The Pianist

When the movie was over and I asked her what she had thought of it, The Grandmother's only comments were about the man eating the spilled food off the ground. I was stunned, as I thought the music would appeal to her and she would like the heroics. This food "thing" may drive me to drink. Or overeat. Or both!

The Pianist is a 2002 WW2 film based on the true story of Wladyslaw Szilman, a Polish Jew who was a professional pianist when WW2 started and was the only member of his family to survive. It's directed by Roman Polanski and stars Adrien Brody.

trailer:


Senses of Cinema says it "manages to be both illuminating, historically faithful, and definitive" and says Polanski's "vision of Hell is that of an atheist. There is no God in The Pianist, not a hint of Him. This Hell is completely man-made." Slant Magazine has a positive review. Salon.com calls it Polanski's "most emotionally direct film, at times even a brutally blunt film." Rolling Stone begins with this: "What strikes you first about The Pianist, aside from the fact that it is Roman Polanski's most personal and powerful film in years, is its rigorous lack of sentimentality." Spirituality and Practice has a review. Roger Ebert says it "refuses to turn Szpilman's survival into a triumph and records it primarily as the story of a witness who was there, saw, and remembers."