Directed by Roman Polanski, The Pianist (2002) is a film based on the true story of the survival of jewish pianist Varedeslo Spielmann during the German occupation of Warsaw in 1942, written by Ronald Harwood and critically acclaimed after its release.
Adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same name by VaredesLo Spielmann, the screenplay won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, in addition, Adrian Brody, who plays the pianist, won the Best Actor Award and Roman Polanski won the Best Director Award, which was his first Oscar for Best Director after two awards in Chinatown (1974) and Tess (1979), and lost to the crime song and dance film Chicago in the competition for Best Picture, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The German genocide in Poland in World War II was a tragedy in the history of human development, and Roman Polanski, who was himself a Jew, was a witness and victim of this tragedy as a child. Shortly after his birth, there was an anti-Semitic wave of persecution of Jews in France, and he followed his family back to his hometown of Krakow, Poland, but after the German occupation of Poland, his parents and uncle were imprisoned in concentration camps, his mother died in Auschwitz, and his father survived in the concentration camp in Austria.
Polanski escaped alone from the Jewish ghetto set up by the German army, took refuge in a barn with the help of a kind Polish farmer, and survived the war to reunite with his father. His own tragic experience, the pain of losing his mother at a young age, and the great courage of Roman Polanski, who deeply resented the genocide, with the great courage to expose his scars and face the suffering of life, reproduced this tragic human tragedy through the survival of the Jewish pianist Spielman with blood and tears.
The film begins with Spielman playing the piano live on a Polish radio station, in 1939, during the live broadcast of the radio building suffered a German air raid, Spielmann did not want to give up playing, but after the shell hit the building, the live broadcast room was opened a large hole, the shock waves and debris caused by the bombing had threatened Spielman's life, and the live broadcast was forced to stop. When he returned home, the whole family was sorting out the things to be used for escape, Spielman did not fully understand the situation of the war, opposed the family abandoning their homes to flee, just when the brothers and sisters were arguing, the good news came on the radio, Britain and France will declare war on Germany, the family breathed a sigh of relief, life returned to the original track, but the clouds of war have hung over the city, happiness has quietly set off, pain and death have slowly infiltrated the family.
The happy Spearman family
Spielman's home was wealthy, his father was a decent old gentleman, and his mother was a loving mother of love for her husband and children. Family members argue over how to hide the 5,000 Polish dollars in Dad's hand, sister Halina suggests hiding under a flowerpot, Dad thinks to put a hole in the leg of the dining table, brother Henrik advocates putting it on the table and covering it with a newspaper, the German soldiers will not find out, and the sister who is a lawyer emphasizes not to argue and to maintain order. His younger brother, Henrik, was a bookseller who was much more radical in his approach to war than Spielmann, advocating fighting the German invaders. The sister, like Spielmann, was reluctant to leave Warsaw and "die at home", and with Spielmann's status as a pianist, the Jewish family was a highly educated elite intellectual family in the upper class of Poland.
If it were not for the coming of war, Spielman's sister's future would be bright, she would achieve self-transcendence like Spielman, and is likely to become a highly respected lawyer in the legal profession, the younger brother has the genes of a Jewish businessman, and the rich side is also very likely, in such a privileged family, the smart sister still has the potential and beautiful life ahead, just like The last words That Spielman said to his sister at the moment of breaking up with his family at the train station - "I want to know more about you", It made people's livers and intestines break, people's tears were gushing, and her smart and lovely sister completed her short life. However, everything is hypothetical, the war has ruthlessly deprived the family of all hope and the future of the young people, self-actualization has become a bubble, the war has taken away everything about the family, including the status of a lawyer who already has a solemn title sister, the artistic identity of the Spielman pianist, who no longer have any hope of finding the opportunity to use their talents in their beloved career, and the realization of self-happiness and the transcendence of the value of life are all vanished with the ruthless war.
As a young pianist, Spielmann, with his own romantic attributes, he played Chopin's beautiful piano pieces, plucking the heartstrings of countless young girls, Spielmann played on the radio, the admirer Dorotta played by Emilia Fox was one of them, and the audience had reason to hope that this beautiful cello player girl who wrote fan letters to Spielmann was the other half of his future beloved.
Dorotta and Spearman stills
Although Dorotta is not Jewish, there is no national boundary or gap for the young couple, but their romantic rendezvous has been broken by the "Jews are not allowed to enter" sign on the café door, they can no longer wander in the park, where Jews are also forbidden to enter, and even the benches on the street are no longer the soil and haunting place where this love sprouts, and Spielman, even if he walks with Dorotta on the street, is ruthlessly broken by the rule of "things are clustered and people are grouped" This fire of love, when it ignited a spark, was ruthlessly extinguished by the various prohibitions of persecution of the Jews by the German fascists.
According to the decree, all Jews over the age of 12 must wear armbands with hexagonal motifs that indicate their identity, otherwise they will be severely punished. Old Spielmann, wearing an armband, walked down the sidewalk and was slapped to the ground for no reason by two heavily armed German soldiers who approached him for no reason because he did not bow to them. Old Spearman, who stood up and did not dare to say a word, was ordered to walk on the street in a low-lying area with stagnant water. The Jews who gathered in the streets waiting to pass by were scolded by the German soldiers to dance, and many men and women were forced to perform a disgraceful dance on the street, and the German soldiers ridiculed and ridiculed next to them, and suffered the humiliation of personality. In the newly occupied streets, there is no longer a little bit of respect that people and people should have, the self-esteem of the Jews has been greatly hit, and the Jews wearing uniform armbands have become the "street rats" of the seemingly civilized human society, and being respected by others has become a luxury, and self-respect is slowly drifting away with the deterioration of the environment.
The haze of war and racial discrimination against Jews also saw divisions within the Jews. The jeweler Heller came to Spielman's house and persuaded Henrik to join the Jewish police force and do things for the Germans, and he persuaded Spielman to join the police band, but the Spielman brothers refused, and the original friendship was cracked. Spielman approached a journalist friend who wanted to join the fight against the Nazis, but was deemed too "musical" to fight and not trusted by his former close friends.
As Nazi rule over Warsaw intensified, the Spielman family's economy also suffered, with a shortage of money, supplies and food, and a mother who could not sleep at night and shed tears over the hardships of life. Against the opposition of his entire family, Spearman painfully sold his beloved piano at a low price to supplement the family. Henrik's brotherly relationship with Spielman also went wrong, with verbal ridicule for playing the piano in bars and sneering at his tie, and when the once harmonious and happy family was crumbling, the Nazi policy of concentrating Jews in the prescribed residential area completely crushed the will of family members, and in the simple living conditions, the family did not want to speak, the prospects of life were bleak, and personal safety began to become insecure.
Spielman during the Jewish quarter
The Nazis' wanton killings began, and upstairs the Spielmanns saw that when the Nazis searched the homes of the opposite households, an old man in a wheelchair was carried downstairs, and people walking on the streets were ordered to run fast, followed by a burst of gunfire, and the German soldiers' military vehicles crushed the body of the person. Henrik is captured, And Spielman has no choice but to ask Heller for help in the rescue, but is blackmailed for a sum of money, but even more disturbing news comes that the Germans will close the ghetto and all Jews will be sent to concentration camps.
In March 1942, a group of German soldiers took the Spielmanns out of the control area to wait for a train to the concentration camp. The most heart-wrenching scene in the film appears, the old Spielman put together the money that the family can put together, only 20 zlotys, which is all the family's belongings, the old man used the money to buy a piece of caramel, cut into six small pieces, and the family each got a piece, which eventually became the last reunion dinner of the once rich family. Reminded by Heller, Spielman escaped from the crowd heading to the train station, while his family embarked on the road of no return from the moment they stepped on the train.
A piece of caramel is the last supper for a family of six
Roman Polanski, a direct victim of the Holocaust, had long had the intention of making a film reflecting this history of human humiliation, but when he actually picked up the camera, we saw his calm, objective documentary footage. In shaping the Spielman family, Polanski follows the discussion of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, and the process of the Spielman family from being rich to being deprived of decency until finally losing their lives, starting from the highest fifth layer, depicts the process of 、、、 from high to low, layer by layer, which is his tearful indictment of the atrocities of German fascism. This process is also in line with the Marxist theory of the dialectical relationship between the economic base and the superstructure, and fits the proposition that once the most basic survival of man cannot be guaranteed and satisfied, other high-level ideological contents will cease to exist.
The film devotes the most shots to the portrayal of the minimum level of physiological needs, and Spielman, who escapes the train of death, faces the dilemma of survival. He returned to the city to do odd jobs for the Nazis, several times in the process of random killing to be lucky to save his life, and finally escaped, with the help of Dorotta and her husband, he hid in hiding, changed the hiding place many times, relied on the food sent by friends at the risk of life to survive, the environment did not allow food to be delivered on time, hunger and sleeplessness were Spielman's normal, and his health deteriorated, resulting in jaundice attacks, and his life was in danger, thanks to Dorota's timely arrival, he asked a doctor to escape from the hands of the god of death.
Spearman in ruins
The film portrays Spielmann's encounter in three points, and finally his hiding place is shelled by German tanks and becomes a ruin, at this time Spielmann's image in the ruins of the city has become no different from that of a mouse, shuttling around the collapsed floors in search of food, the devastated streets and buildings have no place for him, and he can only hide in the ruins of the German field hospital and a small attic.
Romain Polanski presents the audience with the theme of survival, but Spielman's survival in the film has been sublimated to the highest level. Polanski shows the audience that if Spielmann dies, he is a painful relief, the audience will not complain about anything, this harsh living conditions are greater pain and suffering for the living, life has lost practical significance for Spielmann, at least according to Maslow's theory, Spielmann no longer meets the necessary and basic conditions in terms of physiological needs. But under such harsh conditions, the excavation of Spielman's survival theme has great significance, he did not flinch, he abandoned the easy and difficult, abandoned the simple and the complicated, sacrificed his life to fight against fate to the end, this is the ultimate theme that the film wants to reveal and celebrate.
What helped Spielman and ultimately overcome the temptation of death was his passion and love for music, without which music inspired him, And Spielman's legend would have come to an end long ago. In the predicament of escape, Spielman had three breathtaking piano performances, but each time the meaning was completely different, although it was Chopin's piano music, but the director Polanski's performance and meaning were different.
Playing with an untouched keyboard overhang on the keyboard
After escaping from a construction site working for the Nazis, Dorotta and her husband found him the apartment where he was hiding, but he had to stay out of the house behind closed doors and not alarm the residents of his neighbors to avoid being accused. He came to the dusty piano in the room, opened the lid, and with Chopin's piano music ringing in his head, he hung his fingers above the keyboard without being able to touch it, and performed the first piano "play" he had dreamed of in three years. Polanski repeatedly switches the camera to an outdoor street scene during Spielman's hypothetical performance, where the snow is pouring and the streets are empty, and this is where he and Dorotta date, expressing Spielman's desire to get rid of his life in hiding and return to the normal trajectory of life. Heavy snowfall, unusually cold and harsh weather, not suitable for going out, also hinted at the cold and ruthless harsh environment of Nazi rule at that time.
Imagine the playing of piano ideas
Due to his frailty, Spielmann accidentally knocked over the bowl rack, alarming the woman in the neighbor's house, to check his identity, he had to escape, was settled by friends in the apartment opposite the German field hospital, but was bombed, the desperate Spielmann fled to the hospital, describing him as withered, he had reached the critical point of life and death, but in difficult circumstances, he remembered his beloved music in the ruins of the hospital.
In the absence of a piano entity, accompanied by a mental performance of the piano piece Spielman, director Polanski also switched the camera to the previous street, but the style of painting was already very different. The melting of ice and snow disappeared, which is very suitable for the change in the war situation at that time when the German army was gradually defeated, and the Soviet Red Army began to gain strategic advantage, from the perspective of the camera, the last time it was the angle of the apartment where Spielman was located, this time it was the angle of the hospital opposite the apartment, on the one hand, this was in line with the geographical location of the protagonist of the camera language, with the consistency of the front and back perception, but the audience will also find that from this point of view, the arch at the far end of the street is much wider and brighter than when the previous performance, This hints at Spearman's inner desire for a brighter future, as long as he grits his teeth and perseveres through the most difficult times at present, light and hope are ahead.
Played for Hossenfeld
In the process of searching for food, Spielmann was discovered by the German Gestapo Colonel Hossenfeld, and after learning that he was a Jewish pianist, hossenfeld was very suspicious of his sloppy appearance, and in order to prove that he was not lying, he led Spielmann to a piano in the ruins and let him play.
This is one of the most soul-stirring piano performances in the film, with Spearman's rat-like image, the dirty and numb fingers forming an almost perverted contrast with the beauty of Chopin's piano music, and the vitality of skillful fingering dancing on the piano, which contrasts with the ruins caused by the war and the corpses everywhere. Director Polanski's approach is ingenious, capturing the sunlight coming through the gaps in the curtains with delicate lenses, which flow on Spielman's shoulders and sometimes reflect on Hossenfeld's face.
In terms of artistic conception, this ray of sunshine came to Spielmann's body, shone on the keyboard, and the piano was placed with military hats and uniforms symbolizing Nazis, but under the illumination of this ray of sunshine, whether it was Spielmann himself, or Hossenfeld, or the military uniform hat of the Nazi symbol, it resonated in Chopin's piano music, and in the very romantic sound of the piano, the estrangement and hostility were melted by this sunshine symbolizing humanity, and a song was formed in the main theme of the piano to reflect on war and racial discrimination and call for peace. A sonata praising the beauty of human nature has constructed a movement with the theme of human survival that is deafening and tearful.
Roman Polanski, known as the "Master of Evil", took the special status of the victims of the Fascist Holocaust against the Jews and used Maslow's hierarchy of physiological needs as the framework of thinking, telling this tragedy that human history cannot look back on in a realistic way. He excavates and criticizes the sins of human nature with objective lenses, celebrates the bravery of the Jewish pianist Spielman who is not afraid of the difficulties of survival, and interprets the good side of human nature, especially Dorotta's friendship and the beauty of music. "The Pianist" and Steve Spielberg's "Schindler's List" (1993) are completely different from the perspective of the Holocaust, and are musical reproductions of the real experience of the pianist Spielman, and the two film history classics are sister to each other in the description of the same historical event.