The Pianist

Posted on The Film and Entertainment Lounge
3 February 2003

IN SUM: The movie becomes more meaningful in these days, when the nuclear menace of one of our neighboring countries is threatening to bring back the terrors of war (and possibly even worse).

FEW movies remain with me long after seeing them on wide screen: one of them is Roman Polanski's The Pianist, whose simplicity and old-fashioned flavor of visuals are stunning, if not refreshing. For a movie about a Polish pianist's escape from Nazi concentration camps, there is nothing nakedly petrifying beyond the occasional scenes of, say, someone being thrown out of a third-story balcony and such. In fact, with its lack of larger-than-life imagery, a perversely romantic feeling floats through the movie: to begin with, the heart-tugging music of Chopin (Polish, but of course!) presents itself in an environment of gloom. Even the clothes, the shop fronts, the living rooms, and the sunny Polish skies look so accessibly natural they become scary.

And the actors not only sound Jewish, they look Jewish: the moment they show up in the first ten minutes of the movie, one can already feel the dangers and denouements of the next ninety minutes.

Since music is the heart of this movie, classical pieces are treated with earnest metaphor: the lead actor plays Chopin staccato in a recording studio as bombs fall around him, and he performs a truly dramatic opus, long after playing his last one, when he was discovered hiding by a sympathetic Nazi officer: imagine the symbolic ironies in this! Moreover, the movie closes with end credits over a close-up of the pianist's hands playing an atrociously difficult piece. With such breathtaking sight, never mind if one fails to follow the credits: this scene is captivating for its rarity on wide screen.

The movie becomes more meaningful in these days, when the nuclear menace of one of our neighboring countries is threatening to bring back the terrors of war (and possibly even worse). Go watch The Pianist. Be prepared to shed a few tears.