The Pianist (2002 film)

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"Le Pianiste" redirects here. For the 2001 French film originally titled La Pianiste, see The Piano Teacher (2001 film).

The Pianist
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRoman Polanski
Screenplay byRonald Harwood
Produced byRoman Polanski
Robert Benmussa
Alain Sarde
Gene Gutowski
StarringAdrien Brody
Thomas Kretschmann
Frank Finlay
Maureen Lipman
Emilia Fox
Michał Żebrowski
CinematographyPaweł Edelman
Edited byHervé de Luze
Music byWojciech Kilar
Frederic Chopin
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Universal Studios
Release dates
  • 24 May 2002 (2002-05-24) (Cannes)
  • 6 September 2002 (2002-09-06) (Poland)
  • 27 December 2002 (2002-12-27) (US)
  • 6 March 2003 (2003-03-06) (UK)
Running time
150 minutes
CountriesTemplate:Film France
Template:Film Poland
Template:Film Germany
Template:Film UK
LanguagesEnglish
Polish
German
Russian
Budget$35 million
Box office$120,072,577

The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman. The film is a co-production between Poland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The film met with significant critical praise and received multiple awards and nominations. At the 75th Academy Awards, The Pianist won Oscars for Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood) and Best Actor (Adrien Brody). The film was also nominated for four other awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The film was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival,[1] BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Direction in 2003 and seven French Césars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Brody.

Plot

In 1939, Władysław Szpilman, a Polish Jewish pianist, has his radio station rocked from German bombing with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Hoping for a quick victory, Szpilman and Agterberg rejoice with family at home when learning that Britain and France have declared war on Germany. However, German forces capture Warsaw. Soon, living conditions for the Jews deteriorate, as they are allowed a limited amount of money and later must wear armbands with the Star of David. By November 1940, they are forced into horrid and humiliating conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto, where Szpilman's family witness an SS group raid an opposite apartment and kill everyone there.

Soon the family are rounded up for deportation to the extermination camp at Treblinka but Szpilman is saved by a friend in the Jewish Ghetto Police. Szpilman becomes a slave labourer working on the "Aryan" side, where he survives a random mass execution and learns of a coming uprising and helps by smuggling weapons into the ghetto, narrowly avoiding a suspicious guard. He manages to escape and go into hiding with help from non-Jewish friend Andrzej Bogucki and his wife. In 1943, Szpilman observes the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from his window near the ghetto wall. A year goes by and Szpilman is forced to flee after a neighbor discovers him. In a second hiding place provided to him, he is shown into a room with a piano but forced to keep quiet, and suffers jaundice.

In August 1944, Polish resistance mounts the Warsaw Uprising, attacking a German building across the street. A German tank shells his apartment and he is forced to flee and hide elsewhere as fighting rages around. Warsaw is destroyed and emptied of the population and Szpilman, entirely alone, searches desperately for supplies. He sleeps in an empty hospital and eventually makes his way to an abandoned home where he finds a can of pickles. While trying to open it he is discovered by Wehrmacht captain Wilm Hosenfeld who learns that he is a pianist and asks him to play on the grand piano in the house. The decrepit Szpilman plays Ballade in G-Minor, Op. 23, which moves Hosenfeld, who then allows Szpilman to hide in the attic of the building and regularly brings him food. As the German Army is forced to retreat due to the advance of the Red Army, Hosenfeld meets Szpilman for the last time and promises to listen to him on Polish Radio. He gives Szpilman his greatcoat to keep warm and leaves, which is almost fatal for Szpilman when he is shot at by Polish troops liberating Warsaw, who apprehend him and realize he is Polish.

Freed prisoners of a concentration camp pass an enclosure of German prisoners of war guarded by Soviet soldiers, and hurl abuse at them. Hosenfeld, now a prisoner, asks a violinist if he knows Szpilman, which the violinist confirms. Szpilman is visited by the violinist, who takes him to the site. However, all the prisoners have vanished along with any trace of the enclosure. Later, Szpilman performs Chopin's Grand Polonaise brillante to a large and prestigious audience. An epilogue states that Szpilman died at the age of 88 in 2000, while Hosenfeld died in Soviet captivity in 1952.

Production

The story had deep connections with director Roman Polanski because he escaped from the Krakow 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.

Joseph Fiennes was Polanski's first choice for the lead role, but he turned it down due to a previous commitment to the theatre. Over 1,400 actors auditioned for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman at a casting call in London. Unsatisfied with all who tried, director Roman Polanski sought to cast Adrien Brody, whom he saw as ideal for the role during their first meeting in Paris.

Filming

Principal photography on The Pianist began on 9 February 2001 in Studio Babelsberg 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 2 March 2001, filming then moved to an abandoned Soviet army hospital in Beelitz, Germany. The scenes that featured the Germans destroying the hospital with flame throwers were filmed here. On 15 March, filming finally moved to Babelsberg Studios. The first scene shot at the studio was the scene in which Szpilman witnesses a resistance mounted 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 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 in Warsaw.

Principal photography ended in July 2001, and was followed by months of post-production, which took place in Paris, France.

Critical reception

The film received extremely positive reviews from critics and Brody's performance was met with near universal acclaim. As of 14 January 2011, The Pianist holds a score of 96% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.[2] With over 171,000 votes and an average of 8.5, it currently holds the 51st place in the IMDB top 250.[3] Metacritic rates the movie as 85% based on 40 reviews.[4]

Roger Ebert noted that "perhaps that impassive quality reflects what 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."[5]

Home release

The film was released on DVD on 26 May 2003 in a double-sided disc Special Edition DVD, with the movie on one side and special features on the other.. Some Bonus Material included a making-of, interviews with Brody, Polanski, and Harwood, and clips of Szpilman playing the piano. Polish DVD edition included audio commentary track (in Polish) by production designer Starski and director of photography Edelman.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the film on HD-DVD on 8 January 2008 with extras comprising the featurette "A Story of Survival" and rare footage of the real Wladyslaw Szpilman playing his piano, as well as additional interviews with Adrien Brody and other crew.

Optimum Home Entertainment released The Pianist to the European market on Blu-ray as part of their StudioCanal Collection on 13 September 2010[6] and this is the film's second release on Blu-ray. The first was troublesome due to issues with subtitles: the initial BD lacked subtitles for spoken German dialogue. Optimum later rectified this[7] but the initial release also lacked notable special features. The StudioCanal Collection version includes an extensive Behind the Scenes look as well as several interviews with the makers of the film and Szpilman's relatives.[8]

Music

Further information: The Pianist (soundtrack)
  • 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 piece that is heard being played by a next door neighbour while Szpilman was in hiding at an apartment was Chopin's Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4.
  • The piano music heard in 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 9–10 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 voiced over by recordings performed by Janusz Olejniczak. In order for Brody's playing to look like it was at the level of Władysław Szpilman's, he spent many months prior to and during the filming practicing so that his keystrokes on the piano would convince viewers that Brody himself was playing. It was never specified whether or not it was actually Adrien Brody playing at certain points in the film, such as the beginning where Władysław Szpilman's playing is interrupted by German bombing.

Awards and nominations

Wins
Nominations

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Festival de Cannes: The Pianist". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  2. ^ The Pianist on RottenTomatoes.com
  3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253474/
  4. ^ The Pianist on Metacritic.com
  5. ^ "The Pianist". Chicago Sun-Times.
  6. ^ "StudioCanal Collection". Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  7. ^ "Problems with initial BD release". Retrieved 1 August 2010.
  8. ^ "The Pianist on BD". Retrieved 1 August 2010.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Goya Award for Best European Film
2002 		Succeeded by
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