One of the things Wladyslaw Szpilman did to survive while hiding out in Warsaw during World War II was to mentally go over, note by note and bar by bar, every piano composition he had ever learned.

The story of the Jewish concert pianist's singular experience during the occupation of Poland is told in The Pianist, Roman Polanski's award-winning film about survival against impossible odds.

No embellishment is required to make Wladyslaw Szpilman's story spellbinding. One of the only members of his family to survive the war, the pianist was able to hide in Warsaw and avoid the deportation and certain death afforded the Jewish population -- and this despite once having been already loaded onto a cattle car with other Jews from the city. Time after time, luck was on Szpilman's side, and he eventually was even hidden and saved by a German officer.

The Pianist is a story told with the sort of detail that takes large historical truths and gives them personal, emotional impact. Polanski manages an understated style that keeps Szpilman fully human even as it underlines the extreme horror of what the man experiences.

And Adrien Brody brings the character so fully to life that you may leave the movie hungry for a lot more information about Szpilman's entire life story.

As George Santayana said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to learn a glossy version of it through hyperinflated, blockbusterish American movies, and this, fortunately, is not one of them. The Pianist does not hesitate to at least attempt to answer the obvious questions -- such as -- what were the Polish people thinking and doing while the large Jewish population of their major city was literally being imprisoned in the ghetto? And like that.

In concentrating on one man's experience, The Pianist offers an unusually clear picture of the war and the times. It is not a pretty picture; as the entire era is seemingly unknown to young North Americans, it seems necessary to say that.

The Pianist is based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoirs. The oddest thing about his story is that once the war was over, Szpilman continued living in Warsaw for the rest of his long life. You'd think after what he witnessed, he'd never want to see the city again. And you'd be wrong, apparently.

The Pianist won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year.

(This film is rated AA)

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