The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist who survives Warsaw from 1939 to 1945.
Blaine: Roman Polanski’s childhood was rough. Roman was born in Paris in 1933 and when he was three, his parents decided to move back to Poland. During World War II, Roman witnessed Jewish people being murdered right in front of him by Nazis. Roman’s mother was killed and his father was deported. Roman managed to escape and hide with a Catholic family in the South of Poland. Roman survived during the war as a farm boy. After the war was over Roman was reunited with his father. As a filmmaker, Roman Polanski wanted to make a movie to show the tragedy he witnessed of Jewish people being beaten up and murdered. For years Roman had been trying to find the right story to express what he went through. Finally, Roman found a book called “The Pianist”, a memoir written by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jew that survived the war like Roman. Roman knew “The Pianist” was perfect and one of the things he loved about the book was that it was written immediately after the war had ended.
Roman put so much of his personal experience into “The Pianist”. Roman did some research by looking at old photographs and footage that was filmed by German Nazis. No one knows why anyone would shoot footage of the Jews going through hell, struggling to survive and being brutally murdered, but Roman thought it was useful footage because he wanted to put that into “The Pianist". Roman didn’t have to do too much research because a lot of the stuff that you see in “The Pianist” came from his memories. Roman Polanski hired screenwriter Ronald Harwood to transform what was written in Wladyslaw Szpilman’s book into a movie script. Roman became a guide to Ronald as he was adapting the script. Roman would tell Ronald everything he went through and experienced during his childhood. Roman remembered so much from his childhood. He remembered his father being slapped on the face by a Nazi for no reason. Roman also remembered he was told not to run or else a Nazi would shoot him dead. Ronald could not have asked for a better collaborator than Roman. Szpilman had a passion for playing the piano and Roman used his passion in filmmaking to make this film.
People asked Roman if making “The Pianist” was difficult for him, but it didn’t bother him that much. Roman was however shaken up from some of the things he was creating because it was so horrible to watch. It was important for Roman that “The Pianist” have realism to it. Everyday on set, Roman would give his cast and crew a history lesson on what he experienced as a child and he used the set and props as an example. It was like Roman was a teacher in a history class teaching his students all there is to know about what the Jews went through. What was emotional for Roman was Szpilman being separated from his family. The toughest thing for Roman Polanski was finding the right locations to shoot the film. 400,000 Jews were imprisoned in The Warsaw Ghetto where the Nazis built brick walls around a town in Europe. People would die on the streets either being killed by a Nazi or starving to death. That was all recreated at a backlot at Babelsberg Studio in Germany. Roman and his team also scouted through Europe to find ruined buildings to create the ruined city Szpilman wandered through. Old Soviet Army barracks were used to create the ruined city and they had to make it look like a bomb had hit it.
Roman was pushing everyone to do their best in order to make this movie strong and Adrien Brody did everything he could to make Roman proud. Adrien Brody wanted to make his performance as Wladyslaw Szpilman very powerful. Adrien sacrificed a lot of his personal things because Szpilman lost a lot like his family and his home and Adrien wanted to know how it feels to be left with nothing. Adrien gave away his car, his apartment and didn’t stay in touch with any family or friends and those weren’t Roman’s orders, but Adrien did what he felt was necessary for this part. Adrien would do anything to make Roman proud. Adrien read through Szpilman’s memoirs and learned so much about him. Adrien also had to do a lot piano lessons. He already knew how to play the piano when he was hired, but Roman wanted the piano to be Adrien’s thing as he was preparing himself for the part. Adrien really improved and by the time they started shooting, he became a pro. There is one scene where Szpilman is freezing and Adrien really was cold as they were shooting that scene in order to make it look believable. There were no heaters allowed near that set because Roman didn’t want anything ruining the scene they were shooting. Another thing Adrien had to do was lose weight because Szpilman hadn’t eaten much while surviving the war. Szpilman had to scout for food in the ruined and abandoned buildings. Adrien lost 30 pounds.
Adrien Brody would get lonely doing scenes by himself because Szpilman had to stay hidden from German’s who could turn him in and Nazis. Szpilman also survived these bomb explosions, missile firings and gunfire. As long as Roman was in charge, Adrien felt he could do these stand alone scenes. Before the war had ended, a German soldier found Szpilman while he was hiding. Szpilman had friends who helped him hide in their apartment, but he had to leave because one of the neighbors heard noise, caught him while he was trying to sneak off and he had to run. The German officer was the first person Szpilman met in a while who was kind to him. He was a Nazi, but he could see Szpilman had talent. Szpilman played something for the German officer and he thought it was beautiful to listen to. The officer didn’t live a happy life after the war had ended. He was sent to Soviet captivity and died a decade later. The German officer and other Nazis had to pay for all the terrible things they had done, even though the Officer did a good deed. The German officer is to me a likable character after keeping his mouth shut about Szpilman while he was hiding and feeding him food when he was starving. Szpilman lost his family, but developed a new one when he fell in love with a woman he spent 50 years with and made two children.
My rating on “The Pianist” is five out of five stars.
