June 29th
The Pianist*** Fra/Ger/GB/Pol 2002. RP/Heritage/Studio Babelsberg/Runteam/Canal+/Telewizia Poland. 150m.

In 1939 a renowned Jewish pianist has his life turned upside down by the Nazis, loses his family to the extermination camps, but survives the war hiding in the remnants of the ghetto thanks to a sympathetic German officer.
Grim but powerful and brilliantly observed Holocaust memoir given vivid treatment by Polanski, himself a Holocaust survivor, who avoids any autobiography (which would have been too painful), but instead looks at another survivor's story with that detached form of sadism that is prevalent through much of his other work. In its way, less sentimental and much more authentic than Schindler's List.

Written by: Ronald Harwood, from the book by Wladyslav Szpilman.
Producers: Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde, Roman Polanski.
Director: Roman Polanski.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Fox, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer.
Photography: Pawel Edelman.
Music: Wojciech Kilar.
Producstion Design: Allan Starski.