The Pianist (2002)

Film: The Pianist
Director: Roman Polanski

1. Summary

It’s a true story about a pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman and his family during the second world war. The Polish city Warschau is soon bombard by the Germans,while the pianist plays for the Polish radio.
That soon ends.The Jews are in danger.
Then the Germans make rules for the Jews.
The Jews are obligated to carry a bracelet with a Davidstar and all their property is taken and many things become more limited and they aren’t allowed to use the public transport and go to parks, etc.
Soon the trains arrive and take the family of Szpilman and anyone else he knows away.During this he narrowly escapes and from then on the film becomes really dramatic .He has to found a way to survive.
A family helps him for a long time and gives him a place to hide.
You would have to be very brave to take on a job like that, because if someone knows about it you could be killed.
Szpilman has to be very quiet and he can’t turn on the lights at night. Then the Germans army come and destroy that building, but Szpilman manage to survive. He becomes soon very weak, but a German officer saves him. He gives him frequently food and tells nobody about him. The war ends and he is the only one of his family who survive the war.

2. Characters

Wladyslaw Szpilman: he’s a famous Jewish pianist.
He’s a very good man who tries to help his family in every way he can. He’s also very brave, because he sees the Jewish people and the most important his family been killed in front of him.
You can learn more about him by his reactions of the situations. His characters often change. Szpilman seems to be sometimes invulnerable. You can see this in the scenes where he lays down on the ground between dead body’s and acts like he’s dead and then just runs away.
Sometimes he expresses his feelings very good.

Thomas Kretschmann: He’s a German officer. He founds Szpilman when the war almost ends and Szpilman is at that moment looking for food in ruined Jewish buildings. At the beginning Szpilman thought that he will kill him. Thomas asks him all kind of questions. When Szpilman tells him that he’s a pianist then Thomas asks him to play piano for him. Szpilman is very weak, because he hasn’t eaten for days. It is really amazing how he plays piano. Then Thomas seems to be a good German, because he helps Szpilman. Without him Szpilman wouldn’t make it. So I think he’s a very important person in the film. He appears at the end, but you can learn many things about his characters in a short time.

3. Environment

a) Time and place
The story starts at the city Warschau. The Jews go first to the ghetto afterwards to the labour camps. Other spots are the station and the square where all Jews are collected. This film takes place in the past during the second world war. The film is from 1939 until 1952.
The film lasts 148 minutes.
There aren’t any leaps in time.

b) Social environment
Jews are different from the Germans in the film.
Jews are bad people in the eyes of Germans. There are many places where the Jews aren’t allowed to go, like go to parks, to walk on the trottoir, etc.

4. Message

Almost every film has a message to the public and this film has certainly many messages. With this film the director wants to put the public thinking. There is a cruel side of world and I think that it will always be.
We are equal, but people will always see each other different.
We only get judge by what we do and by our religion.
There are many people that live in difficult circumstances.
So you have to be glad with what you have even if it isn’t much.
That are many things that you can say about the message of this film, but it’s better that I stop here otherwise there won’t be an end.

5. Audience

The pianist is a very impressive film about a black period from the history.
People who like the holocaust would enjoy this film, but also other people.
It’s very realistic and it’s also based on a true story.
So it’s good that everybody sees the other side of the world.
You never know how it feels until it happens to you.

6. Opinion

It’s really a beautiful film and I enjoy watching it.
It’s the most shocking true story that I ever have seen.
It isn’t very difficult to understand. The language makes it more realistic, because the Germans speak their on language and that makes it more realistic. You just must see this film!