Having had the DVD of 'The Pianist' in my home for around a month I was not looking forward to this film. Roman Polanski's film and an Oscar for Adrien Brody were not enough to excite me about another WWII film. In fact I preferred 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' over this movie!
Now movies on war don't get me excited. Especially if the film has the Germans as the villains. It's so easy to set a film around this period and show a man's struggles. This perception of mine has taken some beating after 'Life is Beautiful' and 'The Counterfeiters'. But even after these films I have maintained this perception. Hence 'The Pianist' was not on my list of must-watch-as-soon-as-possible list but was of course on my must-watch list.
The film starts out, as expected, the pianist playing the piano in a recording studio. The next scene is not very imaginative either. Soothing music is interrupted by bombings. Stereotypes are further reinforced when the pianist meets a babe as he is making his way out of a collapsing building. What's more they even strike a conversation blocking the route to an exit! Others trying to escape don't seem to mind that their path to safety is blocked. These are probably the only let-downs in an outstanding film on WWII.
The story is simple. Nothing in it. Really. It starts out with a family first moved out of their house into the ghetto where they struggle to make ends meet. Brody's character plays the piano where some of the better-to-do Jews (the ones who bribe the guards and seem to be doing fine) wine and dine. His elder brother has other plans. The pianist we can always see is the more practical, more accommodating to authority - he agrees to wearing the star on his sleeve, walks in the gutter, plays by the rules. But once in the ghetto he goes out looking for a job more 'meaningful', a job where he can fight back. Then a day when his brother is taken in by the Jewish police and he manages to save him. He also manages to get employment papers for his entire family. He is scared all the time. When everyone is loaded onto the train he wants to go too but is flung aside by a friend. He remains in Warsaw as a laborer. He believes he will fight back with the rest of the youthful Jews but is scared when he is almost caught once. He realizes that he can't fight. His only choice is to run. With a friend's help he gets out, goes into hiding. It's once he is out of the ghetto that the film changes track from the one that's easy to follow. Everything prior to his escape is not all that interesting.
'The Pianist', the way I saw it, was two (actually three but two are similar) outstanding sequences in one film:
Now movies on war don't get me excited. Especially if the film has the Germans as the villains. It's so easy to set a film around this period and show a man's struggles. This perception of mine has taken some beating after 'Life is Beautiful' and 'The Counterfeiters'. But even after these films I have maintained this perception. Hence 'The Pianist' was not on my list of must-watch-as-soon-as-possible list but was of course on my must-watch list.
The film starts out, as expected, the pianist playing the piano in a recording studio. The next scene is not very imaginative either. Soothing music is interrupted by bombings. Stereotypes are further reinforced when the pianist meets a babe as he is making his way out of a collapsing building. What's more they even strike a conversation blocking the route to an exit! Others trying to escape don't seem to mind that their path to safety is blocked. These are probably the only let-downs in an outstanding film on WWII.
The story is simple. Nothing in it. Really. It starts out with a family first moved out of their house into the ghetto where they struggle to make ends meet. Brody's character plays the piano where some of the better-to-do Jews (the ones who bribe the guards and seem to be doing fine) wine and dine. His elder brother has other plans. The pianist we can always see is the more practical, more accommodating to authority - he agrees to wearing the star on his sleeve, walks in the gutter, plays by the rules. But once in the ghetto he goes out looking for a job more 'meaningful', a job where he can fight back. Then a day when his brother is taken in by the Jewish police and he manages to save him. He also manages to get employment papers for his entire family. He is scared all the time. When everyone is loaded onto the train he wants to go too but is flung aside by a friend. He remains in Warsaw as a laborer. He believes he will fight back with the rest of the youthful Jews but is scared when he is almost caught once. He realizes that he can't fight. His only choice is to run. With a friend's help he gets out, goes into hiding. It's once he is out of the ghetto that the film changes track from the one that's easy to follow. Everything prior to his escape is not all that interesting.
'The Pianist', the way I saw it, was two (actually three but two are similar) outstanding sequences in one film:
- This is one when the family are still together in the ghetto. They are having dinner when we hear a jeep drive in. Everyone gets up from the table and goes to the window. We watch in horror as the camera follows the German soldiers right from that window. We are looking down on the road as the soldiers get out of the jeep. The lights in all houses have by now been turned off. The camera pans from the ground floor to the first floor to the second to the third. All the way up soldiers physically abuse Jews. Finally at the third floor, now the camera is level with the window, soldiers walk into a family in the middle of their dinner. Everyone is forced to stand except for one person who can't but that's because the person is on a wheelchair. The soldiers waste no time in sending him to his death. The rest of the family is brought down, the camera pans to the ground. We see from the window as the family are lined up, then start running. The soldiers open fire. Everyone dies. This sequence is horrifying. We watch along with the pianist's family. When his mother cries out it's one of us who screams. The entire scene is shot from a camera placed in that window and follows the action. It's like we are in the house with the pianist and his family. For once in a film we can't see the expressions of the murderers or the victims. We know it from the way the soldiers walk that they kill in cold-blood and that victims are scared. There are other scenes which Brody's character watches from windows in rooms when he is in hiding, the resistance from the ghetto laborers is another such scene. 'The Pianist' through sequences like these first takes its viewers through the war as a bystander. We watch what happens through Brody's eyes. Deliberately the big picture is lost. Brody's character just doesn't care or get the news regularly. He is worried about his own life.
- After the resistance by the ghetto laborers Roman Polanski flings us right in the middle of the war. Brody now living in a German dominated locality watches a few Jews attack the hospital nearby. Then the Germans retaliate. It's just gun fire to start with. Then we watch through the window as a tank is brought on to fight the Jews. There are soldiers shouting outside Brody's small apartment to warn the Germans living in the building of the fighting. He can't get out because the apartment is locked. It's from this point in the film that we live in fear. Till this point in the film we were scared because of what was happening around Brody. But from now he is in danger. We live the dangers with Brody. Believe me when I say Polanski makes us live the protagonist's fear. The pianist makes his way out of the apartment, into a hospital, drinks dirty water, eats whatever is vaguely edible, escapes from a hospital set on fire to the city of Warsaw now is ruins. He lives that period with just the motivation to stay alive. We live it with him. Every step he takes I was scared he'd be caught. Polanski plays a wonderful game with the audience here. What's going to happen? Will he make it? Will he get caught? My God! I was in Brody's shoes! This sequence has no dialog for a very very extended portion, was it twenty-five minutes or thirty or was it closer to forty minutes. Brody is the only one on screen in this period and this again helped me imagine I was the guy trying to stay alive. It's this period in the film that makes this a great film.
RANDOM COMMENTS:
- I am not sure if Adrien Brody deserved an Oscar for this performance. Honestly, I thought it was a good effort but the role as such does not demand too much. Perhaps I am undermining Brody's efforts. Perhaps Daniel-Day Lewis could have won it for his role in 'Gangs of New York'. I have not watched any of the others nominees.
- Unlike other war movies this is 'our' war movie. We are in the war in this film.
- The first ninety minutes were what we have seen in all other such movies. It's the portion of the film where Brody is left to fend for himself that the film comes into its own.
- 'Life is Beautiful' has a warm but surreal feel about it. 'The Counterfeiters' plays out almost like an adventure film. Both films tell us stories of other people. 'The Pianist' takes us through the war, first hand.
- The sound is terrific. There are numerous scenes where we hear the sound and our mind starts imagining a jeep. We draw pictures in our mind of soldiers firing guns, burning buildings, etc. Helps transport us from our living rooms to Warsaw.
- 'The Wrestler' is a similar film in that it makes us the protagonist. Another film which puts us in the thick of the action is 'United 93'. The three films ar esimilar, they make us live what's happening on screen.
- 'The Pianist' is for the big screen. Every film should be watched on the big screen but it's not easy to do that unless you are a film critic. The scene when Brody gets out of the hospital to see the totally battered city is an image that will stay for in my mind's eye. As I was watching this film I thanked my father for the fantastic TV he has left behind. The TV is my prized possession!
RATNG: 5/5
