I watched "The Pianist" over the weekend. What a great film! I'm happy that "Chicago" won for best picture at the Oscars, but "The Pianist" is an extraordinarily good movie. Adrien Brody gave the perfomance of a lifetime and deserved his best actor award. The film depicts life in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II as seen through the eyes of a gifted young pianist. His struggle for survival and those around him is captivating. Adrien reminded me of a younger John Malkovich or Jeremy Irons at the beginning of the war. The character is quite intelligent and moves and acts with a certain grace and sense of class. As the war proceeds and conditions become move dire, he reminded me of Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy". He becomes dishevelled with more cunning and street smarts. There's a definite sense of desperation that accrues. The humiliation heaped upon the Jews by the German soldiers was eye-opening. It makes one wonder how one would react under such circumstances. I have a friend named Todd who reminded me of the character played by Adrien. It made me think how Todd would have responded to conditions had he lived in that time and place. He probably would have had the wisdom to know that surviving would be the ultimate revenge. The man upon whom the character is based died in 2000 at the age of 88.