The Pianist
Academy Award × 3
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
What critics thought
Polanski's Holocaust survival drama draws near-universal critical admiration for Adrien Brody's performance, Ronald Harwood's screenplay, and Polanski's restrained direction — though A.O. Scott notably questioned whether the film's climactic encounter between Szpilman and a German officer tips into sentimentality. The film's deliberate refusal to render its protagonist as hero or fighter is both its most praised and most discussed quality.
“we admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies.”
Richard Schickel·Time
“contains moments of irony, of ambiguity, and of strange beauty, as when we finally get a look at Warsaw and see a panorama of destruction, a world of color bombed into black-and-white devastation”
Mick LaSalle·San Francisco Chronicle
“courted sentimentality by associating the love of art with moral decency, an equation the Nazis themselves, steeped in Beethoven and Wagner, definitively refuted”
A.O. Scott·The New York Times
Genres
Biography, Drama, Music
Cast & Crew
DirectorRoman Polanski
StarringAdrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox
ComposerWojciech Kilar
The Pianist
Academy Award × 3
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
What critics thought
Polanski's Holocaust survival drama draws near-universal critical admiration for Adrien Brody's performance, Ronald Harwood's screenplay, and Polanski's restrained direction — though A.O. Scott notably questioned whether the film's climactic encounter between Szpilman and a German officer tips into sentimentality. The film's deliberate refusal to render its protagonist as hero or fighter is both its most praised and most discussed quality.
“we admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies.”
Richard Schickel·Time
“contains moments of irony, of ambiguity, and of strange beauty, as when we finally get a look at Warsaw and see a panorama of destruction, a world of color bombed into black-and-white devastation”
Mick LaSalle·San Francisco Chronicle
“courted sentimentality by associating the love of art with moral decency, an equation the Nazis themselves, steeped in Beethoven and Wagner, definitively refuted”
A.O. Scott·The New York Times
Genres
Biography, Drama, Music
Cast & Crew
DirectorRoman Polanski
StarringAdrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox
ComposerWojciech Kilar