The Pianist (2002 film)

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The Pianist
Directed by	Roman Polański
Produced by	Roman Polański Robert Benmussa Alain Sarde
Written by	Ronald Harwood (Screenplay) Władysław Szpilman (Book)
Starring	Adrien Brody Thomas Kretschmann
Music by	Wojciech Kilar
Cinematography	Paweł Edelman
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release date(s)	24 May 2002 (premiere at Cannes) 6 September 2002 (premiere) December 27, 2002 (limited) 3 January 2003 (wide) 24 January 2003 24 January 2003 6 March 2003
Running time	150 min.
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Pianist is a 2002 film directed by Roman Polański and starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman.

In addition to the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

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

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Production 3 Music 4 Cast & crew 5 Awards 5.1 Wins 5.2 Nominations 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Władysław Szpilman is a famous Polish Jewish pianist working for Warsaw radio, and sees his whole world collapse with the outbreak of World War II and the Invasion of Poland in September, 1939. After the radio station at which he was working is rocked by explosions, Szpilman goes home and learns that Great Britain and France have declared war on Germany. Believing the war will end quickly, he and his family rejoice at this news.

Two years go by and living conditions for the Jewish people gradually deteriorate as their rights are slowly eroded: they are allowed a limited amount of money per family, armbands imprinted with the Star of David to identify themselves, and eventually, late in 1940, they are all forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. There, they face hunger, persecution and humiliation from the Nazis and the ever present fear of death or torture. Before long, they are rounded up for deportation to the extermination facility at Treblinka. At the last moment, Szpilman is saved from this gruesome fate by one of the Jewish Ghetto Police, who happens to be a family friend. Separated from his family and loved ones, he survives, at first in the Ghetto as a slave laborer for German reconstruction units and later in hiding outside, relying on the help of non-Jews who still remember him.

When living in hiding, he witnesses many horrors committed by Nazi SS occupants such as widespread killing, beating, and burning. He also witnesses the Uprising by the Jews from the Ghetto. Eventually the SS forcibly enter the Ghetto and kill nearly all the remaining revolters.

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 nearly died due to illness and malnutrition. After the Warsaw population escaped from the ruins, and the SS occupants escaped from the approaching Russian army, he is totally alone.

In the few houses not bombed-out, he's searching desperately for food. In one instance, while he is looking for a tool for opening a can, he realizes he is actually being watched from behind by a uniformed German.

Szpilman is initially almost paralized from fear of death, due to his association of uniformed Germans with the cruelties of Nazi SS para-militaric troops hunting Jews during their occupation and deportation. However, the person he now encountered was not such a SS member, but happened to be an officer of the regular German army, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld. Hosenfeld asks the initially perplexed Szpilman to play something for him on the grand piano.

In a moving scene, we see the decrepit Szpilman, only a shadow of the flamboyant pianist he once was, give a despairing performance of Chopin's Ballade in G minor before Hosenfeld. After finishing the piece, possibly expecting that this may have been the last piece he will ever have played, he is surpised that Hosenfeld doesn't prevent him from continuing to hide in the attic of the building. The compassionate Hosenfeld even brings him food regularly; Szpilman cannot believe his luck. Whereas the fact that Szpilman was a Polish/Jewish celebrity certainly decisively contributed to his survival through the occupation and deportation phase, here Hosenfeld doesn't even know who he actually is.

Another few weeks go by, and the Germans troops are forced to withdraw from Warsaw due to the advancing Red Army troops. Only before leaving the area, Hosenfeld asks Szpilman what his name is, and, upon hearing it, remarks that it is apt for a pianist (Szpilman is a homonym for German Spielmann, or gleeman, also, "Man who plays"). Hosenfeld also promises to listen for Szpilman on Polish radio. Hosenfeld gives Szpilman his coat and leaves. Later, that coat nearly proves fatal for Szpilman when Russian (Red Army) 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 passing Jewish prisoner, a 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.

[edit] Production

The film had a personal connection for director Roman Polański, as he had himself escaped from the Krakow Ghetto as a child, and had lost his parents there.

Principal photography on The Pianist began on February 9, 2001 in Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, Germany. The Warsaw Ghetto and the surrounding city were recreated on the backlot of Babelsberg Studios 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. Soon after, the filmmakers moved to a villa in Potsdam, 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.

[edit] Music

• The piano piece heard at the beginning of the film is Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione), Op. posth.
• The piano music heard from somewhere within the abandoned house when Szpilman had just discovered a hiding place in the attic was the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. It would later be revealed that German officer Hosenfeld was the pianist. The German composition juxtaposed with the mainly Polish/Chopin selection of Szpilman.
• The piano piece played when Szpilman is confronted by Hosenfeld is Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23. Also, the version played in the movie was shortened. The entire piece lasts approximately 9 minutes.
• The cello piece heard at the middle of the film, played by Dorota, is the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1.
• The piano piece heard at the end of the film, played with an orchestra, is Chopin's Grande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22.
• Shots of Szpilman's hands playing the piano in close-up were provided by Polish classical pianist Janusz Olejniczak (b. 1952).

[edit] Cast & crew

• Adrien Brody - Wladyslaw Szpilman
• Thomas Kretschmann - Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
• Frank Finlay - Father
• Maureen Lipman - Mother
• Emilia Fox - Dorota
• Ed Stoppard - Henryk
• Julia Rayner - Regina
• Jessica Kate Meyer - Halina
• Michał Żebrowski - Jurek

Brody and Kretschman would later work together in the 2005 remake of King Kong.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Wins

• Academy Award for Best Actor - Adrien Brody
• Academy Award for Best Director - Roman Polański
• Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Ronald Harwood
• BAFTA Award for Best Film
• BAFTA Award for Best Director - Roman Polański
• César Award for Best Actor
• César Award for Best Director
• César Award for Best Film
• Palme d'Or

[edit] Nominations

• Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Paweł Edelman
• Academy Award for Best Costume Design - Anna B. Sheppard
• Academy Award for Film Editing - Hervé de Luze
• Academy Award for Best Picture
• BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography - Paweł Edelman
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role - Adrien Brody
• BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay - Ronald Harwood
• BAFTA Award for Best Sound - Jean-Marie Blondel, Dean Humphreys, Gérard Hardy

[edit] See also

• Władysław Szpilman, pianist, composer, and author of The Pianist (memoir).
• World War II — German invasion of Poland and Warsaw (1939); Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto (1943); and the later, larger Warsaw Uprising (1944).
• Wilm Hosenfeld, German officer and pianist.
• Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist, composer (Ballade No. 1 in G minor, etc.), and patriot.
• Henryk Wars, composer of song Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą.
• For other films titled The Pianist, see Pianist (disambiguation).
• List of Holocaust films

[edit] External links

• Official website
• The Pianist at the Internet Movie Database
• Władysław Szpilman information and biography

Films directed by Roman Polanski

Rower • Uśmiech zębiczny • Rozbijemy zabawę • Morderstwo • Dwaj ludzie z szafą • Lampa • Gdy spadają anioly (When Angels Fall) • Le Gros et le maigre • Ssaki • Nóż w wodzie • Les Plus belles escroqueries du monde • Repulsion • Cul-de-Sac • The Fearless Vampire Killers • Rosemary's Baby • Macbeth • What? • Chinatown • The Tenant • Tess • Pirates • Frantic • Bitter Moon • Death and the Maiden • The Ninth Gate • The Pianist • Oliver Twist • To each his cinema • Pompeii

Preceded by The Son's Room	Palme d'Or 2002	Succeeded by Elephant
Preceded by The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	BAFTA Award for Best Film 2003	Succeeded by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King