“The Pianist” (2002) is a survival story. A duality of survival stories actually, that when married result in a film that is considered one of the most important recent films to address the Holocaust. Although it is the protagonist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s story that unfolds on screen, more central to the success of the film is the director Roman Polanski’s story.
Born to a Jewish father and Russian mother, Polanski was raised Roman Catholic. Shortly before World War II, his parents moved from Paris to his father’s Polish homeland and eventually the family was forced into a Krakow ghetto. At age 8, Polanski managed to escape the ghettos and survived the remainder of World War II wandering the Polish countryside, living with a variety of Catholic families. His parents however were less fortunate. Both were evacuated to concentration camps. His mother was killed in Auschwitz.
When Polanski first read Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoirs, he knew he had to turn the Holocaust survivor’s story into a film. “I knew how to tell it… It is a positive account, full of hope,” Polanski said. It’s hard to believe anyone could maintain emotional distance while making such a harrowing film – especially in this case, when the story so closely mirrors the horrific events of the director’s own childhood – but Polanski manages with artistry and integrity.
Polanski focuses on Szpilman’s story. It’s interesting, engaging, many times unbelievable, accessible to a wide audience and able to be reduced to a few sentences that fit nicely on the cover of a DVD. But Szpilman and his family play a larger role as Polanski’s vehicle for the telling of a general yet more expansive Holocaust story that chronicles the deterioration of Jewish life in Nazi occupied Poland with the Szpilman family serving as representatives of the multitude of middle-class, educated and closely connected families that were just like or very similar to them. The homogeneous nature of the larger community is set up by having the Szpilman’s mix with others in the community who look, dress and speak like them as well as by exposition of key historical events through newspapers, radio and other forms of mass communication. Polanski sets a rule that if more than one person knows something or behaves a certain way, it’s the truth. [This also serves to sharpen the contrast between Nazi Wilm Hosenfeld’s response to Szpilman’s piano playing and that of his counterparts who earlier in the film, encourage Jews to dance in the streets so they may mock them.
The progressively deteriorating conditions for the Jews are marked by changes in pacing, light, sound and set decoration. Polanski begins his story establishing Szpilman as an important, talented and beloved Polish pianist. The Szpilman family lives comfortably but not extravagantly in an apartment furnished with some heirloom quality furniture, silver and crystal, all intended to last a lifetime. These initial scenes (as well as those that conclude the film) are shot with warm light and de-saturated color that when combined, highlight texture and evoke a warm, comfortable feeling, making the viewer feel like life is good for the Szpilman’s.
By the time the Jews are moved into the ghettos, the pace of the film has slowed considerably and becomes more still yet as Szpilman exists in isolation. The lighting also shifts to cool blues at this point, creating a visible chill as harsh as the Polish winters depicted on screen. With the display of each date card, the film’s score deepens in tone and lessens in complexity, eventually dissolving into nothingness, the only sound apparent being that directly tied to the narrative itself. And the bleak scarcity or ornamentation on the walls and beyond does more to reveal that Jews were stripped of all their belongings (not to mention their dignity) than do the narrative sequences of Jews emptying their suitcases do.
Polanski went to great lengths to ensure historical authenticity in every component of the film (engaging Ronald Harwood to adapt the memoir, screening documentary footage for the entire production team, shooting in Poland, recreating the ghetto through the building of an elaborate set, casting, costuming…). Arguably the above cited conventions don’t provide proof of accuracy, at least not in relation to history or more precisely, Szpilman;s story. But because of the film’s autobiographical nature, we are satisfied by Polanski’s emotional accuracy. The Pianist also marks Polanski’s his re-entry to the Hollywood scene, from which he had been absent since “Chinatown” (1974) as a result of the challenges of dealing with the aftermath of Sharon Tate’s murder as well as his exile to France. Redemptive intent or not, with The Pianist, Polanski proves he’s a survivor.
References
“The Pianist” (2002)
The Holocaust by Leni Yahil
“Film Art: An Introduction” by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253474/
http://www.thepianistmovie.com
http://www.slate.com/id/2077916/
http://www.szpilman.net/