The Pianist
Dir: Roman Polanski
2002
*****
The Pianist is probably Roman Polanski's greatest achievement as well as his most personal work to date. Polanski himself was an escapee of the Krakow Ghetto and like the Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, was one of the few people who hid for the rest of the war without getting caught. Polanski was probably the only director who could bring Szpilman's biography to the big screen as he understood the conditions of the Ghetto and the fear the Jews would have felt. He would also have witnessed the same atrocities as Szpilman and decided to show the various acts of cruelty for what they were. The fact that Szpilman was helped by a German officer could have been manipulated for all the wrong reasons. Instead, The Pianist is relentless in showing the most horrific of events, which I believe is the best and only way to treat a story such as this, but asks no sympathy of the view, rather asks the audience to watch, learn, understand and then question. There is an element of sentimentally to the film but it is a true story, it is sentimentally that ultimately saved Szpilman but this isn't explored for reward, it is actually a stark reminder that the cruelty that happened during the second world war made no sense at all. Szpilman's life goes back to normal after the War, he returns to the job he was doing previously, not as if nothing had happened but it does leave the question of why it happened. This is why The Pianist is so successful and makes it stand out from other films about the holocaust. Szpilman wasn't a fighter, he was a survivor, as was Polanski. Szpilman's biography touches on a guilt he felt, as many who survive when others don't can feel. His music saved him in more ways than one, and Polanski can relate to this, making the film a valuable lesson in inhumanity and artistic redemption. It's an astonishing film and essential viewing for all.