(rated R, 148 mins.)
It’s 1943 when the movie opens to a joyous Piano man, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Bordy) entertaining his Polish/Jewish family. But that soon changes when his small town is invaded by the Germans during World War II. He is the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. Suddenly Szpilman struggles to stay alive as his possessions, freedoms and family are ripped from his life. He eventually reclaims his artistic gifts and confronts his fears with aid from an unlikely source in a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann). Of course we never learn why this soldier has a soft spot for him other than possibly falling in love with a private piano solo Szpilman gives. The story is a triumphant and vivid portrayal of the Holocaust through one man’s eyes, but while you may think ‘we don’t need another film on the Holocaust’ this one is a true visionary reaching beyond this unfathomable time in history. It shows a means of survival rather than any form of heroism as we see Szpilman frozen and starving. The only downside is that while other Jews and Polish are executed left and right, we wonder why we are supposed to care about this particular man, yet we do. Winner of the coveted Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, this film is directed by Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby) who himself escaped Krakow Ghetto at the age of seven, through a hole in a barbed wire fence. Polanski has been nominated for four Academy Awards and this will be exception.
