The Pianist by Roman Polanski
Key words/ phrases:
holocaust narrative
relocation to the ghetto
survival dominating living
W.R.T. VISUAL NARRATIVE
minimum dialogue - relies on visuals
Click here to read synopsis
Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine lauds the film, saying, “We admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies.”
The Pianist is NOT a cookie-cutter tear-jerking holocaust film. It is silencing, shocking, horrifying, quiet, truthful, hopeful, objective and riveting and will permanently alter your notions of people of the Holocaust. This film is an ode to pure chance, as is explained by the tagline of the film, “Music was his passion; Survival was his masterpiece” which fits Wladyslaw Szpilman’s life story perfectly. Just as in a symphony a number of separate runs contribute to a harmony, numerous truly fortunate and random series of events led to his continued survival.
Szpilman is not a conventional hero. He is not a knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress. He is not a passionate revolutionary. He is not a kamikaze vengeful righteously angry young man. No; Szpilman is a man in shock, a reactionary individual whose sole aim is to survive his godforsaken odds. He is a protagonist, not a hero – and there lies the beauty of the “crew” of the film. Polanski and Adrian Brody brilliantly portray how a common man, with a will to survive and aided by pure chance and the courage and goodness of others, made it out of the Holocaust alive, and continued as a functional human being in spite of all that he experienced – all his torturous efforts at a normal life, witnessing the horrifyingly pointless death of so many around him, survivor’s guilt, fear of discovery, acute hunger and starvation, loneliness, illness and wartime perils.
Cinematography is brilliantly executed in the film through interesting play of contrasts between light and dark, warm and cold, noise and quiet. Brody is a master, truly deserving the Oscar he won for this role – he perfectly captures the ragged edges, sorrows, indifference and simple pleasures in life( (for instance the taste of jam after months of starvation) of Szpilman. The crowning glory of this film is the scene where Szpilman interprets Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor. Tears of joy do not suffice – one must weep for sheer elation, relief and secondhand gratitude.
List of people who helped Szpilman, in order:
1. Majorek (helps father get working papers) (later helps him escape into the city)
2. Itzak Heller (yanks him out of the line)
3. Janina and husband (take him to:
4. Gebczynski (man with the Polish resistance) (hides him for one night then takes him to vacant apartment where he must live silently, on smuggled food)
5. Dorota (directs him to the "care" of Szalas)
6. Szalas (supposed "caretaker")
7. Captain Wilhelm Hosenfeld (helps him survive, allowing him to continue hiding in the attic even after the house is established as the Captain's headquarters)
Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine lauds the film, saying, “We admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies.”
The Pianist is NOT a cookie-cutter tear-jerking holocaust film. It is silencing, shocking, horrifying, quiet, truthful, hopeful, objective and riveting and will permanently alter your notions of people of the Holocaust. This film is an ode to pure chance, as is explained by the tagline of the film, “Music was his passion; Survival was his masterpiece” which fits Wladyslaw Szpilman’s life story perfectly. Just as in a symphony a number of separate runs contribute to a harmony, numerous truly fortunate and random series of events led to his continued survival.
Szpilman is not a conventional hero. He is not a knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress. He is not a passionate revolutionary. He is not a kamikaze vengeful righteously angry young man. No; Szpilman is a man in shock, a reactionary individual whose sole aim is to survive his godforsaken odds. He is a protagonist, not a hero – and there lies the beauty of the “crew” of the film. Polanski and Adrian Brody brilliantly portray how a common man, with a will to survive and aided by pure chance and the courage and goodness of others, made it out of the Holocaust alive, and continued as a functional human being in spite of all that he experienced – all his torturous efforts at a normal life, witnessing the horrifyingly pointless death of so many around him, survivor’s guilt, fear of discovery, acute hunger and starvation, loneliness, illness and wartime perils.
Cinematography is brilliantly executed in the film through interesting play of contrasts between light and dark, warm and cold, noise and quiet. Brody is a master, truly deserving the Oscar he won for this role – he perfectly captures the ragged edges, sorrows, indifference and simple pleasures in life( (for instance the taste of jam after months of starvation) of Szpilman. The crowning glory of this film is the scene where Szpilman interprets Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor. Tears of joy do not suffice – one must weep for sheer elation, relief and secondhand gratitude.
List of people who helped Szpilman, in order:
1. Majorek (helps father get working papers) (later helps him escape into the city)
2. Itzak Heller (yanks him out of the line)
3. Janina and husband (take him to:
4. Gebczynski (man with the Polish resistance) (hides him for one night then takes him to vacant apartment where he must live silently, on smuggled food)
5. Dorota (directs him to the "care" of Szalas)
6. Szalas (supposed "caretaker")
7. Captain Wilhelm Hosenfeld (helps him survive, allowing him to continue hiding in the attic even after the house is established as the Captain's headquarters)
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