Review Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003

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"You musicians don't make good conspirators." - unknown CASS' CLIP (WARNING: **spoilers below**) Warsaw, September 1939 - The city is bustling and vibrant with life, and none of the Jewish residents are aware of the impending war or the years of suffering they will endure. The Pianist opens with Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) playing Chopin live on a Warsaw radio station. During the broadcasting of his performance, a bomb blasts through the walls of the studio. Nazi Germany invades Poland, which marks the beginning of the end for all Jews. Szpilman flees the bombed out radio station and returns home, where he and his brother and sisters still live with their father, (Frank Finlay), and mother (Maureen Libman). Initially, Wladyslaw and his family are lulled into a false sense of security because they hear reports that France and England have declared war against the Germans. As the Szpilman's middle-class comforts are stripped away from them -- their money, their possessions, and their home -- you still sense that they believe their lives will return to normal. All Jews are ordered to wear the Star of David armbands as identification. On October 31, 1940, the Szpilman family, along with 360,000 other Jews, are evicted from their homes and forcibly relocated into 2-room apartments. They live behind a brick wall in what will eventually be called the Warsaw ghetto. Armed German soldiers routinely mistreat and randomly murder Jews for sadistic pleasure. Jews are no longer allowed in certain restaurants, stores, or parks, but are given food rations. Starving people wander aimlessly in search of food and dead bodies liter the ally ways and crowded streets. The only solace Szpilman finds, in the midst of these atrocities, is being with his family and playing the piano at a local restaurant. Szpilman is asked by one of his friends to join the Jewish police force, which is formed to force the Jews to obey Nazi regulations, such as curfews. Wladyslaw refuses and shortly thereafter his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoddard), is arrested but is eventually released. Despite this turmoil, Szpilman's mother and father try to maintain some sense of normality, with routine chores and family gatherings at mealtime. But that too suddenly changes when Szpilman and his family are again uprooted and herded into overcrowded freight trains headed to Treblinka and other concentration camps for extermination. Szpilman's fate changes when his friend who joined the Jewish police force, saves him and pulls him out of line. Szpilman is then separated from his entire family, which he will never see again. Amongst the bombed out buildings and rubble, Szpilman struggles to stay alive. It is through Szpilman's eyes we witness the mass destruction and the indescribable horror innocent victims endured during Nazi-occupied Poland. At the end of The Pianist, there's a shocking twist of fate involving a German Captain, Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann). There were approximately 360,000 Jews living in Warsaw at the beginning of World War II. Wladyslaw Szpilman is one of only 20 Jews who survived. DA 411 The Pianist is based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir, "Death of a City," which was originally published in 1946. This movie is absolutely phenomenal because of Ronald Harwood's sensitive adaptation of Szpilman's story and Roman Polanski's direction. The Pianist is also difficult to watch because of its unflinching representation of the persecution of Jews during World War II and German occupation of Poland. Polanski is also a Holocaust survivor. What Polanski brings to this movie is an insightfulness only a survivor knows. Adrien Brody's performance is impressive. Since there is very little dialogue in the second half of The Pianist, Brody's emaciated body language speaks volumes. Combined with Pawel Edelman's cinematography, Allan Starski's production design, and Anna B. Sheppard's costume design, The Pianist is superb and is worthy of its recent seven Oscar nominations. CASS' CONCLUSION Wladyslaw Szpilman died on July 6, 2000 in Warsaw, Poland at the age of 88. The Pianist celebrates the memory of Szpilman's miraculous journey of survival. THE PIANIST:   back to top Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003 EMAIL: cass@3blackchicks.com