A Pure Formality ( Una Pura Formalita') (1994)

It's a far cry from Tornatore's masterpiece Cinema Paradiso. Here he takes a different approach using a twist ending. I just didn't really like the twist. I was guessing it was kind of Shutter Island-ish but it was a slightly different twist. There are some good things about the movie though. This is a two-hander, with both Gerard Depardieu and Roman Polanski giving excellent performances. One minor quirk I don't understand is why they speak French but all the on-screen text is in Italian. The production design gives you a miserable feeling, making you feel uncomfortable (and damp as the rain is incessant and the police station is leaking and flooding all over).

The Pianist (2002)

As a classical pianist myself, Roman Polanski's depiction of a Jewish musician struggling to survive through the Holocaust really resonated me.  The film prominently features Chopin's Ballade No. 1, a favorite of mine that I have performed in the past.  Adrien Brody plays (or pretends to play) the piece, along with other pieces by the Polish virtuoso, convincingly.

I would like to compare this film with The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, the Oscar-winning documentary short.  The documentary depicts the beauty of music amid the horrors of the Holocaust.  It was music that helped the victims persevere.  The Pianist, historically accurate, is based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's autobiography.  On the contrary, he hides in quiet, denied the healing power of music even when he sits right in front of a piano.  When he plays for the patrons of a cafe, his music is ignored.  The movie is heartbreakingly powerful--but don't mistaken it for a movie about music, it is a movie about a musician, a survivor.