dum dee dum

[kaydeefalls]

Saw The Pianist today. Expected yet another typical Holocaust movie. Was wrong, oh was I wrong. This film is gorgeous! And powerful, and sad, and brilliant.

As opposed to a let's-follow-the-Jews-around-until-they-all-DIE theme (common in Holocaust!movies), the action took place entirely in Warsaw, Poland. Our hero, Szpilman the pianist, never gets on the train to Treblinka, and the film is through his eyes -- we really SEE Warsaw evolve and fall apart, from the very beginning of WWII to the very end. It's as much a portrait of the city as of the main character.

And the whole film is just beautifully done -- harsh, moving, and very real. Our hero has his flaws (he's just a pianist, and somewhat lacking in the practical skills required for survival as a Jew in occupied Poland), and makes mistakes, and cheats death as much by accident as by his own design. Adrien Brody -- who IS this guy and WHY have I never seen him in any other movies? My god. I still think Daniel Day-Lewis deserves the Best Actor Oscar, but this guy's a close second.

The rest of the cast is pretty damn good as well, but no one particularly stands out other than Brody. This is mainly due to the nature of the film -- at first, Szpilman's family is prominent, but once they are deported to Treblinka (the fate Szpilman just barely escapes), all focus is on Szpilman and his jumps from hideout to hideout, surviving by the grace of God and some very sympathetic Poles (plus one memorable Nazi) in Warsaw apartments and ruins. He is an observer in the war, not a participant. The Jewish resistance in the ghettos, the Polish resistance in the streets of the city -- he sees everything through windows and around corners, but all he can do is hide. Brody's transformation is magnificent: from the content, self-assured pianist to the wary Jew to the anxious family member to the hollow-cheeked, dull-eyed bum scrounging through the rubble for food and water, with only the memory of music to keep him going.

Oh, and needless to say, the score is fantastic. Best motion picture soundtrack since The Piano, yes precious. Heh, that's kind of ironic. Pianist, piano... and kaydee is officially off topic. I'm not sure how organized my little review was, but I'm sleepy and I think I'll just leave it be.

So, yes. Awesome movie, best WWII-related film since Schindler's List (which is one of my Top Five Films of All Time, incidentally). I still kinda want Gangs of New York to take Best Picture, but The Pianist most definitely earned its nomination. Now to figure out why I had never even HEARD of this movie before the Golden Globes...

I am such a film geek. And loving every second of it!

Comments

[sternentochter.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I saw The Pianist back in December, and I think it was one of the best films I've seen in the last year. In fact, it was, for me personally, one of the best fims dealing with the holocaust I've ever seen. Very real and therefore very oppressive.