The Pianist
I saw it today. This is one beautiful and totally award deserving movie I have seen in quite some time.
Adrien Brody was captivating and very lovely to watch. Sensitive. Piano playing on the most part was good and well matched with the music - the parts that I'm assuming were him as opposed to the hand-double. He had such scope and range of emotion it was...
..well deserving of the best actor Oscar this year. Admittedly I (still) haven't seen all the actor's work that was nominated, but I'm guessing that Adrien Brody's performance totally kicked their asses somewhere far, far away.
The cinematography wasn't breathtaking, as this wasn't one of those films where you can say "Oh wow, that looked lovely" because you're seeing bombed buildings in war-torn Warsaw, but there was a great deal of substance with it all. The shots were done with such care and mastery that they totally supported everything else that was going on: the actor's performances and everything. Polanski mastery. *nods*
Usually I take films that feature fighting and whatnot fairly well - violence doesn't bother me so much when depicted on film, however, some areas of the film had me quite unnerved and teary-eyed. The depiction of Nazi war crimes and just the indiscriminate killing really caught me in the heart and mind.
And the music...*sigh* Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor, in the contexts of the film is totally haunting. Szpilman (the concert pianist whom the film is about) was playing this piece on Polish radio when the bombing commenced, and it was the piece that he plays (whilst in hiding) for a German officer later on in the film.
The soundtrack is quite nice too - some nice original clarinet music in there.
Am very glad that they decided to get Brody a piano teacher to atleast make him fairly proficient and look right with what he is doing - you all would remember the issues that I have with QAF's Ethan who can't mime violin playing to save himself. Well, Brody can mime piano very well...I'm making assumptions here based on what would be the hand-double and what would not.
Anyway. If you haven't seen it, go to the cinemas and see it before it ends it's run. Must see. Beautiful film. Truly beautiful.
Adrien Brody was captivating and very lovely to watch. Sensitive. Piano playing on the most part was good and well matched with the music - the parts that I'm assuming were him as opposed to the hand-double. He had such scope and range of emotion it was...
..well deserving of the best actor Oscar this year. Admittedly I (still) haven't seen all the actor's work that was nominated, but I'm guessing that Adrien Brody's performance totally kicked their asses somewhere far, far away.
The cinematography wasn't breathtaking, as this wasn't one of those films where you can say "Oh wow, that looked lovely" because you're seeing bombed buildings in war-torn Warsaw, but there was a great deal of substance with it all. The shots were done with such care and mastery that they totally supported everything else that was going on: the actor's performances and everything. Polanski mastery. *nods*
Usually I take films that feature fighting and whatnot fairly well - violence doesn't bother me so much when depicted on film, however, some areas of the film had me quite unnerved and teary-eyed. The depiction of Nazi war crimes and just the indiscriminate killing really caught me in the heart and mind.
And the music...*sigh* Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor, in the contexts of the film is totally haunting. Szpilman (the concert pianist whom the film is about) was playing this piece on Polish radio when the bombing commenced, and it was the piece that he plays (whilst in hiding) for a German officer later on in the film.
The soundtrack is quite nice too - some nice original clarinet music in there.
Am very glad that they decided to get Brody a piano teacher to atleast make him fairly proficient and look right with what he is doing - you all would remember the issues that I have with QAF's Ethan who can't mime violin playing to save himself. Well, Brody can mime piano very well...I'm making assumptions here based on what would be the hand-double and what would not.
Anyway. If you haven't seen it, go to the cinemas and see it before it ends it's run. Must see. Beautiful film. Truly beautiful.