The Pianist

Saw The Pianist, a fairly harrowing WW2 film about Adrien Brody, the famous pianist jewish pianist, who is trying desperately to survive in Poland. The film starts with him at the top of the world, the film richly saturated in color, Adrien suavely playing piano in a busy diner. Soon though jews are not welcome in some shops, and jews are not allowed in public parks, and armbands, and registries. Midway through the film, his family is vanishing and color and background music fade from the film.

The movie tries to tell a general story of Poland in the war and so it feels fairly impersonal at times. The protagonist, apart from being a piano player, is a cypher, a blank space for us to project ourselves into. He survives and his survival is not pretty but neither is it particularly challenging. He never has to sacrifice a stranger, for example, to save his own skin. Indeed, the protagonist twice expresses a desire to die rather than to leave his house, never mind sacrificing his morals. This was based on an autobiography, so perhaps that's why.

The nazis in the film are generally attractive, which is weird. Somehow the image of the nazi officer in popular imagination is always impeccably dressed, supremely capable and confident, and strikingly handsome. this image must originate from nazi propaganda. I wonder if we're unwittingly repeating that propaganda.

Anyway, handsome nazis aside, this film is quite sad but not terribly brutal. There's times when I cried, but I was never horrified. Come And See hit me harder for some reason, and of course there's no beating Shoah for depth of information. On an unrelated note, I wish youtube movies would disable comments on movies. In the comments section of this film someone started a well-thought-out argument about Israel which is a sort of sour finisher for such a noble, sad film.