The times in history when humankind is most oppressed coincide with those times when the human instinct for survival reaches new heights. It's this instinct that forms the focus of Roman Polanski's Oscar-nominated picture "The Pianist." Based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the film depicts the nationally renowned pianist's struggle to survive in Warsaw during Nazi occupation.
The film is neatly split into two halves. The first half follows Szpilman (Adrien Brody)'s trials during the initial Nazi invasion and his subsequent life in the Warsaw ghettos, from the early years of Nazi occupation until the day his family is sent to a concentration camp.
In the second half, Szpilman, separated from his family but still living in Warsaw, escapes a brief internment in a labor camp there and is forced to move from one secret apartment to another throughout the city as he seeks to stay beneath Nazi radar.
The film focuses on the oppression of Jews from a very internal perspective; the only news spoken of is what Warsaw residents can hear on the radio.
Likewise, the only realization of Nazism is that depicted specifically by the film. As such, the picture focuses specifically on the dehumanizing behavior of Nazi soldiers toward Warsaw's Jews, vividly dwelling on the small-scale inhumanities inflicted on all half-million of them.
Szpilman is depicted as an almost unaffected observer throughout the ordeal, his fame and talent allowing him to maintain a small degree of prestige even while living in the ghetto. His fame plays a crucial role in separating him from his family, for it is as they are being shipped off to their unknown destination that he is snatched out of the crowd and saved.
From here on, the film focuses on Szpilman's struggle for survival within Nazi Warsaw. The film's historical depiction of Nazi horrors draws to a close here, and it focuses instead on Szpilman's clandestine life, during which he survives starvation, sickness and numerous close calls.
During this part of the film, Polanski's pacing is a bit off. Rather than focusing on the fast-paced hustle-bustle and crowds of the first half of the film, Polanski is content merely to watch Szpilman persist. That means from its midpoint to its dramatic climax, the film rests solely on Brody's performance.
Unfortunately, after about the fourth or fifth time Szpilman's searches through an apartment or burnt-out house for food and water, the viewer is ready for some significant plot development. The movie's more than two-and-a-half-hour length becomes all too noticeable.
Length aside, the film is one of the most powerful of the year. Polanski's technical mastery and cinematographer Pawel Edelman's masterful use of lighting are paramount, despite the fact that the film is shot in the dreary grays and browns of war. At one point, Szpil-man and other Jewish prisoners are momentarily allowed to travel outside of their confines, and the colors that await them in Warsaw's marketplace surprise the viewer as much as they do the prisoners.
Throughout the film, the camera remains at an intentionally long distance. Reflecting the film's depiction of Szpilman as the passive onlooker, the camera allows the images of war speak for themselves rather than resorting to cinematic showiness.
In a similar manner, for a film about a musician, the score is delightfully understated. Often the most powerful moments of the film are accompanied by a silence more poignant than most music could hope to be. The sparse score highlights Szpilman's role as the bringer of music, and it is within the sounds of war and the film's narrative silence that Szpilman finds solace -- and ultimately, salvation -- in his art.
Within Polanski's disturbingly relevant depiction of the barrenness of war and Brody's moving portrayal of a man's physical and emotional struggles, one of the most important characters is never seen but only heard: the film is as much about Szpilman's relationship with his countryman, the great Frederic Chopin, as it is about his relationship with his nation or religion.
In fewer words, the film is about an artist being redeemed by his art -- and Polanski's portrayal has a poignancy shared by only a handful of films.
