The Pianist
Director: Roman Polanski
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.0
If you intend, as a director, to take part in the now flooded discourse regarding World War II it would be best to have something different to say about it other than the one flimsy concept Polanski has that art transcends race, ideology and time and that unlike man, it cannot be destroyed. But the first two acts seem to revel in the depravity of the Nazis by torturing children, shooting civilians in the street, selecting women to rape, humiliating the crippled and displaying in detail countless other whippings, beatings, etc. - I was waiting for a scene where some soldier strangles a lost puppy and dangles the corpse in front of a fatally-ill senior-citizen. Adrien Brody is really good, considering, but come on: only one 'kind' 'fair' soldier among millions? Oh, wait: it's because we get to see the photo of him and his family on his desk - none of the other Nazis must have had children or wives or a taste for classical music.
