The Pianist

8.2

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Original title: The Pianist (Le Pianiste)
Year: 2002
Running time: 148 min.
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Roman Polanski
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood (Book: Wladyslaw Szpilman)
Music: Wojciech Kilar
Cinematography: Pawel Edelman
Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Maureen Lipman, Ed Stoppard, Emilia Fox, Frank Finlay, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer
Producer: Co-production United Kingdom-France-Poland-Germany;
R.P. Productions, Heritage Films, Studio Babelsberg, Runteam Ltd
Genre: Drama | II World War. Nazism. Holocaust. Music. Biography. Historical
Synopsis / Plot: The film is adapted from the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who detailed his survival during World War II. A composer and a pianist, he played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. During the brutal occupation, he eluded deportation and remained in the devastated Warsaw ghetto. There, he struggled to stay alive even when cast away from those he loved. He would eventually reclaim his artistic gifts and confront his fears, with aid from the unlikeliest of sources.

Awards: 2002: 3 Oscar: Best Director, Actor (Adrien Brody), Adapted Screenplay. 7 Nominations

2002: Golden Globes: 2 Nominations: Best Picture and Actor Drama (Adrien Brody)

2002: Cannes Film Festival: Palme d´Or (Golden Palm)

2002: 2 BAFTA Awards : Best Film and Director. 7 Nominations, including Best Actor

2002: 7 Cesar Awards including Best Movie, Actor, Director. 10 Nominations

2002: European Film Awards: Best Cinematography. 4 Nominations

Show 7 more awards

2002: Critics' Choice Awards: Nominated for Best Picture and Best Director

2002: Directors Guild of America (DGA): Nominated for Best Director

2002: Screen Actors Guild (SAG): Nominated for Best Actor (Adrien Brody)

2002: Chicago Film Critics Awards: 3 Nom., including Best Picture & Director

2002: 3 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, incl. Best Film & Best Director

2002: David di Donatello Awards: Best Foreign Film

2002: Goya Awards: Best European Movie

Critics' reviews

"A portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"

Peter Travers: Rolling Stone
"The Holocaust has been the subject of many films. The Pianist is one of the great ones (...) Polanski's subjective approach takes us gradually into the horror"

Mick LaSalle: SFGATE
"One of the very few nondocumentary movies about Jewish life and death under the Nazis that can be called definitive"

A. O. Scott: The New York Times
"The movie lacks those specific personal moments that pull an audience into a story and let them identify with a character"

Kirk Honeycutt: The Hollywood Reporter
"One of Polanski's best films"

Richard Roeper: Ebert & Roeper
"[It] refuses to turn Szpilman's survival into a triumph and records it primarily as the story of a witness who was there, saw, and remembers (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: rogerebert.com
"Polanski succeeds in making his hero an invisible man, but the sights he conjures are surprisingly artless and ordinary, familiar from a dozen other Holocaust dramas."

Scott Tobias: AV Club
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