A holocaust movie that chronicles the survival of a concert pianist. It’s another one of those movies that makes you appreciate how good we have it. I think watching too many of this kind of movie too close together puts one at risk of depression instead of appreciation, though. This was a little soon after City of God for us to see human life degraded and indiscriminately destroyed again. It makes me wonder how important it is to face the horrors of the world vicariously now and then. Does it do more to inspire us to fight for our humanity or make us feel sick and powerless? I guess both can happen. I don’t mean to make the movie sound hopeless – it is a survival story where beauty and music prevail in the end. It does a very good job of portraying the length of the years in between, though.