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.