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The Pianist (film)

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The Pianist is a 2002 film directed by Roman Polański and starring Adrien Brody. The film was adapted from the memoir of Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman. In addition to the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Oscars for Directing, Lead Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

Tagline: Music was his passion. Survival was his masterpiece.

Contents

Plot summary

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Władysław Szpilman, a famous Polish Jewish pianist working for the Warsaw radio, sees his whole world collapse with the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland. The year is 1939 and the nightmare is just beginning. After the radio station at which he was working is rocked by explosions, Szpilman goes home to learn on the radio that Great Britain and France have declared war on Germany. Believing the war will end quickly, he and his family rejoice at this news and wonder when all of this will be over.

Years go by and living conditions for the Jewish people gradually deteriorate as their rights are slowly eroded: they now have a limited amount of money permitted per family, armbands to identify themselves, and eventually, late in 1941, they are all forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. There, they face hunger, humiliation from the Nazis and the ever present fear of death or torture. Before long, they are rounded up for deportation to concentration camps. At the last moment, Szpilman is saved from this gruesome fate by a family friend. Now, separated from his family and loved ones, he survives, at first in the Ghetto as a slave laborer for German reconstruction units and later outside, relying on the help of non-Jews who still remember him.

When living in hiding, he witnesses many horrors committed by the Nazis such as widespread killing, beating, and burning. In one memorable scene he witnesses the Uprising by the Jews from the Ghetto. In the end the Germans manage to enter the Ghetto and kill nearly all the remaining fighters.

A year goes by and life in Warsaw has further deteriorated. The Polish resistance mounts another unsuccessful Uprising against the German occupation. Warsaw was virtually levelled and depopulated as a result. On more than one occasion, Szpilman has come near to death. Now, miserable and weak, he is more likely to starve to death than to die by the weapons of the Nazis.

Searching the ruins of a bombed-out house, Szpilman tries to find something to eat. After a frantic search, he finds a can of pickled cucumbers. Unfortunately, he does not have a can-opener with which to open it. After another search, he finds some tools, a shovel and a metal pike by the fireplace, and begins to open the can. Just as he starts, he realizes he is being watched by a German officer. Frozen in fear, he drops the can. The German officer is named Captain Hosenfeld, and he immediately intuits that Szpilman is a Jew. He asks what he is doing, and Wladyslaw meekly answers that he is trying to find something to eat. He also says that he is a pianist, and Hosenfeld leads him to a piano and asks him to play something. In a moving scene, we see the decrepit Szpilman, only a shadow of the flamboyant pianist he once was, perform Chopin's despairing "Ballade in G minor" before a surprisingly empathetic Hosenfeld. After finishing the piece, a touched Hosenfeld hides him in the attic of the building. Before leaving him, Hosenfeld asks Szpilman what his name is, and, upon hearing it, remarks that it is apt for a pianist. Hosenfeld regularly brings him food so he can survive. Szpilman cannot believe his luck.

Another few weeks go by, and the Germans are forced to withdraw from Warsaw due to the advancing Red Army troops. Hosenfeld gives Szpilman his coat and leaves with his company. The coat nearly proves fatal for Szpilman when Soviet troops, liberating what remains of Warsaw, mistake him for a German officer and shoot at him. He is able to convince them that he is Polish and they stop shooting. When harshly asked why he's wearing a German officer's coat, the haggard Szpilman simply replies, "I'm cold."

When a nearby concentration camp is liberated, Captain Hosenfeld and other Germans are captured. Hosenfeld begs a Jewish musician to contact Szpilman to free him. Szpilman, who has gone back to playing live on Warsaw radio, arrives at the site too late; all the prisoners have been removed along with any trace of the stockade. In the movie's final scene, Szpilman triumphantly performs Chopin's "Grand Polonaise Brillante in E flat major" to a large audience in Warsaw. Title cards shown just before the end credits tell us that Szpilman died in 2000 and Hosenfeld in 1952 in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp.

Production

Brody with Polański on the set in Warsaw, Poland.
Enlarge
Brody with Polański on the set in Warsaw, Poland.
Principal photography on The Pianist began on February 9, 2001 in Babelsberg Studios in Germany. The filming of the movie required the re-creation of the Warsaw Ghetto and the surrounding city. Although the war left the city in ruins, most of it had been rebuilt with very few parts of it suitable for filming. On the backlot of Babelsberg Studios the streets of Warsaw were re-created as they would have looked during the war. Old Soviet army barracks were used to create the ruined city, as they were going to be destroyed anyway.

The first scenes of the film were shot at the old army barracks and soon after moved to a villa in Potsdam, Germany, which served as the house where Szpilman meets Hosenfeld. On March 2, 2001 filming then moved to an abandoned Soviet army hospital in Belitz, Germany. Here the scenes where the Germans destroy the hospital with flame throwers was filmed. On March 15 filming finally moved to Babelsberg Studios. The first scene shot at the studio was the scene Szpilman witnesses a mounted resistance by the Jews from the Ghetto, which is eventually ended by the Nazis. The scene was complex and technically demanding as it involved various stunts and explosives. Filming at the studios ended on March 26 and moved to Warsaw on March 29. The rundown district of Praga was chosen for filming because of its abundance of original buildings. The art department built on to these original buildings, re-creating World War II–era Poland with signs and posters from the period. Additional filming also took place around Warsaw. The Umschlagplatz scene where Szpilman, his family and hundreds of other Jews wait to be taken to the concentration camps was filmed at a local Military Academy.

Principal photography ended in July 2001, and was followed by months of post-production, which took place in Paris, France, where Polański was born and now resides.

Cast & crew

Trivia

Awards

Won

Nominated

See also

External links

 

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