The Pianist

[Tim]

I was out today at the video store when I came upon The Pianist. It was for sale, 10 bucks. I'd already seen it of course and decided to pick it up for the hell of it.

 

After watching it a second time, it had an incredibly deep impact on me. Perhaps it's because the first time I watched it, I was out of my mind on pain killers. Never the less, I was blown away. I thought Adrien Brody was brilliant.

 

Your thoughts on the film?

[Kumquat]

I thought it was excellent and the story made me cry. I never really understood how bad the Haulocost was until I saw the movie.

[S.E. Hardy]

It was amazing. I loved it. And while I FULLY understand why he got the Oscar for his performence, I have no shame in admitting that I wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to win. But Adrien Brody was SO happy when he won, and DD-L has won one before, so...

[HoboFactory]

Prior to seeing this movie I figured it it would be just another rip-off of Schindler's List, not to mention the backdrop of WW2 has been done do death with films, I did want to see it but I wasn't expecting much. So When I actually saw it, I was amazed. They made a WW2 and Holocaust film original and moving by showing it from a side that nobody's all that aware of.

[eeleye]

It was very moving. Brody delivered a stellar performance, and beside conveying some of the harsh realities of WWII, the piano pieces played were brilliant.

[lcpja]

I thought the movie was great. Adrian Brody deserved the oscar.

 

I heard that Brody learned the piano pieces. If that's true...it's awesome!!!

Edited September 4, 2004 by lcpja

[zebrahead]

This is probably my favorite movie ever. Very touching. You actually felt the horror of the awful situation. Adrian Brody truly deserved the Oscar.

[Poprocks]

I thought it was great, one of my favourite movies of all time. I was really psyched when I saw that he won the Oscar that year.

[juanpe]

I really liked the movie, i got really shocked by some images and some stories and how sad the situation was... Brody was awesome in the movie, and his role was fantastic

 

it's been the most realistic movie i have ever seen touching the topic of Nazism and so attached to what really happened

 

I also got the DVD, it is one of the movies I wanna have at home

[weezle]

I'm not ashamed to say that movie made me cry.

 

I think it's so powerful because everyone really cared about it. For starters, Roman Polanski was the director. And Brody *REALLY* took the part to heart.

 

Some of the info found at imdb:

 

Adrien Brody lost 14 Kilograms for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman by eating a daily diet of two boiled eggs and green tea for breakfast, a little chicken for lunch, and a small piece of fish or chicken with steamed vegetables for dinner, over a six week period. Initially his weight was 73 Kilograms.

 

During the shooting of the movie, while scouting locations in Krakow, Roman Polanski met a man who had helped Polanski's family survive the war.

 

In order to connect with the feeling of loss required to play the role, Adrian Brody got rid of his apartment, sold his car, and didn't watch television.

 

The scene in which Wladyslaw Szpilman is saved from going to the concentration camps and is told "Don't run!" is inspired by a similar event in director Roman Polanski's life.

 

Proceeds from the Amsterdam, Netherlands premiere were donated to the Anne Frank House.

 

 

 

And although it wasn't listed on imdb, I believe that Brody did in fact learn most of the songs, but when you see just the hands (normally during the harder songs) it's a professional pianist.

 

A good buy to go along with the movie is a cd I found at Wal-Mart: "Music Inspired By The Pianist". It's all original recordings of Wladyslaw Szpilman. Simply beautiful.

[HoboFactory]

Almost makes you forget that Polanski's a pervert.

[S.E. Hardy]

I'm not ashamed to say that movie made me cry.

GOOD!! I bawled--I mean BAWLED for 15 minutes after watching 'Schindlers List' last week. I was un-fucking-done. It broke my heart in so many beautiful ways.

 

I didn't cry when I saw 'The Pianist', but my sister did.