The Pianist

Fisher - The Pianist

This week we looked at The Pianist. Both the film and book version. The book is an autobiography by Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman. It is a first person telling of his time during the war. The film, directed by Roman Polanski, is a third person retelling of the story with Adrian Brody starring as Wladyslaw Szpilman. The viewer is thrust into the turmoil immediately in the opening scene of the movie. Szpilman is at the Warsaw radio station giving his final performance while the city is being besieged by the German army. Polanski's portrayal of these first moments, during the siege of Warsaw is very moving and powerful for the viewer. However, Szpilman's vivid description in his autobiography is moving on a personal level, as many of his friends and family died that day. This is an example of how we are effected through different mediums.

 The film not being first-person, the viewer is unaware of Szpilman's thoughts and is left to meerly speculate. Polanski's rendering of the book is quite moving on the other hand. A Holocaust survivor himself, Polanski has the firsthand experience to put on display the grotesque artistry of the horrors of the war. He succeeds in evoking emotions in the audience with his depictions of the atrocities Szpilman has witnessed. From the soldiers forcing the people to dance, to the executions, and pulling the broken body of the boy from under the wall, Polanski does not fail to elicit a response from his viewers.

Yet the movie is not completely true to the book. The autobiography is based on Szpilman's experiences, witnessed by his own eyes. While reading, we know of his internal struggles, how he deals with what is happening around him. It is a much more personal telling of the tale. The film version is a representation of what Szpilman saw, shown to us by Roman Polanski. An example of a major change from book to film is the scene with Wladyslaw Szpilman playing for the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld. In the film, we see Adrian Brody play the Chopin Ballade m 1 in G minor on a decently tuned parlor piano without any practice. While in reality, and as we read in the book, Szpilman played c#-minor Nocturne on an aged, unkept, out-of-tune piano without having played or practiced for 2 1/2 years. Not only that, he was also malnourished, exhausted, terrified, in no state to play the rendition that Brody's Szpilman gives for the Nazi. This is a major change between book and film. That pivotal moment when it seemed Szpilman's life is hanging in the balance and he was told to play, he choose c#-minor Nocturne an "autumnal and introspective" piece. Polanski's choosing of Chopin played at that moment could be his own artistic view of his theme for the Pianist/Holocaust.

Schindler, Wallenberg

Fisher - Schindler, Wallenberg

I have been waiting for sometime now to see the movie Schindler's List, as it is considered an icon of Holocaust cinema. Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg was the other film assigned. These films present characters that could be considered "Heros", but I look at them as regular people would made the decision to perform "heroic" deeds or actions. In the previous two films we saw characters that were simply determined to survive. John Halder and Max are in two different situations, as well as Schindler and Wallenberg. Halder a straight, German teacher and Max a gay socialite. However, with the onset of the war, they made the decision to survive regardless of the loss of family and loved ones. This was their choice, which can be looked upon as cowardly or pathetic. But due to the overwhelming circumstances, could we excuse their actions/decisions? I would say no simply because of the two men we learn of this week.

Oskar Schindler, a German business man, is the star of Schindler's List. This movie however seemed to be less about the actual plight and horror of the Jewish people and more about the glorification of this one man who saved a few lives. In reality, Oskar was a hard man with questionable motives. He saved the Jews by putting them to work in his factories. His actions were considered as heroic as he did save the lives of many Jews in Germany during the Holocaust. He even had the audacity to ask to be buried in Jerusalem "where his children are". Instead, he was buried on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi party to be treated in any such manner. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary. He did this by remaining true to his beliefs and not straying from what he considered as his path. His work allowed for the salvation of many Jews during the war. He would have continued his efforts had he not disappeared after a meeting with the Russian Malinovsky.

Good & Bent

Fisher - Good & Bent

Good, a play written by C.P. Taylor features an antihero named James Halder. He is a literary professor at Germany who has difficulties in life like any other man. These take a back seat after he joins the Nazi party. At first he can be considered the victim as he is forced into book burning and euthanasia of Jews by the SS party. At first he is the victim, however, after deciding to stay with the Nazi party, he assumes the role of the victimizer. He does this because despite his views on the Nazi's politics and proceedings and Hitler, he stays with the party due to the safety factor and is essentially is responsible for the death of millions of Jews. Instead of taking a stand for what he thought was right, he let it all happen in front of his eyes.

Bent, a play written by Martin Sherman, is about the persecution of the gays and Jews by the Nazi's during World War II. After World War I, Germany was considered a "safehaven" for gays in Europe. This all changed when the Nazi party came to power. Bent follows the story of a gay man named Max, who lives in Germany with his boyfriend Rudy. At first, Max can be seen as a victim, despite his cruelty bringing a German solider home with him to his place with Rudy. When the SS soldiers break into their home and kill the German solider, Max and Rudy are forced to flee. Now Max takes on a different role, he victimizes Rudy on the train by denying his sexuality and not helping him while he is being beaten, Max even helps beat Rudy, who dies on the train. Later, in concentration camp, he denies his love for Horst despite their true feelings toward each other. After Horst is shot by the guards, Max puts on a jacket with a pink triangle (signifying that he is in fact gay) and commits suicide by grabbing the electric fence, a victim of himself.

 In Night there is no blurring of the victim and the victimizer. Elie Wiesel is the victim from the beginning of the story, along with the rest of his people. The victimizers are the Nazi's who subjugate and kill the Chosen People. Elie can be seen as a victimizer when referring to his feelings toward his dad, yet despite his feelings they support each other and Elie helps his father struggle until the very end. However, when his father is on his death bed he cries out for Elie, who never responds. Elie went to sleep that night only to wake up and find his father gone.

 So we see that sometimes the lines between the victim and the victimizer can be blurred. Sometimes (in Good & Bent) it is difficult to tell one from the other. Other times it is very simple to point out who is the victim in each situation. In reference to Good & Bent, one should be true to oneself and stand for what is right despite any circumstances.

Elie Wiesel: Discussing Indifference

Fisher - Elie Wiesel: Discussing Indifference

Night is a retelling of Eliezer Wiesel's journey as a 15 year old Jew living through the Holocaust. His survival allows for this retelling which has opened the eyes of so many individuals. It is a blessing that he survived, as he provides a first-hand witness to the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust. His account, is one of many that is needed and necessary in order that we never forget what happened during that time. It is an account of human failure, struggle, and strife that should never be shelved nor forgotten. This is why Elie Wiesel is deserving of his Nobel Prize, he bears witness to a bloody, horrific past that every person should be   conscience of and held accountable for.

Night begins on the eve of the war reaching Elie's town of Sighet, toward the end of 1942. The people were warned of the war crimes being performed by the Nazi's in concentration camps by Moishe the Beadle, yet they ignored his pleas. For Elie, the ensuing journey through the ghettos and camps, being separated from his mother, and the death of his father, caused him to shut down. He became completely "indifferent" to his surroundings and walked the borders of reality, insanity, and death. It was not until two weeks after he was liberated that he was able to look in the mirror and greet a complete stranger that he would be forced to carry in his chest and in his eyes, until the day he died.

 What stands out in Wiesel's Nobel Price Acceptance Speech and in his speech for Clinton's Millennial Lectures is his description and awareness of indifference. He says during his Millennial speech,

"Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten"

 Indifference works for the enemy, who is crime to humanity. By doing nothing, turning away, or simply rejecting these crimes we are in a sense helping the enemy. No man or woman should stand aside and allow for genocides like the Holocaust or mass starvation of the Kulaks by Stalin go unchecked. By doing nothing, the enemy has already won. Simply wasting one minute of time with our heads turned, allows for the waste of another life. And in that sense, every single life should be treasured; because one man/woman can make a difference, and Elie Wiesel is a perfect example.