of film and filmmaker -- and star, too..."
Entertainment Weekly - p.53 - Lisa Schwarzbaum (01/10/2003)
"...A work of sustained tension and ferocious clarity, and as near-perfect a marriage of subject and artist as could be imagined..."
Sight and Sound - p.57-8 - David Thompson (02/01/2003)
"...A portrait of hell so shattering it¿s impossible to shake..."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (02/06/2003)
"...A portrait of hell so shattering it’s impossible to shake..."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (02/06/2003)
"...A portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake..."
Rolling Stone - p.68 (02/06/2003)
Awards
2002Academy AwardsBest ActorAdrien Brody, 2002Academy AwardsBest Adapted ScreenplayRonald Harwood, 2002Academy AwardsBest DirectorRoman Polanski, 2002CannesPalme d'Or
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