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Info about the movie
Title: The Pianist
Year: 2002
Genre: Drama, War
Duration: 148 minutes

Won 3 Oscars: Best Actor in Leading Role, Best Director*, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay

*The director is Roman Polanski who was still a fugitive back then. Recently he was arrested in Switzerland for the crime he committed about 30 years ago.

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To be honest I wasn't that interested in this movie when I bought it. A World War 2 story about a Polish pianist didn't appeal to me that much, mostly because it sounded quite predictable to me. But I found it somewhere where it was on sale and 3 Oscars plus a rating of 8.5 on imdb convinced me to buy it.

After watching it, I gotta admit that there isn't really much to say about this movie. It was pretty well made, but it didn't really exceed any expectations. Basically the summary written on the back of the DVD case says it all.

I'll try to translate:
On the 23rd of September 1939, a young pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) plays "Nocturne in d-minor" from Chopin on the Polish radio while the Germans bomb Warsaw. Half an hour after the performance is finished, the building of the Polish radio station is hit and the radio channel is from then on off the air.

The consequences of the German occupation that followed are terrible for the inhabitants of Warsaw: The ghetto, the Jewish rebellion, the deportations. While all of his friends and family are being murdered, Szpilman survives in the ruins of his beloved city.

Oddly enough, he does not only get help from Polish resistance members, but also from the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann).

If this sounds interesting to you in any way, then go watch it and you won't be disappointed.

Personally I am not such a big fan of emotional war-dramas though so I didn't enjoy it that much. I have to admit that it was well made, but seeing how well this movie was received I was hoping for a bit more than just the average war-story. Alas, it didn't bring anything new that I haven't seen already. Like it doesn't really have anything new to offer when it comes to storytelling and it doesn't give any new insights about the war and how people suffered from it either. In that sense the movie disappointed me a little. But again, if the description above sounds appealing to you than I would advice you to watch it.