13 Intense Movie Performances That Are Incredibly Difficult To Watch
5. Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Despite a very varied career - and some less than impressive decisions - in the 12 years since The Pianist was released to a tide of critical acclaim, Adrien Brody is still considered an accomplished, dependable actor because of the raw brilliance of his performance as Wadysaw Szpilman.
Gifted incredible material, and one of the most important stories to tell in cinema, Brody's haunting performance as the titular pianist is an enchanting, despicable ordeal punctuated by unimaginable horrors that remain completely relatable because of Brody, and the direction of Roman Polanski. Never attempting to preach, Polanski instead decided to strip his story back to visceral flashpoints, turning Brody into a walking stripped nerve and putting him through inconceivable horrors in the name of telling a bigger, horribly true story.
Brody's performance is a haunting walking allegory for the plight of his character's whole people, and the difficulty in watching him comes not just from the True Story label, but also from the fact that at some point in human history people just like us either helped, or didn't do enough to hinder the same happening to millions of people.