In September 1939, Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist, is playing live on the radio in Warsaw when the station is bombed during Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Hoping for a quick victory, Szpilman rejoices with his family at home when he learns that Britain and France have declared war on Germany, but the promised aid does not come. Fighting lasts for just over a month, with both the German and Soviet armies invading Poland at the same time on different fronts. Warsaw becomes part of the Nazi-controlled General Government. Jews are soon prevented from working or owning businesses, and are also made to wear blue Star of David armbands.
By November 1940, Szpilman and his family are forced from their home into the isolated and overcrowded Warsaw Ghetto, where conditions only get worse, with food shortages leading to starvation, and the constant threat of SS brutality. Szpilman manages to find work by performing in a cafè frequently visited by upper-class Jews. On one occasion, he sees a young boy being savagely beaten by an SS guard while trying to crawl through a gap in the ghetto wall; the boy is dead by the time Szpilman is able to pull him through. On another occasion, Szpilman and his family witness the SS kill a family in an apartment across the street during a round-up, including throwing an elderly wheelchair-bound man from a window three stories high.
On 16 August 1942, Szpilman and his family are about to be transported to Treblinka extermination camp as part of Operation Reinhard. However, a friend in the Jewish Ghetto Police recognizes Szpilman at the Umschlagplatz and separates him from his family. He later becomes a slave labourer, and learns of a coming Jewish revolt. He helps the resistance by smuggling weapons into the ghetto hidden inside bags of food, on one occasion narrowly avoiding a suspicious guard. Szpilman eventually manages to escape, and goes into hiding with help from a non-Jewish friend, Andrzej Bogucki and his wife Janina, who provided him an apartment to hide.
In April 1943, Szpilman watches from his window as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which he aided, unfolds, and then ultimately fails. After a neighbor discovers Szpilman and attempts to persecute him, he flees the apartment and meets his old friend Dorota and her husband, who provides him with another hiding place. The new apartment has a piano in it, but he is compelled to keep quiet since the apartment is located in a German area. Szpilman begins to starve and eventually suffers from jaundice after being abandoned by a member of the Polish resistance who previously supplied him food.
By August 1944, Szpilman recovers and witnesses the Warsaw Uprising taking place. The Home Army attacks the Schutzpolizei building across the street from the apartment, while Szpilman's hideout is destroyed by a German tank shell, forcing him to flee and hide in an abandoned hospital. Over the course of the following months, Warsaw is destroyed.
Upon noticing German troops burning the hospital with flamethrowers, Szpilman escapes and wanders through the ruins. He reaches an empty house where he finds a can of pickled cucumbers. While trying to open the can, Szpilman is discovered by Wehrmacht officer Wilm Hosenfeld, who learns that he is a pianist. He asks Szpilman to play on a grand piano in the house. The decrepit Szpilman manages to play Chopin's "Ballade No. 1". Hosenfeld lets him hide in the attic of the house, which is used as his center of operations, and supplies food for him.
In January 1945, the Germans are retreating from the Soviet offensive. Hosenfeld meets Szpilman for the last time, promising he will listen to him on Polish Radio after the war. Hosenfeld leaves Szpilman with a large supply of food and his greatcoat to keep warm. After Warsaw is liberated, Szpilman narrowly survives an ambush by People's Army troops who mistook him for a German.
In Spring 1945, former Nazi concentration camp inmates pass by a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp holding captured Wehrmacht soldiers and verbally abuse them; one lamenting over his former career as a violinist. Hosenfeld, being one of the prisoners, walks up to the violinist and asks if he knows Szpilman which he confirms and he requests Szpilman to rescue him. The violinist later brings Szpilman back to the site but it is abandoned.
After the war, Szpilman resumes his career at the Polish Radio, where he performs Chopin's "Grand Polonaise brillante" to a large prestigious audience. An epilogue notes that Szpilman died in 2000 at the age of 88, whereas Hosenfeld died in 1952, still in Soviet captivity.
The story had deep connections with director Roman Polanski because he escaped from the Kraków Ghetto as a child after the death of his mother. He ended up living in a Polish farmer's barn until the war's end. His father almost died in the camps, but they reunited after the end of World War II.[10]
Joseph Fiennes was Polanski's first choice for the lead role, but he turned it down due to a previous commitment to a theatrical role.[11] Over 1,400 actors auditioned for the role of Szpilman at a casting call in London, but Polanski was unsatisfied with all who tried. Eventually, Polanski watched Harrison's Flowers (2000), and then Polanski decided to offer Adrien Brody the leading role during their first meeting in Paris.[12][13]
Filming
Mała Street in Warsaw's Praga-Północ district used for filming of The Pianist
The first scenes of the film were shot at the old army barracks. Soon after, the film crew moved to a villa in Potsdam, which served as the house where Szpilman meets Hosenfeld. On 2 March 2001, filming then moved to an abandoned Soviet military hospital in Beelitz, Germany. The scenes that featured German soldiers destroying a Warsaw hospital with flamethrowers were filmed there. On 15 March, filming finally moved to Babelsberg Studios. The first scene shot at the studio was the complex and technically demanding scene in which Szpilman witnesses the ghetto uprising.[14]
Filming at the studios ended on 26 March, and moved to Warsaw on 29 March. The rundown district of Praga was chosen for filming because of its abundance of original buildings. The art department built onto 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 extermination camps was filmed at the National Defence University of Warsaw.[15]
Principal photography ended in July 2001, and was followed by months of post-production in Paris.[13]
The piano piece that is heard being played by a next door neighbour while Szpilman was in hiding at an apartment is also an arrangement of Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą.
The piano music heard in the abandoned house when Szpilman had just discovered a hiding place in the attic is the Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata) by Beethoven. It was later 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 in G minor, Op. 23, but the version played in the movie was shortened (the entire piece lasts about 10 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 performed by Polish classical pianist Janusz Olejniczak (b. 1952), who also performed on the soundtrack.
Since Polanski wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, any scene showing Brody playing was actually his playing, overdubbed by recordings performed by Olejniczak. In order for Brody's playing to look like it was at the level of Szpilman's, he spent many months prior to and during the filming practising so that his keystrokes on the piano would convince viewers that Brody himself was playing.[16]
Reception
Critical response
The Pianist was widely acclaimed by critics, with Brody's performance, Harwood's screenplay, and Polanski's direction receiving special praise. On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 185 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and dramatically moving, The Pianist is Polanski's best work in years."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, noting that, "perhaps that impassive quality reflects what [director Roman] Polanski wants to say. ... By showing Szpilman as a survivor, but not a fighter or a hero—as a man who does all he can to save himself, but would have died without enormous good luck and the kindness of a few non-Jews—Polanski is reflecting ... his own deepest feelings: that he survived, but need not have, and that his mother died and left a wound that had never healed."[19]
Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune said that the film "is the best dramatic feature I've seen on the Holocaust experience, so powerful a statement on war, inhumanity, and art's redemption that it may signal Polanski's artistic redemption". He later said that the film "illustrates that theme and proves that Polanski's own art has survived the chaos of his life—and the hell that war and bigotry once made of it".[20]
Richard Schickel of Time magazine called it a "raw, unblinkable film", and said that, "We admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies."[21]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the film "contains moments of irony, of ambiguity, and of strange beauty, as when we finally get a look at Warsaw and see a panorama of destruction, a world of color bombed into black-and-white devastation". He also said that, "In the course of showing us a struggle for survival, in all its animal simplicity, Polanski also gives us humanity, in all its complexity."[22]
A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that Szpilman "comes to resemble one of Samuel Beckett's gaunt existential clowns, shambling through a barren, bombed-out landscape clutching a jar of pickles. He is like the walking punchline to a cosmic jest of unfathomable cruelty." He also felt that "Szpilman's encounter, in the war's last days, with a music-loving German officer, "courted sentimentality by associating the love of art with moral decency, an equation the Nazis themselves, steeped in Beethoven and Wagner, definitively refuted".[23]
The Pianist was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on DVD in the US on 27 May 2003 in a double-sided disc Special Edition, with the film on one side and the featurette "A Story of Survival" on the other. The making-of featurette included interviews with Brody, Polanski, and Harwood, and clips of Szpilman playing the piano.[24] The Polish DVD included an audio commentary track by production designer Starski and director of photography Edelman.
Universal released the film on HD-DVD on 8 January 2008 with the featurette "A Story of Survival".[25]
Optimum Home Entertainment released The Pianist to the European market on Blu-ray as part of their StudioCanal Collection on 13 September 2010,[26] the film's second release on Blu-ray. The first release was troublesome due to issues with subtitles; the initial BD lacked subtitles for spoken German dialogue. Optimum later rectified this,[27] but the initial release also lacked notable special features. The StudioCanal Collection version includes the featurette "A Story of Survival", as well as several interviews with the makers of the film and Szpilman's relatives.[28]
Shout Factory released the film on Blu-Ray in the US for the first time on 13 July 2021.[29]
The film was completely restored in 2023 from the original negative by StudioCanal and DI Factory, with the assistance of the film's cinematographer Pawel Edelman.[30] It was released on 4K UHD by StudioCanal in Germany on 21 September 2023, in France on 27 September 2023 and in the UK on 2 October 2023.
See also
Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw – Szpilman was one of the most notable persons to remain in Warsaw after its destruction by the Nazis and before its liberation by the Red Army in January 1945.
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański is a French and Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, ten César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d'Or.
Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29, becoming the youngest actor to win in that category. He also became the second American male actor to win the César Award for Best Actor for the same film. He has starred in several other films and has received several other awards including nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
The Pianist is a memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman in which he describes his life in Warsaw in occupied Poland during World War II. After being forced with his family to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman manages to avoid deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp, and from his hiding places around the city witnesses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising the following year. He survives in the ruined city with the help of friends and strangers, including Wilm Hosenfeld, a German army captain who admires his piano playing.
Władysław Szpilman was a Polish-Jewish pianist, classical composer and Holocaust survivor. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on his autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw. In the film, he is portrayed by American actor Adrien Brody.
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld, originally a school teacher, was a German Army officer who by the end of the Second World War had risen to the rank of Hauptmann (captain). He helped to hide or rescue several Polish people, including Jews, in Nazi-German occupied Poland, and helped Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman to survive, hidden, in the ruins of Warsaw during the last months of 1944, an act which was portrayed in the 2002 film The Pianist. He was taken prisoner by the Red Army and died in Soviet captivity in 1952.
A pianist is someone who plays the piano.
Umschlagplatz was the term used during The Holocaust to denote the holding areas adjacent to railway stations in occupied Poland where Jews from ghettos were assembled for deportation to Nazi death camps. The largest collection point was in Warsaw next to the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1942 between 254,000 – 265,000 Jews passed through the Warsaw Umschlagplatz on their way to the Treblinka extermination camp during Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the Holocaust in Poland. Often those awaiting the arrival of Holocaust trains, were held at the Umschlagplatz overnight. Other examples of Umschlagplatz include the one at Radogoszcz station - adjacent to the Łódź Ghetto - where people were sent to Chełmno extermination camp and Auschwitz.
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews. The ghetto was later used as a staging area for separating the "able workers" from those to be deported to extermination camps in Operation Reinhard. The ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants deported to the Belzec extermination camp as well as to Płaszów slave-labor camp, and Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres (37 mi) rail distance.
Andrzej Szpilman is a Polish dentist, composer, music producer, publisher, and son of the pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman.
Janusz Olejniczak is a Polish classical pianist and actor.
Aleksander Michałowski was a Polish pianist, pedagogue and composer who, in addition to his own immense technique, had a profound influence upon the teaching of pianoforte technique, especially in relation to the works of Chopin and J.S. Bach, and left this legacy among a large number of pupils.
Daniel Vnukowski is a Polish Canadian pianist and classical music broadcaster.
Jerzy Waldorff-Preyss of the Nabram coat of arms was a Polish media personality, public intellectual, socialite, music critic and music aficionado. He wrote over twenty books, mostly on the subject of classical music and society. Waldorff is known as "the last baron of the Polish People's Republic".
The Nocturne No. 20 in C♯ minor, Op. posth., Lento con gran espressione, P 1, No. 16, KKIVa/16, WN 37, is a solo piano piece composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1830 and published in 1875.
The term Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw refers to Poles who, after the end of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the subsequent planned destruction of Warsaw by Nazi Germany, decided to stay and hide in the ruins of the German-occupied city. The period of hiding spanned as long as three and a half months, from the day of the capitulation of the uprising, October 2, 1944, until the entry of the Red Army on January 17, 1945. The hideaways lived in the ruins of houses, basements, and bunkers which had been prepared ahead of time. They lived in extremely dire circumstances, while the city was being destroyed around them. Some managed to escape Warsaw, many were captured and killed by the Germans, while others survived until the withdrawal of German troops.
Andrzej Bogucki was a Polish television, stage and film actor, as well as operetta singer and songwriter, sometimes referred to as "The Polish Chevalier".
Josima Feldschuh was a Polish pianist and composer of Jewish origin. Feldshuh was considered a child prodigy.
Czesław Lewicki was a Polish composer. He has been recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations for his efforts to rescue the Polish-Jewish composer Władysław Szpilman during the Holocaust in Poland.
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