neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Pianist
	Roman Polanski Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer 2002		Addressing the Holocaust in a solemn, personal way, renegade director Roman Polanski ("Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby") has made his most potent and unguarded film. The fact that Polanski himself barely escaped the horrors of the Nazi reign in Poland surely informed "The Pianist," based on the autobiography of noted Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman. Classical pianist/composer Szpilman was a Jew who had to cope with oppression by the German forces after they invaded Warsaw, the Polish capital. The occupying army starts to send Jewish citizens off to the concentration camps, but Szpilman, played with distinction and penetrating intellect by Adrien Brody ("Summer of Sam"), manages to evade deportation. Instead, he remains hidden in Warsaw long after the Nazi takeover. It's a nerve-wracking chore with treacherous circumstances at every turn, making for a suspenseful, often horrifying cinematic experience. Szpilman is not so much a hero as a survivor, and Polanski eschews fancy visual chicanery to tell this stunning true story in a matter-of-fact way that emphasizes the unimaginable nightmare of it all.