Ray Pride

Elegance, economy, grace and crushing sorrow: Those are the hallmarks of Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," a brilliant, wrenching return to form by the 69-year-old director. To watch or re-watch his fifteenth feature is to experience a genuine master at work.

Nothing seems familiar; disorientation described with exacting formal precision is one morsel of what makes this description of one Jewish man's experiences in the Warsaw ghetto under the Nazis so brilliant. Adrien Brody's turn in what is by definition a passive role--a man who must hide, a pianist who must remain silent, an artist who must carry bricks, a sensitive man who must take insults--carries not the weight of the world, but of a soul. Anyone who shivers at the idea of another depiction of the Holocaust should reconsider: a great artist at the height of his powers offers an act of witness, transferring his experiences as a child in the Krakow Ghetto to those of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman.

The tall, lean Brody is best known for brooding roles in movies like "Summer of Sam" and "Liberty Heights" and for a lead role that was tossed out by Terence Malick in the editing room for "The Thin Red Line." Brody, however, does have a comedy coming up, playing a sweetly nerdy ventriloquist wannabe in Chicagoan Greg Pritikin's "Dummy." In "The Pianist," the intensity of Szpilman's endeavors to survive as death surrounds him would be overpowering if not for Polanski's quiet, dark wit. Understatement is seldom so saddening.

Polanski's infamous legal troubles have not only kept him out of the U.S., but away from prying eyes while he shoots his films. I have to ask Brody, is Polanski funny? "He's hilarious. He is hilarious. A phenomenal sense of humor," the 29-year-old actor says.

After the ghetto's closed off, there are several scenes where Szpilman looks down as he passes a body on the street. The quiet realization: he is looking to see if it's someone he knows. But Polanski does not flag this. "I think it's probably because of Roman's own experiences and own dealings with tragedy. He's had to learn, probably, ways to not only cope but move beyond them. What's amazing about him is that for an individual, who has experienced so much loss, he is incredibly open and curious about things and giving. And funny." A pause. "He's very strong. Strong-willed. It's a really admirable quality, and something that I felt I wanted my character to possess, and I thought that he probably did possess similar strength in order to survive all that. I looked to Roman for that, I tried to absorb a lot of that, search it out."

Was it a generalized thing, like watching how he deals with others, or does he talk about the things he says he can never speak of in public? "He would share a great deal with me, for probably a number of reasons," Brody says in quiet, prudent tones. "To enlighten me about the time, but obviously there is a close relationship that develops when you work with someone on such a personal project for so long. You share a lot, you tell each other stories, ideas, dreams that you've had, memories that one thing [leads] to another. It's fantastic, if people are open. And he was open with me." A pause. "But at the same time, I did probably consciously absorb maybe more than he was aware!"

The press kit is jokey. There's an unsigned Q&A where Polanski is asked, what's it like on your sets, and he answers something like, "Oh you should have been there! It's hard to explain." "Yeah. He doesn't give much away." Brody smiles. But does he... "He's not consciously manipulating you," he says, getting my drift. "It went beyond that, way beyond that. I've worked with people like that. He's not that way at all. It's usually easy to read that, actually, and I don't respond well to that. The wonderful thing about Roman is he treated me with a high level of respect in regards to my work at all times. He had faith in me, yet I appreciated his specificity, which other people resist." Line readings? "Well... He has a vision, a specific vision. Some directors have less of a vision and are more open to an interpretation appearing. You know what I mean?" A pause. "He's quite specific. Not necessarily line readings, but he is an actor too. He has a very simple way of getting across what he wants you to say. It's not, `Imitate me,' but this is the general direction I want. Believe me, other directors do that, but it almost makes me cringe. They believe they are providing some insight, which potentially will ruin anything that I will come up with because I'm seeing some kind of very self-conscious interpretation, overly exaggerated. Polanski is extremely subtle. He searches for subtlety and simplicity in the work, and that is something I try to do in my own work."

"The Pianist" opens Friday.

(2003-01-02)

Also by Ray Pride

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Martin Scorsese and innumerable conspirators have struggled for almost three decades to produce "Gangs of New York," and yet it is a terrible movie.
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What's the smart moviegoer--or the smart filmmaker--to do? Wait for Christmas, it seems, when Hollywood's finally unembarrassed about actually having people with taste in its midst.
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Tip of the Week
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My Big Fat Night
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Perfectly mediocre
(2002-11-20)

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