Roman Polanski - TVA / Lion's Gate "The Pianist"

( aka "Der Pianist" or "Pianista" or "Le Pianiste" )

directed by Roman Polanski
France 2002

"Based upon Wladyslaw Szpilman's autobiography of his years spent in hiding during World War II, `The Pianist' brings this remarkable true tale of endurance to life.

Roman Polanski's `The Pianist' represents another powerful chapter in the Holocaust film genre. A searing, often staggering portrait of survival, the film takes the position of the outsider looking in, much like Polanski's recent position in filmmaking circles. `The Pianist' is Polanski's strongest work in decades, showcasing a filmmaker who appears to be fully capable again after years of stumbling around trying to find a focal point (`Death and the Maiden,' the under appreciated `The Ninth Gate`). The film is an even bigger triumph as these tales of horror and despair continue to be made with alarming regularity, with each new entry into this genre often better than the previous. Two months ago, Tim Blake Nelson's `The Grey Zone' marched into theaters and pummeled audiences with its bleak direction and relentlessly theatrical dialog. `The Pianist' is a much more lucid look at the WWII experience, with Polanski's direction humane and psychologically eruptive, though not lacking for one second in graphic depictions of Nazi extremes. Yet, with a director who has such a wealth of experience and classics (`Chinatown,' `Rosemary's Baby') behind him, `The Pianist' is a more assured picture than `Zone,' or any other recent Holocaust film."

Excerpt from the unemployed Critic on Imdb

Posters

Theatrical release : May 24th, 2002 - Cannes Film Festival

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DVD Review: TVA / Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Ole of DVD-Basen for all Screen Caps!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	TVA / Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	2:22:37
Video	1.80:1.00 Letterboxed WideScreen / anamorphic Average Bitrate: 6.77 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
Bitrate:
Audio	English DD 5.1 / DTS 5.1 (768kbps) / French 5.1
Subtitles	French and none (German language in the movie is subtitled in English and French and is not removable)
Features	Release Information: Distributor: Lion's Gate Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.80:1 DVD Release Date: May 27th, 2003 Keep Case Chapters: 24	Edition Details: Disc 2: • "A Story of Survival" (39:28) • 3 trailers (1:31) (1:20) (1:27) • 8 TV spots • Poster / photo gallery • 2 Samples from CD soundtrack • Soundtrack TV Spot • Director's Notes (Text) • 12 Q & A with Roman Polanski (Text) • The Warsaw Ghetto (Text) • About Szpilman (Text) • Biography and Filmography of • Cast and Crew.
Comments:	From many sources we have been con firmed that this disc suffers from the similar type of "blurred ghosting" (see capture #1) that New Yorker discs have been accused of. This results from poor PAL to NTSC transference. I also see a shade of edge enhancement in the building capture and the blacks are rather heavy. NOTE: - it is a PAL transfer converted to NTSC - it therefore cannot be played progressively - it will not play smoother on PAL equipment; although it is sourced from PAL, it has been converted to NTSC and cannot be converted back - the ghost frames are a bi-product of the 25fps->30fps conversion; they cannot be removed, and have been encoded as part of the transfer It's a travesty really. You get everything bad about NTSC (lower resolution) and everything bad about PAL (speed-up) combined, with none of the benefits (NTSC should be progressive, PAL should be higher resolution) Good Extras on the disc, but I would wait for a better version if I were you.. . out of

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The Films in My Life by Francois Truffaut, Leonard Mayhew	French Cinema: A Student's Guide by Philip Powrie, Keith Reader	Agnes Varda by Alison Smith	Godard on Godard : Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard	Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson	Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2) by James Quandt	The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau	French New Wave by Jean Douchet, Robert Bonnono, Cedric Anger, Robert Bononno	French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present by Remi Fournier Lanzoni	Truffaut: A Biography by Antoine do Baecque and Serge Toubiana