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Amazon.co.uk Review
Winner of the prestigious Golden Palm award at the 2002 Cannes film festival, The Pianist is the film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike any previous dramatization of the Nazi holocaust, The Pianist steadfastly maintains its protagonist's singular point of view, allowing Polanski to create an intimate odyssey on an epic wartime scale, drawing a direct parallel between Szpilman's tenacious, primitive existence and the wholesale destruction of the city he refuses to abandon. Uncompromising in its physical and emotional authenticity, The Pianist strikes an ultimate note of hope and soulful purity. As with Schindler's List, it's one of the greatest films ever made about humanity's darkest chapter. --Jeff Shannon
DVD Description
The Studio Canal Collection presents... Based on a true story, The Pianist tells the story of a brilliant Polish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Academy Award ® Winner, Adrien Brody), a Jew, who escapes deportation to the German detention camps during World War II. Forced to live in the heart of the Warsaw ghetto, he shares the humiliation and the struggles of the occupation whilst hiding in the ruins of the capital. From acclaimed director Roman Polanski, who won an Oscar for the film, as did Ronald Harwood, for his script.
Special Features:
- Original Trailer
- A story of survival: behind the scene of the pianist
- Interview with writer Ronald Harwood
- Interview with Andrzej Szpilzman
- Interview with Daniel Szpilzman
Special Features:
- Original Trailer
- A story of survival: behind the scene of the pianist
- Interview with writer Ronald Harwood
- Interview with Andrzej Szpilzman
- Interview with Daniel Szpilzman
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Unlike the previous reviewer, I have decided to go for the Full Monty and give "The Pianist" a 5 star rating. The film is a biopic of the talented Jewish pianist Wladislaw Szpilman ,set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw throughout World War Two. The full scale of the persecution of the Polish Jews during this period is laid bare, as verbal abuse turned to physical assault, dehumanisation , ghettoisation and ultimately extermination."The Pianist" is the story of Szpilman's personal experience of these times as he is thrown from the cosseted surroundings of his prime time slot playing Chopin on Polish Rundfunk into the grim surroundings of the Warsaw ghetto with all its deprivation,uncertainty and terror.As he gets separated from his family and friends, a primeval and astonishing lust for survival consumes Szpilman as he faces all manners of peril."The Pianist" is a gripping film from beginning to end with Adrien Brody playing Szpilman with great skill and emotion as chaos and confusion engulf his well ordered life. It is as harrowing, but not as graphic as "Schindlers List" , but it captures perfectly the demonic nature of the Nazis and the sense of dread and terror that surrounded their occupation. However I rated "The Pianist" so highly because of the thread of metaphysical symbolism that ran through it. Szpilman and his music were the corporeal expression of the human spirit, perhaps even of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by an almost supernatural hate, forced into hiding , stalked by terror, but never extinguished.
49 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Director Roman Polanski had much personal history to draw on, when he directed "The Pianist." He spent his own childhood in Poland, and escaped from the Krakow Ghetto, although his mother, and other family members, perished in the Holocaust. Polanski makes this his most personal and powerful film to date, and deservingly won the Academy Award Oscar for Best Director.
"The Pianist" is the agonizing story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's survival of the Nazi's destruction of Polish Jewry.
"The Pianist" is the agonizing story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's survival of the Nazi's destruction of Polish Jewry.
The film begins in 1939, with Szpilman playing Chopin on the piano for Radio Warsaw, as the Germans bomb the city, and finally force him to stop playing. History has documented well what happened in Warsaw over the following two years - the Jewish ghetto was constructed and settled, racial laws were written and enforced, people died of starvation, illness, or Nazi murder. Then the "resettlement" roundups began. Szpilman was waiting at the Umshagplatz to be deported to Treblinka, with his family, when fate seemingly intervened, and he was spared. His survival story is a different kind of hell than others that I have seen or read about. Szpilman watches the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and subsequent destruction, from the outside, looking in. Usually, accounts of the Jewish uprising are from former fighters, or survivors, who were inside the ghetto at the time. I can only wonder if Szpilman longed to join his fellow Jews and fight the Nazis, rather than remain in his solitary apartment overlooking the ghetto, with his own end unknown.
The story is told from a uniquely unsentimental point of view. I felt at times that Szpilman, brilliantly portrayed by Adrien Brody, had distanced himself from all emotion, except for the periods when he played the piano in his imagination, and listened to music in his head. Perhaps this detachment was the mechanism that allowed him to survive emotionally.
The well-written screenplay, by Ronald Harwood, was adapted from Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoirs published in 1946. During some of the movie's most emotional parts, there are amazing camera shots of snow falling, or leaves blowing across an empty street, or the snow covered ghetto ruins that look like the end of the world, with the only sound - Chopin's piano music. These film takes add emotion to the film, compensate for, and contrast well with Szpilman's emotional isolation.
There is a haunting scene, near the film's end, with Szpilman and a German officer, that still moves me to tears when I think about it.
The film is a remarkable in its sensitivity, and portrayal of one man's struggle to survive. I highly recommend it.
JANA
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The Pianist is one of those films that you watch and for some time afterwards there is an ache as you remember the horror and sadness suffered by those portrayed. This could and should be a life-changing film but we too often forget as the ache wears off. This is a terrible waste. Watch this film and do not let the memories fade - in fact, buy it and watch it frequently. If there is one good way for us to realise what we have in life it is to see such films as this.
Adrien Brody goes way beyond a performance and the film way beyond a movie. It is a masterpiece. I will never forget it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
How can I rate it?
My response to this review has to be brief and simple. I have not yet received "The Pianist", purchased on 9th March, over five weeks ago. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Pete Abrams
The Pianist
Another of my favourite films, I forget how many times I have watched it but always recommend to friends this is another one I buy as a gift for friends who enjoy this type of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by JTFox
The Pianist DVD
The DVD in itslef is very harrowing.
That said, three quarters of the way in, the dvd quality was very bad and almost 'unviewable' - normal service was resumed just before the... Read more
That said, three quarters of the way in, the dvd quality was very bad and almost 'unviewable' - normal service was resumed just before the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jennifer Carter
The Pianist DVD
For anyone remotely interested in the plight of the Jews under the Nazis, this DVD is an absolute must. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bernie Boy
Hmmm
Long winded film you have to really get into the story to watch this as its very slow paced, but still a good film.
Published 2 months ago by Gigi
A good film
THE PIANIST.this was an unusually good film with the atmosphere that was good to watch .The story was inspiring and showed what people went through during this time.
Published 2 months ago by russia lpool
Doppleganger!
A deeply authentic, incredibly harrowing film, exceptionally well made. I thoroughly recommend it. The one problem I had with it was that Adrien Brody looks remarkably like the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Monk
DVD The Pianist
DVD arrived promtly and was well packaged. We haven't watched this yet but I have every confidence it will be fine.
Published 4 months ago by henry
Pretty good and that's about it
I liked this film but I did not think it was that good. Kudos for portraying Szpilman as just an ordinary man. Read more
Published 5 months ago by katyn1940
A very moving, enthralling film
The talented Jewish pianist, Wladislaw Szpilman (1911-2000), is the central character in this absorbing film by Roman Polanski who had plenty of personal and family experience on... Read more
Published 6 months ago by RR Waller
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