Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Pianist Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 2, 2021

Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002) opens in the headquarters of a Warsaw radio station where Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) performs a Chopin Nocturne. The blast from a bomb crashes the windows and forces the station's producers to flee down the stairs. This doesn't hinder Wladyslaw from continue his playing. It's only till he basically gets whisked off the bench that he's forced to leave. It is 1939 in Poland where a cadre of Nazis are occupying the streets of Kraków. Wladyslaw and his well-off Jewish family are cautiously optimistic that neighboring allies can ward off the Germans. But one evening their hopes are dashed when they view from across the way Nazis heaving a man in a wheelchair off the ledge of a high-rise. Itzak Heller (Roy Smiles) visits Wladyslaw to see if he'd like to join him in the Jewish Service Police. Wladyslaw declines essentially because he wants to continue playing the piano in public places such as a local Jewish beau monde. The Germans round up more Jews, whom they require to wear Star-of-David armbands and bow to them. Before long, more than 500,000 Jews are escorted to the Warsaw Ghetto. As Wladyslaw's parents and siblings are brought to freight trains where they'll be transported to Treblinka, Itzak steps and grabs the pianist. Wladyslaw remains in the inner city where he'll work as a slave laborer and get shuffled from apartment to apartment.

Wladyslaw practices to take his mind off the war.

In his book on Polanski, film scholar James Morrison calls The Pianist among the Polish auteur's "least personal films...little of the trenchant grotesquerie or macabre, demonic wit" that characterize many of his other films are present here. On the one hand, I understand Morrison's observation that Polanski's stylistic trademarks and irreverent humor are absent from this film. But on the other hand, like Szpilman, Polanski is also a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and his cinematic vision is doubtlessly informed by his own experiences as much as they are by Szpilman's. The movie is often tense to watch and at other times, exhausting to sit through as Wladyslaw nearly wastes away. But Adrien Brody's rail-thin figure keeps plodding along, demanding us to stay with him on an epic journey of survival.

Note: I've seen The Pianist twice and had a hard time telling the difference between Dorota (Emilia Fox), a blonde cellist, and Janina (Ruth Platt), a blonde singer, but they are separate characters.

The Pianist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout Select has released The Pianist on Blu-ray for the first time in the US on this BD-50 (disc size: 45.94 GB) using the MPEG-4 AVC encode. Polanski's sixteenth feature appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. In a post-Oscars issue in American Cinematographer, cinematographer Pawel Edelman stated that he employed digital timing in post to de-saturate the colors rather than try the photochemical techniques of bleach-bypass and ENR. That washed-out look, which I can remember seeing in the theater, is visible on this 2K-scanned print. All indications are that this is the same transfer that was used for the 2007-08 HD DVD editions (VC-1 codec) in the UK & US and the European Blu-rays put out by StudioCanal and Universal (MPEG-4 codec).

In the same AC interview, Edelman says that much of the filming relied on natural light but after the Nazis take over, his camera crew used diffused, bounced light from 20K lamps to simulate the sunlight through windows (see Screenshot #s 10 and 17). This older DI transfer has some white speckling that shows up in the interiors of the Szpilman apartment but it's mostly free of other blemishes. Shout has encoded the central feature at an average video bitrate of 30000 kbps. My video score is 3.75/5.00.

The 150-minute film comes with Shout's usual twelve chapter marks.

The Pianist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (2742 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo dowmix (1809 kbps, 24-bit). Dialogue is spoken in English, German, and Russian. For non-English words, white English subtitles automatically appear on screen (see Screenshot # 24). Delivery is clear and crisp. Bombings rumble along the satellite speakers. Gunshots also give the surrounds good activity. In addition to the Chopin Nocturnes, there are also pieces by Bach and Beethoven. Polanski's semi-frequent composer, the most unfortunately late Wojciech Kilar, wrote a short score comprised of somber tones that underly the dramatic action well.

Shout also includes an optional subtitle track of English SDH.

The Pianist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Story of Survival: Behind-the-Scenes of The Pianist (39:45, 480i) - this featurette from Universal Studios Home Video, which initially appeared on the 2003 Universal DVD, contains interviews with the filmmakers and cast members on the set of The Pianist. We hear from producer/director Roman Polanski, co-producer Gene Gutowski, producer Robert Benmussa, screenwriter Ronald Harwood, production designer Allan Starski, costume designer Anna Sheppard, cinematographer Pawel Edelman as well as actors Adrien Brody and Thomas Kretschmann. All interviewees speak in English, not subtitled. Archival photographs appear courtesy of Stroop Report IPN Warsaw. All clips shown in 1.33:1.

• Interview with Screenwriter Ronald Harwood (21:33, 480i) - Harwood recalls the circumstances in which he was sent Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir, The Pianist, and the process he followed in adapting it into a screenplay. He also speaks about collaborating with Polanski, who would swap jokes with Harwood in the midst of developing grim material. Harwood also touches on working with Polanski on Oliver Twist. The interview was conducted in the mid-2000s. In English, not subtitled.

• Interview with Andrzej Szpilman, Son of Wladyslaw Szpilman (31:08, 480i) - Szpilman remembers the interest film producers had in his father's writings about the Warsaw Ghetto several years after the war ended when it was in manuscript stage. (Andrzej Szpilman didn't waste any time in recounting them on paper.) Szpilman discusses Polanski's scenic choices in the movie and how those were both similar and different from his father's book. Additionally, he broaches his dad's reluctance to share his wartime experiences and the universality of suffering that all Jews encountered, whether they were in the ghetto or interned in the camps. His comments about Captain Wilm Hosenfeld extend beyond what the movie shows. Szpilman is relatively soft-spoken and the mic attached near his suit's lapel doesn't amplify his voice that well. While Szpilman speaks in English, I wish that Shout had included an option for subtitles.

• Interview with Daniel Szpilman (2:36, 480i) - Daniel is the grandson of Wladyslaw Szpilman and this interviewed was conducted on location during filming of The Pianist. Daniel briefly speaks about what it was like to appear in a movie about his grandfather, how he came to know about his story, his observations of Adrien Brody, and Polanski's direction. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:27, 480i) - a post-festival trailer for The Pianist displayed in widescreen, albeit with interlaced video.

The Pianist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Pianist was nominated for seven Oscars and won three, including gold statuettes for Brody and Polanski. It's bereft of melodrama and sentimentality, a rarity for a Holocaust drama of this scale. Polanski chooses to keep his narrative in the streets of Warsaw and leaves the unspeakable to the viewer's imagination. But this is keeping to the book and Wladyslaw Szpilman's own experiences. Shout Select's transfer is struck from an older master, which looks quite good but could use some cleanup, perhaps for a 4K restoration. Shout has rounded up extras from the Universal DVD and some of the BD versions, although it lacks Laurent Bouzereau's 2011 documentary, Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, which is on the Arthaus/Studio Canal DE Special Edition. While not the definitive package for The Pianist, this modestly budgeted release from Shout Select earns a SOLID RECOMMENDATION.