movie review - The Pianist
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Toronto, 2003.07.05
This is a movie about a Pianist in Poland named "Spielman" who escapes a Nazi round-up as the Jewish Warsaw ghetto is being dismantled. He spends the remainder of the film either in isolation in an apartment or as the Russians arrive simply scrambling to survive. At first he is supported by well-wishers who remember his music from The Before Times. But then when a scammer takes over his "care" he is left to rot. And then of course history kicks into high gear and it's time for the city to be flattened.
I really liked this film. It was tense, it was despairing, it was bleak. And it was set and shot in a particular way so you can practically feel the ruin coming.
Strongly recommended.