Introduction

The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski

This magnificent film tells the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish musician who avoided and defied every possible mortal threat to survive the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto and then the battle for Warsaw itself. The story has enough similarities to director Roman Polanski's own experience as a child survivor of the Krakow ghetto to make The Pianist feel like an autobiographical work by proxy. Indeed, actor Adrien Brody has said he modelled his Szpilman on Polanski himself.

Polanski has eschewed the big canvas of Spielberg's Schindler's List to follow the true story of a single individual from the day the Germans invade Warsaw to the day the Russians liberate it. We never see more than he sees or know more than he knows (apart from what we know from history). Polanski's subjective approach takes us gradually into the horror, and the effect is both terrifying and psychologically revealing.

In a remarkable performance by Adrien Brody, we see one man's journey from fame, fortune and sophistication to feral, wild-eyed scavenging, little more than an animal, equipped only with hunger and the instinct and will to survive.

That he survived was not a victory when all those whom he loved died; Polanski, in talking about his own experiences, has said that the death of his mother in the gas chambers remains so hurtful that only his own death will bring closure.

We are also shown an unflinching account of the gradual, systematic process by which the Nazis waged their war against the Jews. The humiliations, restrictions on movement and eventual imprisonment in the ghetto are shown, one by one, as seen through the eyes of Szpilman. He alone of his family escapes the train to the death camps, and the film stays behind with him, to bear witness to the last days of Warsaw.

After the liberation, Szpilman remained in Warsaw and worked all of his life as a pianist and composer. His memoir was published soon after the war, though to get it published he had to pretend that Hosenfeld was Austrian, not German. Attempts to republish it in the 60s and the 70s were denied by the Communist authorities because it did not adhere to the party line - some Jews were flawed and a German was kind. Eventually republished in 1999, it caught Polanski's attention and resulted in this film, which refuses to turn Szpilman's survival into a triumph and records it primarily as the story of a witness who was there, saw, and remembers.

Mr Polanski, who was a Jewish child in Krakow when the Germans arrived in September 1939, presents Szpilman's story with bleak, acid humour and with a ruthless objectivity that encompasses both cynicism and compassion. When death is at once so systematically and so capriciously dispensed, survival becomes a kind of joke. By the end of the film, Szpilman, brilliantly played by Adrien Brody, comes to resemble one of Samuel Beckett's gaunt existential clowns, shambling through a barren, bombed-out landscape clutching a jar of pickles. He is like the walking punch line to a cosmic jest of unfathomable cruelty. . . Szpilman may have been the butt of a monstrous joke, but the last laugh - appropriately deadpan - was his. “What will you do when this is over?” the officer asks. “I'll play piano on Polish radio,” Szpilman replies. Which is exactly what he did until his death two years ago. New York Times

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Analysing the Plot

Films, like novels, are primarily about storytelling. Although there are many ways by which a film-maker can capture and hold an audience’s attention, the most effective and most common way is simply by telling a good story. That the story is true, that it is harrowing and appalling, does not change this – and indeed the director has said that he wanted everything they did to serve the story. Write a brief outline of the plot of the film and answer the following questions:

1. Is there one plot or more than one?There is one plot – the survival of Wladyslaw Szpilman. Everything else is incidental.

Plot, by definition, implies an interdependent structure, within which every event and incident that happens has significance. Take any one out, and the whole pattern should be affected, the whole story should be diminished. This tightly plotted approach is sometimes called the step-stair structure. Episodic films, by contrast, are looser; individual scenes can be added or removed without really affecting the outcome of the plot.2. Which of the two plot types has been used?

This is an episodic narrative structure, which follows Szpilman’s experiences; it can hardly be described as a ‘plot’ in the conventional sense. As people appear in or drop out of his life, so characters appear and disappear. However, the screenwriter has created some shape to the story, by amalgamating characters and introducing some earlier, by compressing events and by simplifying aspects of the narrative.

3. Does anything happen in the film that is not necessary to the story? Are there any incidents or scenes that could be left out? Explain. The film records Szpilman’s experiences and so everything is equally necessary or unnecessary. However, his observations do give us a comprehensive picture of the time, though some incidents are from Polanski’s own experience rather than from Szpilman’s book. There are also some invented scenes at the start, which help to establish Szpilman’s character and personality.

Most commercial films – “classic Hollywood” type - are similar in structure to a three-act play: The first act introduces the main characters and situation, and ends with a scene that sets up a

complication (or catalyst) around which the plot will revolve – plot point 1 - that disrupts the equilibrium of the original situation.

The second act develops this complication. The third act brings the situation to a climax and resolution.i.e. – get the hero up a tree, throw things at him, get him down from the tree.Each act is structured to end on a moment of heightened tension or interest – a ‘turning point’ that will change the direction of the story. 4. Does this film follow this pattern? Can you identify three acts? Plot points 1 and 2?

The events of the film do fall naturally into three parts: Act 1: occupation and ghetto, till the transportation of his family; Plot Point 1 = his rescue Act 2: events till he leaves the ghetto; Plot Point 2 = his escape from the ghettoAct 3: in hiding outside the ghetto; concludes with the liberation of Warsaw

Epilogue: playing again.

However, this structure does not follow the Hollywood approach, nor indeed the usual structure of drama: there is no exposition/complication/resolution. The driving force is simply survival; characters come and go rather than being introduced to create problems or complications. None of the difficulties faced by the protagonist can be said to be the result of his actions. So, no, it does not follow a 3-act structure.The second ‘act’ is the shortest; in Hollywood movies, it is usually the longest. (see details, p. 24)

5. Describe the state of equilibrium at the beginning of this film.Szpilman playing the piano on Polish radio. It lasts a few moments only.

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Plot Summary

When Nazi Germany attacks Warsaw in September, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman is a well-known pianist, who plays on Polish radio. He refuses to leave the city, but finds his life and that of his family is increasingly controlled and limited by the occupiers’ anti-Jewish decrees. They are forced from their home into the ghetto, where the little Szpilman can earn from playing the piano in a café is all that keeps his family from starving.

When the Germans decide to empty the ghetto and send its inhabitants to death camps, Szpilman is rescued from the train by a friendly Jewish policeman. He works as a labourer on a building site, and helps to smuggle guns into the ghetto. Knowing he is unlikely to survive the hardship of the slave labour, he escapes the ghetto and is hidden by kind, non-Jewish Poles. From his hiding places, he watches the ill-fated ghetto uprising and the final destruction of the last Jews.

Surviving serious illness and near starvation, he is forced from his apartment when the Warsaw Uprising is put down mercilessly by the Germans. Hiding out in an attic, he is discovered by a German officer who brings him food and gives him his coat.

Finally the Russian army drives the Germans out and Szpilman is able to return to his pre-war occupation, playing the piano on Polish radio. He tries unsuccessfully to find the German officer.

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Narrative Structure Tasks and Answers

Narrative or plot structure is the term used to describe the order in which a story is told, and the way in which different strands of the story are linked.1. Which of the descriptions best fits the structure of this film? Give details to show this.

Chronological, from the invasion of Poland (1939) until its liberation (1945), with a brief aftermath.

2. From whose point of view is the story told in this film? Is that consistent throughout or are other points of view shown?The entire story is told from the POV of Szpilman. The camera follows him and records what he sees, plus his actions and reactions. He is in almost every scene. The occasional scene where he is not present, such as that at the temporary German POW camp at the end, records what he is told by someone else.

3. What are the conflicts that provide the basis for the narrative? Szpilman’s desire to survive v. the external and capricious forces determined to destroy him – part of the general conflict between the Jews and their German persecutors.On a mild level, within the family over their response to the situation they find themselves in.

4. What other conflicts develop as the story develops?Szpilman has an internal conflict between his drive to survive and his wish to help in the fight.

5. Are these conflicts resolved by the end of the film? How?The Germans are defeated and the few surviving Jews emerge.The family conflict dissolves as life becomes more and more difficult and they unite in face of outside pressures.Szpilman’s drive to survive is stronger than his desire to help the Jewish rebels.

6. How do the film-makers establish these conflicts?Most of the German decrees are mentioned in conversation, or read aloud from newspapers. Some are illustrated visually, such as when Father is slapped by the officer, or the arbitrary murders – the old man thrown out the window, the woman shot in the head, etc.The family conflict is used to create some liveliness in the family scenes, and to air the various attitudes that were held. The bickering between Henryk and Wladek is true to the book.

7. List the main obstacles and/or problems faced (by the protagonists) in the story.His main problem is in initially how to keep his dignity, then keeping the family together and earn enough to feed them (he is the oldest son); and then how to stay alive: loss of work – from playing on radio to

playing in café not allowed in cafe, in park, on benches etc shortage of food precariousness of existence in the ghetto the death train – he is rescued surviving the building site, where he is

clearly not physically strong enough for the work

lucky to be beaten and not shot lucky that the guns are not discovered in

the sacks

outside the ghetto: the need to be silent

hunger – reliance on others discovery by a hostile neighbour dishonesty of Szalas illness near starvation locked in, building under fire and then

on fire German searches, being shot at, flame

throwers discovery

8. Is each of the obstacles of greater magnitude than the one before?The first part builds to the death train, which is clearly the worst threat; having survived that, he faces further increasingly difficult obstacles to survival until he comes face to face with a German officer. He is lucky – Rosenfeld is a good man.

Early scenes will set up expectations of the main character(s) that will affect the structure of the story.9. Can you identify examples of this?

Szpilman is shown in the first scenes to be calm in the face of danger; to put music above all elseDorota is shown to be kind, appalled by the anti-Jewish decrees

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Time is always an important consideration in a screenplay; a feature film may cover days, weeks, even years of real time, so ways of showing time passing are needed. 10. How much time is covered in this film? Can you work out a timeline?

Sept, 1939 – Jan, 1945. Dates are on screen for important events. Seasons are clearly shown.[See dates in scene-by-scene commentary for specific details]

11. What techniques are used in this film to show time passing? Give an example of each. fades or dissolves: FADES are used particularly to show a gap in time

between two scenes, e.g. scene 25 to 26 changing light: night falling / sun shining

showing a clock or a calendar

several clocks though not really important; a calendar on Schultz’s wall tells us that the employment certificate protects them for only a month.

dates or times on screen important dates are on screen

seasonal differences – winter to summer

Warsaw: flowers in market / snow on ground; weight of clothing; snow falling / sunny days

references in dialogue “By October 31”; news of the bombing, of the Normandy Landing; comment about how long since Szalas’ previous visit

a montage of brief symbolic or typical images.

not used often but occasionally, e.g. views of the wall; life in the ghetto

cuts to the same place at a clearly later time:

Szp in hiding clean-shaven and then shaggy with beard and long hair

Film-makers often create suspense or excitement through cross-cutting; the editor cuts quickly from one scene to another and back again several times. 12. There are no examples of cross-cutting in this film. Why not?

Cross-cutting implies more than one point of view. Since we see only what Szpilman sees, we cannot be taken to another place to see what is happening there at the same time.

Most stories involve the element of suspense, with the audience kept wondering what will happen.13. How has suspense been created in this film?

Whether he can survive. How he will be able to survive, when all around him are transported, killed, disappear.

Suspense can be heightened by the use of a 'deadline’ - the knowledge that there is not much time left, and the overhanging question of whether they will make it.14. Is there a deadline? What is it and how does it affect the events?

Can he survive until the Germans are defeated? We know they will be defeated but he did not at the time. It is a race – his increasing weakness v. their survival and continued vindictive attacks.Increasing hunger, loss of support, fewer hiding places. But no specific date.

Even stories that are told in a simple chronological structure will need to lay the foundations for future events, as well as keep the audience involved and expectant by hinting at the future. 15. Identify examples where future events are 'signposted'

His friendship with Dorota; Heller’s visit; meeting Majorek.There are mentions of the ghetto, of resettlement, of death camps before they happen – though this is also just the way people find out things. Rumours abounded in the ghetto.The CU of the padlock on the flat door – later, he is unable to escape.

Themes

Below are some of the themes suggested by this film. For each one, show how the film illustrates or shows this idea.

The strength of music, the power of art, in the midst of barbarism. The will to live, to survive, is more powerful than anything else. Human beings are capable of the most evil behaviour, and the best. In good there is bad, in bad there is good. It’s not black and white. This is life.

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Man’s inhumanity to man. It’s about hope, where there isn’t any hope; it’s about survival, where survival is impossible;

it’s about the will to live. We live alone, Polanski says in all his best films, and there is no understanding the human

condition.

Polanski: “The book is tremendously optimistic. The victim survives, thanks to his passion for the art

and for the music in particular, and thanks to his will power. It is an optimistic and uplifting book, in spite of the horror it describes.”

“Among all possible types of suffering, the greatest is the separation of child from parents. For the child, this is the saddest, the most tragic thing, I would say. The hunger is absolutely secondary.”

Discussion: some others’ thoughts

One of Mr. Polanski's trademarks is what might be called a humane sadism. He has always been fascinated by what happens to weak, ordinary people - Mia Farrow in 'Rosemary's Baby, for instance, or Jack Nicholson in Chinatown - when they are intruded upon by evil forces more powerful than they, and he punishes his actors, peeling back their vanity to make them show the face of humanity under duress.

The film's climax offers the most dramatic paradox of all: a glimpse of how the impulses of civilisation survive in the midst of unparalleled barbarism. The scene, scored to the ravishing, sorrowful music of Chopin, was a painful and ridiculous testament to just how bizarre the European catastrophe of the last century was.

A.O. Scott, New York Times

There are scenes that will make audiences despair of humanity. With a jovial sadism, a German soldier makes old Jews dance by the ghetto gate. In another scene the Szpilman family watches as their neighbour across the street, an old man in a wheelchair, is thrown out of a window. Unlike Spielberg, Polanski doesn't press for emotion in these scenes but presents all with cool detachment. It's a different artistic road that leads to the same moving effect.

In the meantime, the audience can keep its head. We watch the atrocities mount and marvel at how, despite the horrors, life keeps defaulting into stasis, routine, the illusion of normality. There are work permits to be obtained, meals to be made. So that even when the dead bodies of children are in the street, and people are being stripped of everything and carted off to death camps, a Polish Jew can say, "The Germans will never squander such a large workforce" - and we understand how he'd believe it.

Mike LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Szpilman survived not because he was talented, but through an inexplicable combination of good luck and guardian angels; Polanski is well aware that no Jew could have lived through World War II on Polish soil without the life-risking help of at least one Pole.

In fact, as other Jews and Poles get executed right and left, you wonder why you are supposed to care so mightily for this particular man. He never even experiences any guilt that a seemingly invisible protective cloak around him benefits no one else.

Kirk Honeycutt

Close Reading – Suggested Answers

OverviewThese questions should be attempted immediately after the first viewing. Anything they cannot answer then should be left for them to consider during the Close Reading of the text. It will be a more valuable exercise if students can find out the answers for themselves.

1. Why does Szpilman manage to survive when so many others were unable to?The film suggests it was his music and his commitment to music that helped sustain him. Luck played a big part. And his celebrity helped in the early days – that is presumably the reason he is saved from the transport. Finally, the will to survive.

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2. Szpilman’s memoir was written and published immediately after the war but then suppressed for decades by the Communist authorities in Poland and republished only in 1999. Why would they suppress it?There are good and bad Poles, good and bad Germans, good and bad Jews. The Communist Party line was “Germany bad; everyone else good.” In the first edition – the only one published under Communist rule – Szpilman was forced to pretend that Hosenfeld was an Austrian, not a German. Austria and even East Germany pretended that they, like Poland, had been invaded by Hitler’s occupying force.The memoir, though not the film, also contains Ukrainian and Lithuanian soldiers who are described as, if anything, worse than the Germans.

3. How is Szpilman able to play so well for Hosenfeld, after so long away from the piano?He has practised in his head, gone over all his pieces so that he does not forget them. He has kept his fingers supple by practising without a keyboard.

4. List the aspects of ghetto life that Szpilman observes. summary execution printing of leaflets begging lost children and destitute people dead bodies everywhere

starvation – the “grabber” loss of sanity – the “lady with the feathers” smuggling – goods thrown over wall or brought

through under by children mud, filth, over-crowding

5. Trace the steps as shown in the film by which the Nazis gradually destroyed Warsaw’s Jews. Note how the film informs the audience of each step.It was a two-year process, beginning within weeks of occupation. allowed to keep only a small sum of money in their homes family debate over hiding place. Henryk says Germans help themselves to Jewish property conversation. Forbidden in public parks, to sit on benches, to enter cafés, to walk on the pavement Szpilman

tells Dorota, who is horrified. Szpilman's father reads incredulously that all Jews will be required to wear Star of David

armbands, the exact colour and dimension described with typical German meticulousness. What we know to be the beginning of the end, the characters regard as a mind-boggling absurdity.

men have to raise their hats, bow to German soldiers, forbidden to walk on the pavement scene in street (based on Polanski’s memory of that happening to his father.)

they are forced to sell their goods to find money to live on we see the piano being sold. all Jews are confined in the ghetto area newspaper report; we see them walk there; we see the

wall being built. Henryk says – and we see – people dying of starvation, disease. petty humiliations: made to dance shown. Jewish police formed – do the Germans’ dirty work: bribery, brutality Itzak Heller’s visit,

Henryk’s reaction; we see them in action. forced to smuggle food to eat; children killed while doing so shown. random murders, arrests shown. forced labour camps mentioned. small ghetto closed; even more over-crowding shown evacuation to the death camps; slavery, beatings, arbitrary death for those who remain shown final destruction of ghetto and those remaining in it we watch with Szpilman from outside.

6. List the people who help Szpilman survive (a description will do if you cannot manage the Polish names) and say what happens to each one. Benek – café owner – gives him work; hides him in café is shot by a Gestapo officer. Heller – Jewish Policeman – rescues him from the transports all the Jewish police ended up at

the death camps themselves. building site Jewish leader finds him an easier job ? Majorek – contacts Janina and Andrej; helps him escape presumably dies in the ghetto uprising Janina and Andrej: shelter him, bring him food; they are arrested their fate - ? Gebczynski – goes on the run from the Gestapo ? Dorota and Michal – hide him, feed him, bring him medical care; they leave for the country ? Szalas – supposed to feed him but uses his name as a way of acquiring money ? Hosenfeld dies in a Russian POW camp

7. As well as the help of good people, luck plays a big part in Szpilman’s survival. How many examples can you list in which he was lucky? that he is hit and not shot when he tells the officer that they all have employment certificates (sc.

28) that Heller saves him from the train, and that he is not noticed by a German officer that he is beaten and not shot when he dropped the bricks that he is able to work inside that the weapons are not discovered, and that there is grain in the bag so the German had a

reason for Szpilman’s fear that the Germans who stop the labour team in the street when they are carrying weapons are

drunk and do not search them8

that he leaves the ghetto when he does; he would not have survived the uprising the Gestapo arrest someone else in the building but do not come to his room that Dorota comes to say goodbye and discovers him ill and starving that the attack on his building hits the next room, not his that the soldiers who shoot at him on the roof miss that he sees the flame throwers in time to escape that Hosenfeld is a good man; it is the food he brings that keeps Szpilman alive for those last few

weeks.

Film Techniques

8. Below is a list of some of the more common camera shots and editing devices used in feature films. Can you identify those that are conspicuous by their absence or seldom used in this film? Suggest why they have not been used:

a. Over shoulder shotb. BCU or ECUc. ZOOMd. LS

e. WIDE f. LOW ANGLE shotg. HIGH ANGLE shoth. CU

The correct answers are b, c, and f BCU or ECU are camera-views; people do not see things in BIG CLOSE UP, so it is not used for

Szpilman’s view of the world either. A ZOOM is the result of camera lens movement. We do not see things this way. Human sight

more closely approximates PULL FOCUS (which is used only once), though there is no blur between our shifts of focus.

A LOW ANGLE shot is often used for the POV of someone in a weak or vulnerable position, but interestingly Polanski does not employ it like this. Presumably he did not wish to enhance the stature of the thugs in the film.

An over-shoulder shot is usually used for showing reaction in (often intimate) dialogue; for this reason, it is used in the scenes between Dorota and Szpilman, but not very often after that.

9. There is one camera angle that is used far more than any other. Identify it – and suggest why.HIGH ANGLE shots – because so much of what is going on is observed from windows some storeys up. Szpilman's hiding place near the ghetto wall enables him to see over the wall. It also emphasises the vulnerability of these people, who have so little control over their lives.

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10. There are several motifs that recur throughout the story. How many can you identify? Suggest reasons for their use

. hands, especially

Szpilman’s: obvious motif for a film about a pianist

POV shots through chinks, narrow gaps:

suggest the way he becomes an observer of life

the lady with feathers (twice):

a real figure in the ghetto; illustrates one of the costs of the persecution – loss of mental health

trams, tram bells: obviously a feature of Warsaw life; represent the usual, the normal; used to contrast with walking Jews; Szpilman rides one to hiding; partisans alight and attack the Schutzpolizei office

pianos and piano music again, an obvious motif; the theme music is orchestral, so piano music on the soundtrack is either Szpilman playing, or what he is hearing in his head.

violin Father’s violin, then Lednicki’s at the end - symbolises music, art, culture, destroyed by the war. “You took my soul.”

bread and potatoes perhaps not a motif so much as a recurring theme; they become the staple diet of Jews and fugitives.

falling snow often coincides with moments of great distress – as if frozen tears are falling

11. There are many examples of irony in the film – often tragic. Identify them. Henryk and Halina come back to be with the family – and so they die with them too Szpilman goes through years of hell to end up where he was at the beginning he is nearly shot by the Poles at the end. Dr Ehrlich says they should fight back, but his small protest on behalf of a pregnant woman is

punished with death.

12. Some scenes end with a FADE OUT followed by a FADE IN. What is the purpose of this transition?Usually indicates a considerable passage of time – sometimes several months. Between scenes 51 and 2, Szpilman grows a full beard and long hair.

13. With a film as personal as this, based on a written memoir, many directors would have opted for a VOICE OVER to express the protagonist's feelings and ideas. Polanski has not done so. Can you suggest why?Presumably to keep the cool, detached objective tone – a voice-over would enable us to identify with Szpilman much more, would involve us. The tone of the memoir is remarkably objective.

14. Memorable scenes?Answers will differ. Some thoughts:

The terrible loneliness as Szpilman stumbles, weeping, through streets littered with abandoned suitcases and corpses.

The film's most poignant scene? He finds himself in an apartment with a piano that he dare not play; he sits at it, hands playing above the keyboard as he hears the music in his head.

When he climbs out of the hospital to the awe-inspiring and frighteningly beautiful vision of a destroyed Warsaw.

The scene with Hosenfeld packs a powerful emotional punch. The sight of the Umschlagplatz empty is perhaps even more dreadful than the way the Jews are

herded and beaten into the trains.

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Task Sheet 1

Chapter 1: Invasion - scenes 1 - 11

Exposition: setting the scene, introducing characters.1. What is the purpose of the opening shots? Why are they in black and white?

Establishes time and place; b&w suggests original footage, which give the illusion of authenticity; the busy peaceful and prosperous people, the impressive architecture, provide a strong contrast with what will happen. Look for some of the same scenes to appear later.

2. Where is Szpilman when we first see him? What is he doing? He is playing the piano on Polish radio.

3. Why is it appropriate that we see his hands first?They are his livelihood. Hands will be a recurrent motif. In the memoir, he expresses concern for the state of his hands on more than one occasion; any damage to them would cost him his future.

4. What impression do we get of him in this scene? How does it suggest a character trait that will help him survive?He puts his music, his responsibility to the music and to the listeners over and above his personal safety. He is calm under fire, giving up only when the building is blasted by a near-direct hit.

5. What is the purpose of each of the following scenes? What do we learn about the situation and about the people from these scenes?

a. the family argument over hiding the money (scene 6)Tells us about one of the first regulations affecting the Jews; helps establish the characters and the differences between family members. Henryk is angry and passionate, and bickers with Wladek; Regina calm, a peacemaker (a lawyer); Father an optimist; Mother tries to keep the peace within the family; Wladek a bit superior – he is the eldest.

b. Szp meeting Dorota (scene 8) establishes Dorota as a character - she will be significant later. through her, the outrage and anger of many Christian Poles is shown; as is Wladek’s

insistence that she not complain about it, knowing that it will do no good and might even jeopardise her;

shows Szpilman is continuing with his life in spite of the Germans – basically, he is just getting on with things;

introduces yet more restrictions against Jews – variety in the way we learn these things;

helps reveal his character. He is smooth, charming, sophisticated, very attractive – a huge contrast with what he will become. He thinks of himself as Polish, not as a Jew; he is chatting up a Gentile girl here.

c. the scene when they hear they must wear armbands (scene 9) another regulation learned about in a different way the chilling attention to detail that characterised the Nazi rules the automatic rejection by Henryk and Regina representing one common response,

especially among the intelligentsia; Father practical as ever; Wladek non-committal the futile protest juxtaposed with the following scene where Father is humiliated

d. when Father is slapped by the Nazi officer (scene 10) illustrates the futility of trying to defy the rules the effect of being branded as a Jew makes them easy targets the humiliating nature of their existence – being forced t walk in the gutter.

6. Scene 8: What qualities does Dorota exhibit that will be important later?She is visibly upset by the regulations against the Jews, of which she was clearly unaware.

She wishes to complain but is persuaded not to – so she is not one to simply accept things. She is clearly fascinated by Wladek. She is a good woman, a decent person.

Chapter 2: The Ghetto - scenes 12 - 18

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7. Give two reasons for the screenplay having Dorota watch the Jews move to the ghetto. (sc 12) Keeps her in our minds (there are so many characters that come and go that she

provides some continuity). She expresses the attitude of many Poles – that the whole thing is ridiculous, absurd.

No one at that stage had any idea of how far the Nazis were prepared to go. It is interesting that the film does not show the significant proportion of the gentile Polish population that welcomed the ghetto-ising of the Jews, that cheered their shift to the ghetto, that looked forward to helping themselves to what happened to be left. This may be because Szpilman does not record that in the book, or simply because it would add little at this stage.

8. Why is the “lady with the feathers” included?She is an example of another, less obvious effect of the treatment of the Jews – the loss of mental health.

9. Why does the impatient man say he thinks the Germans are stupid?Because in their efforts to keep the Jews separate, they are making it difficult for their businesses and other work to continue effectively.

10. Why do both Henryk and Wladek refuse the invitation to join the Jewish police?By now, the Jewish police have become very unpopular, are seen as working for the Nazis rather than for their own community. Henryk would rather starve than compromise his principles; Wladek does have a job and is able to reject the offer more gracefully.

11. Why would Szpilman’s work be humiliating for him?He used to play on the radio where a whole nation could listen to him. Here he is playing for the prosperous and uncultured few - the black marketeers, the big time smugglers, the racketeers – and they do not even listen to him. He is just background..

12. How do we know the café is inside the ghetto?They are all wearing armbands.

13. Why do the customers ask for Wladek to stop playing? He wants to listen to the coins, to tell from the sound whether it is genuine gold or not. Money was “the only music in which they were interested.”

14. Why does the camera linger on the woman in the red dress? To suggest that Szpilman is the object of attention from women who find him attractive – her actions are very suggestive. Though she is a different type and class from Dorota, whom Szpilman obviously liked very much, he still enjoys her attentions.

15. Scene 18: What is the purpose of this scene with Jehuda Zyskind?Introduces two more characters that will feature later: Jehuda will help with the employment certificates, and Majorek will be a leader of the Jewish revolt. Also suggests why Szpilman is not part of the Jewish Underground: Jehuda “treated me with kindly contempt, which he thought the proper approach to artists, people who were no use as conspirators. All the same, he liked me and allowed me to cal every morning and read the secret announcements that had come by radio, fresh off the press.” (Memoir, p. 70)

16. Why is Szpilman’s offer to help with the resistance refused? He is too well known, and too “artistic”. (see above)

17. Why does Majorek leave the pamphlets in the toilets? It is the one place the Germans won’t search. Majorek says sarcastically that they never use Jewish toilets – they're too clean for them.

Film Techniques18. Analyse in detail the opening three scenes. Worksheets supplied.

19. Look carefully at scene 4. With what kind of camera has this scene been shot? How can you tell? And what effect is achieved?Steadicam, possibly even hand-held camera. It moves constantly with the various family members, and is often a little jumpy. The effect is to reinforce the agitation of the characters, the urgency with which they are packing, the somewhat chaotic atmosphere. Note how Wladek stands still in the middle while the family revolves around him.

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20. Scene 9: What is unusual about the way this scene has been shot? Comment.The scene lasts 74 seconds and is filmed in two shots. The first – MCU of Father as he reads – lasts 11 seconds; the second – WIDE of the whole family sitting around the table – lasts 63 seconds. Not only that, they are backlit, so their facial expressions are not easily discernible. The focus is on the words being read.

21. From scenes 4 – 12, identify examples of the following production techniques. Comment on their effect / suggest reasons for their use. The camera work is unobtrusive in this film; there are very few unusual or flashy shots. There will of course be many other possibilities apart from those listed here.

a. CONTRAST between the lively café scene and the misery and poverty outside;

supports Henryk’s words about the rich and the poor

b. juxtaposition

Father’s optimism – “All will be well” / the arrival of the Germans; reaction to having to wear star/ Father being slapped down

illustrates the limitations of hope and optimism; the pointlessness of refusal to obey

c. HIGH ANGLE (H/A) SHOT

past the statue at the soldiers; emphasises the numbers and the strength of the enemy

d. H/A POV shot

the family looks down at the wall being built

we share their sense of being walled into a prison

e. motif hands – Szpilman’s playing; the man buying the piano; trams (streetcars)

hands are an appropriate motif for a film about a pianist – s livelihood depends on them

f. THREE SHOT the Szpilman men watching the Germans march into Warsaw (sc 5)

family united in their unhappiness and resentment

g. CU Dorota watching the procession of Jews into the ghetto

she represents the many Christian Poles who were outraged by the German persecution of the Jews

h. OVER SHOULDER SHOT

Used frequently in the conversation between Dorota and Wladek – when they see the ‘No Jews’ sign and as he continues to chat her up.

shows their contrasting reactions to the sign – she is more outraged, he strangely unmoved - and her reaction as he charms her

i. deep focus as the German soldiers march in; the procession to the ghetto;as Szpilman and Dorota walk down the street

emphasises how many there are – both scenesconnects them visually with their environment, emphasising that they are part of it and will be unable to escape it

j. MONTAGE shots of the wall; scenes of ghetto life maximum info in shortest time

k. signpost “They’re building a bridge.” Prepares for the many scenes on the bridge.

l. PAN around the café as Szpilman plays emphasises that few are listening to the best pianist in Poland, possibly in Europe

m. TRACKING camera follows Szpilman as he talks to his father (sc 4)

keeps the focus on the speaker and allows movement

n. REVERSE TRACKING

as Dorota and Szpilman walk down the street; as Szpilman walks home past the smugglers;

the main way to have people walk and talk and still be seen (see TV’s West Wing)

Task Sheet 2

Chapter 3: Arrests and Deaths - scenes 19 - 30

1. Scene 20: this is an important scene. What do we learn about characters and situation from it?Henryk’s story shows that no one is safe, and this is reinforced by the violence they observe through the window. Life in the ghetto is precarious; death is arbitrary. The

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family is fraying at the edges – the stress of their lives is having an effect on family harmony.Mother is trying to keep some aspects of normalcy, increasingly difficult in the face of the horrors around them.Henryk uses sarcasm, and bitter, black humour to help him cope; but he is weeping at the end of the scene. Earlier, he takes out his anger on Wladek who is defensive, all too aware that he has had to lower his principles for their survival.Father, usually so optimistic, expresses a widespread belief re the failure of the Americans to help them – an opinion that irritates Wladek.

2. Father’s speech about blaming the Americans is quoted from the memoir, but Szpilman reports that that is what the patrons of the café say. Why has it been given to Father here?It has more credence in the mouth of a main character. Film doesn’t need more speaking characters – would take time to establish them.

3. Why is Henryk arrested? Henryk is arrested as part of a round up of 1000 men who were sent to Treblinka. There is no suggestion that he was particularly picked, but his outspoken dislike of the Jewish police may have contributed. How does Szpilman persuade Itzak Heller to get Henryk released?Wladek flatters Heller, telling him he is an important man, with influence. (He cannot afford a bribe.)Why is Henryk not grateful?He would literally rather die than be in any way beholden to someone like Heller.

4. Scene 23: we learn some very important information – what is it?That the Jews are going to be transported to “labour camps” (in fact, to the death camps) and that the small ghetto is to be closed.

5. Why does Schultz say that the employment certificate “won’t help you anyway”?He is pessimistic or realistic enough to know that the Nazis intend to empty the ghetto.

6. Scene 26: what is the photographer doing? What does this tell us?He is recording the forced evacuation of the small ghetto. That the Nazis were proud of what they were doing to the Jews, that they liked to record everything.

7. Scene 27: What are they doing here? Why is this scene ominous?They are sorting through clothes and other belongings stolen from or simply left behind by Jews who have already been sent to the camps. A warning, surely, that these people are not coming back, and maybe do not need their things where they have gone.

8. Scene 28: family life has taken another battering. In what ways?They have lost even the two rooms that the six of them lived in; now they live in some sort of barracks with other people (who can be seen in the background.)

9. Scene 29: why are Halina and Henry separated from the rest? Why is Wladek not chosen?They are younger, fitter, look healthier – they have been selected to stay as workers.He presumably looks too slight, too physically light, too ‘artistic’.

10. Wladek says, “I’m sorry. I did my best.” For what is he apologising?As the eldest son, he feels responsible for his family; he acquired employment certificates for them all, but as Schultz predicted, they are worthless. He is apologising for his inability to save his family.

11. Identify examples of the following production techniques. Comment on their effect / suggest reasons for their use.

a. TRACKING

Szpilman through the crowd as he goes in search of Henryk

Emphasises how crowded the ghetto is; how hard to hurry anywhere

b. REVERSE TRACKING

as he walks past the wall where the children are smuggling

shows his indifference to what is happening until he is forced to take notice

c. DEEP FOCUS

the Schultz workshop emphasise the irony of the Jews being forced to sew the uniforms of the army that is destroying them

d. LOW ANGLE

of the bridge as the Jews cross a rare L/A shot; an outsiders’ view

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SHOTe. co

ntrastinside/outside the café; the well-dressed Szpilman/the threadbare Henryk; the Jews walk across the bridge while the trams and carts cross below

Szp needs to dress well to play in the café but Henryk shows the reality of their lack of money

f. H/A POV SHOT

from the window as they watch the Gestapo raid the opposite building

we share their view

g. CU as he tries to revive the small boy; Szp, Mother at the dinner table;Szp when he is arguing with Henryk; Father when they hear the sound of the Gestapo truck

his genuine distress;sense of intimacy – spoiled by Henryk's story and by the dreadful events they observe;fear

h. TILT UP

follows the Nazis as they go up the stairs in the building and the lights go on

increases the tension – what are they gong to do?

i. LS Szp as he walks away from the dead boy

the sag in his body reveals his distress

j. INPOINT

Szpilman’s hands on the keys usual intro to scenes when he is playing

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ResearchOn the wall of the Warehouse (scene 27) is a sign, in German: Rauchen Verboten. What does this mean?Smoking Forbidden i.e. No Smoking.

Chapter 4: The Umschlagplatz – scenes 31 – 36

There are dead bodies lying around when they arrive in the Umschlagplatz. Why are they there?Left from an earlier round up – people shot as a way of terrorising the vast mass; bodies left as a warning and threat to the next group.

A woman keeps repeating, “Why did I do it?” What had she done? She had smothered her baby, trying to keep it quiet when they were hiding from the Germans.

While his family sits, Szpilman walks among the crowd. Why does the film have him do this? Shows us the variety of despair. A hat is raised, reinforcing that he is well known. So many

children, dead child – but they are all doomed.

One of the questions often asked is why the Jews did not fight back. In what way does this scene answer that question? They are weakened by hunger, despair, fear; dead bodies, as above. we have already seen how even a polite question is responded to. they are unorganised, weaponless; the Germans are helped by Jews; perhaps above all, they cling on to hope – the alternative is too horrific to conceive of.

In the book, Father is quoted: “We are not heroes, we are ordinary people who would prefer to risk hoping for a 10% chance of survival.”

Halina and Henryk rejoin the family. Why did they come back? They came back to be with the family: “We wanted to be with you.” (Polanski says this is the strongest emotion a child has; he survived because he wanted to see his father again.)Szpilman says, “Stupid.” Why does he say this?He fears that they are all going to be killed and that Halina and Henryk have given up their

chance of escaping the fate of the rest of the family.

Scene 32: Szpilman says to Halina, “It’s a funny time to say this, but I wish I knew you better.” What does he mean? Why does she say, “Thank you”?He has recognised that she is more than just his little sister, that she is an interesting person in her own right. Suggests the feeling we often have when it is too late of not appreciating our family. She says thank you because she understands what he means, that he values her as a person.

Why does Heller save Szpilman’s life?He is famous. Heller tried to recruit them earlier, which suggests he cares something about the family.

Scene 34: Szpilman goes to Jehuda’s home. Why does he go there?His family has gone; he cannot go back to his old ‘home’; he is looking for somewhere to hide.

The apartment is empty; Jehuda and his entire family lie dead outside. In the memoir, Szpilman writes that they had been executed earlier in the summer. Why is the scene shifted to here?It fits easily in and saves time; it emphasises Szpilman’s loneliness, with his friends as well as his family gone.

What does the interior of the apartment tell us?The interior has been trashed – the printing press was discovered, as was the family’s hiding place (the upraised trapdoor.

Why does he go the café?As above – he has no friends left, so his former place of work is all that is left.

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Scene 36: Why has Polanski used an upside down shot here?To suggest just how much their worlds have been turned upside down.

Task Sheet 3

Chapter 5: Forced Labour – scenes 37 – 43

1. Luck plays a big part in Szpilman’s survival. In what way is he lucky in these scenes? He is lucky to be beaten and not shot when he drops the bricks, given the way others

have been shot for nothing. He is found easier work inside. He is not selected from the line-up when Benek is shot. The guns are not found by the German guard. He is abused by the SS officer – but not searched; he is carrying weapons.

NB All these incidents are taken directly from the book.

2. What season of the year is it? How do we know?Late summer (August). Flowers, vegetables etc; no heavy overcoats but topcoats being worn. Later, he refers to ‘last summer’.

3. What are Szpilman and the other workers doing?Dismantling part of the wall around the ghetto, which no longer needs to be so big.

4. Scene 37: why are these men shot?To keep the rest in line. The use of terror to persuade people to behave – not unlike the way the Roman army would ‘decimate’ – kill every 10th man – as a punishment for cowardice or fighting badly.An arbitrary exercise of power – “I can so I will.”

5. How does Majorek know what is happening at Treblinka? Why is this important news for Szpilman?They “sent a man” to follow the trains to find out where they were going. His fears re his family are confirmed; he knows he will never see them again.(The same news was brought back to the ghetto via a man who jumped off one of the trains.)

6. Contrast is used in these scenes: give examplesMajorek’s appalling information and his matter of fact tones.The relaxed workers taking a break and the fact that they are actually slaves, living in fear of their lives.The lack of emotion with which Szpilman hears the news and what he is unquestionably feeling.

7. Scene 38: Why does the SS officer say ‘allowded’ and “Kartoffel – potato, ja”?All the English dialogue in the film represents Polish being spoken. German dialogue is in German with subtitles to translate. The SS officer is speaking Polish badly, so the mangled English is to suggest that he is mangling Polish. “Kartoffel” is potato in German, so he is searching for the Polish word; the “Ja?” is his seeking for reassurance that he has the right word.

8. Why does Szpilman decide to leave the ghetto, and take his chances outside the walls?Probably two reasons. He must know he is unlikely to survive much heavy labouring, and he must be concerned for his hands. Any chance of resuming his career would be destroyed if his hands were damaged.Seeing Janina must have reminded him that he has friends in Warsaw who would help him. (In the book, it is old friends who look after him, rather than the Underground, and it takes three attempts before someone is prepared to risk taking him in.)

9. Scene 43: Szpilman is doubly at risk the moment he joins the Polish workers. Explain.He is a Jew outside the ghetto – a capital offence – without his star – a capital offence; He has no papers - a capital offence.

Chapter 6: Outside the Ghetto – scenes 44 – 48

10. Why does Janina burn Szpilman’s clothes?

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Mainly because they will be filthy and probably louse-ridden. Also to destroy any evidence that he was there.

11. Where does Gebczynski hide him that first night? What else is in the hiding place and what does this tell us?In an old fireplace hidden by a storage unit. Weapons. That Gebczynski is with the Polish Underground.

12. Why is the front section of the tram separated off? Why does Szpilman stand right against the barrier?Only Germans may sit at the front (cf. separation between races in South Africa and southern USA). No one who feared arrest would stand so close to German officers, so they will not be suspicious of him.

13. Szpilman says to Gebczynski, “Sometimes I’m still not sure which side of the wall I am on.” What does he mean?Even out of ‘prison’, he is still in prison – he has no freedom of movement, is still in danger.

14. Where does he hide the emergency address? Why does he put it there?In his shoe. If he is forced to leave in a hurry, there will be no danger of forgetting to bring it. (It is good advice for travellers. A friend of mine had his wallet stolen in Italy, and the 20,000-lira note in his shoe got him out of trouble.)

15. Apart from the need to be silent, what is there about this flat that makes life very difficult for him?The neighbour through the wall plays the piano – something he is no longer able to do.He can see the ghetto, and feels guilty that he did not stay to help the doomed rebellion.

16. Why does Gebczynski tell him he must leave the flat?The Gestapo found the weapons. His room has been sealed and he is on the run; Janina

and Andrej have been arrested.

17. He is shown a couple of times just sitting and staring. What is being shown here?He feels guilty for having left the ghetto and not stayed to help the doomed uprising.

“Survivor guilt.”

18. Why is Gebczynski adamant that Szpilman must not be taken alive, and that he will not be?For fear they will give away names of helpers, other partisans etc, under torture. This is why Szpilman does not ask Hosenfeld his name – for fear of betraying him if her were caught.

19. Szp has never smoked – why does he do so now?A signifier of his nervousness, his anxiety.

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Technique

20. Look carefully at the transition from scene 45 to 46. What does the editing suggest?It is evening on his first day in the apartment (February 14); he is lying down fully dressed when he hears voices from next door. He hears an explosion from outside, moves to the window and looks out – to a street that is daylight on April 19, the day the uprising started. He is next shown in shirt sleeves. Two months disappear during his walk to the window.

21. Identify examples of the following production techniques. Comment on their effect. a. PAN static camera records the labour team,

but focuses on Szpilman and turns to follow him

emphasises yet again that it is his experience we are sharing

b. CU the Nazi officer who talks to Szpilman; Szpilman at the window when Gestapo are in the building; in bed

emphasises the fear the situations create;

he is coldc. H/A POV of Majorek on the building site; of the

ghetto uprising; of the Gestapo truck below

typical view from above

d. MS Szpilman waiting for the Gestapo the shots distance us from him a little – he is alone

e. LS waiting by the window

f. ELS the soldiers in the street vulnerability emphasised; they are little people caught up n big events over which they have no control

g. lighting effects dark, noir look to the streets when he waits for Janina; the warm, bright interior of the flat; the cold silver of the night streets again

emphasises contrast between situations

h. Steadicam use in the market informality

i. MONTAGE shots of the ghetto wall with the buildings burning

same shots as earlier - contrast

j. OVER SHOULDER SHOT

in the scene with Janina reminds of Dorota – prepares for her arrival – and of how things were earlier in his life

Task Sheet 4

Chapter 7: On the Run Again – scenes 49 - 50

1. Why is he so short of food?With Janina and Andrej arrested and Gebczynski on the run, there is no one to bring him food.

2. In the book, he says that he left his hiding place and went out and bought some bread. Why is this not included in the film?Good question. Time? It stretches credibility? Often the true stories seem the least credible and they would not want to risk losing the audience at this stage.

3. When Dorota says that his friend Jurek is dead, he makes no comment or response. Why not?After the loss of his entire family, his friends Benek and Jehuda, he is pretty much hardened to death. One more friend is just one more statistic. His emotion is saved for when he believes it has been in vain, and then for when he sees Lednicki has survived.

4. Why would meeting Dorota again like this be particularly painful for him?He obviously was very attracted to her earlier, as she was to him. If the Germans had not invaded, they might have had a future, so it is an opportunity lost.

5. Contrast is used effectively in these scenes. Give details.

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Between the beautiful and compassionate Dorota – a blonde – and the hard-faced blonde next door; between the bare and cold conditions in the flat and the warm and comfortable home; between the blue light of the flat and the warm golden light of Dorota’s home; between his starvation and their easy access to food; between the Szpilman who had charmed Dorota at the beginning and the gaunt fugitive who listens longingly as she plays the cello; between the new life she is expecting and the lives that the Nazis have snuffed out; between what is and what might have been.

Chapter 8: In the Lions’ Den - scenes 51 - 52

6. His new flat has echoes of the scene in the tram (44). In what way?The closer to the Nazis, the less likely they are to come looking for fugitives.

7. Scene 51 opens on a padlock. Why is this a ‘loaded pistol’?A ‘loaded pistol’ is a prop seen earlier in a film that gets used later. In other words, if you see a loaded pistol on a table, someone will fire it sooner or later.Szpilman is padlocked in the room, preventing anyone else getting to him; but later when the building is under attack, he is unable to get out.

8. There is something untrustworthy about Szalas. How is this signified? His alcohol; his smile; his general air of seediness, especially contrasted with Michal’s look of solid citizenship; his artificial bonhomie; his suggestion Szpilman should know him. (In the book, there is no suggestion of this.)

9. In the book, Szpilman gives several things to Szalas to sell but keeps his watch. Why does the film have him give his watch to Szalas?It fits in well with the whole time motif – clocks ticking etc. It provides a good line. The watch is obviously precious since he has managed to keep it so long.

10. What does Dorota say that suggests she had not trusted Szalas?“I knew this would happen. That man should be shot.” (Many of those who had collaborated with the Nazis, or who had betrayed Jews or partisans to them were shot. It is unlikely that included Szalas.)

Film Techniques11. Identify examples of the following production techniques.

a. INPOINT hands undoing padlock signifies new apartment

b. SIGNPOST shrivelled potatotold that uprising is imminent

snow falling when Szalas arrives

hunger, starvationno need to be told what it is when it happensmotif suggesting something bad is happening

c. CU his face as he "plays" the piano; Dorota's as she cares for him

shows feelings

d. OS dialogue the neighbour shouting through the door; Dorota on the other side of the door

something threatening about a voice without a face attached; suggests the fear, lack of security of the times

e. LS Szpilman walking through the snow

his loneliness, vulnerability

f. signifier of the passage of time

beard, long hair

g. POV shot superb shot of window with snow falling beyond (sc. 49)

how limited his horizons are here

h. motif snow falling; watching through a gap in the door; tramcar

Task Sheet 5

This could be used for assessment if wished.

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Chapter 9: The Uprising - scenes 53 - 56

1. The Warsaw Uprising is dealt with very briefly. List the events that chronicle it for Szpilman and us.

Partisans open fire on the Schutzpolizei office and its patrols; then on the medical staff ambulances evacuate the hospital the city burns the water has been turned off two partisans are shot = the beginning of the German success in putting it down a tank is turned on the building corpses are burned on the street Polish prisoners are marched past a flamethrower completes the destruction of the buildings

2. When he escapes from his room, he goes up the stairs instead of down. Why?Down is the street, the Germans, the tank, the seat of the fire. It is instinctive to run up, to climb.

Chapter 10: A Good German - scenes 57 - 59

3. Szpilman has been reduced to the lowest level of human existence. Explain. All he is interested in is finding food and water. What are the signifiers that tell us this? He crawls through holes, scavenges, examines rubbish bins, etc. He is shaggy and unshaven; he shuffles along, no life or spring in his step; he does nothing but search for food – he is reduced to drinking waste water floating with drowned insects.What has he managed to retain that keeps him above a mere animal existence?His music continues in his head; he ‘practises’ on his chest.

4. Scene 58: Hosenfeld is obviously a good man. Why is he so doubtful to begin with? Why does he make Szpilman play?Szpilman could be a spy, a partisan who will kill him, a criminal who is a fugitive from genuine justice. He might not be what he seems.

5. Why does Hosenfeld help Szpilman? He feels guilty about the way the Germans have treated the Jews. He is a decent man, with a conscience. (In the book, he tells Szpilman that he is ashamed of being German.)

Chapter 11: Liberation - scenes 60 – 62

6. Scene 60: what food does Hosenfeld bring Szpilman? What does Szpilman’s reaction to it tell us?Bread, jam. Szpilman moans in pleasure as he eats the jam. He has had nothing sweet for months. (Interestingly, Ruth Cyprys says that sugar was never in short supply in Warsaw during the war.)

7. Scene 61: Why does Hosenfeld say that Szpilman is a good name for a pianist?Szpilman means player – man. Spielen = to play in German.

8. Szpilman tells Hosenfeld that he will play piano on Polish radio when the war is over. Why is this ironic – and at the same time triumphant?He goes through years of hell, barely survives, loses his entire family and many of his friends – to end up where he was to start with. On the other hand, he did survive everything they could throw at him.

9. There is another example of irony in scene 62. What is it?Having survived everything the Germans could throw at him, he is almost shot by his own side.

Chapter 12: Aftermath - scenes 63 - 66

10. What does Lednicki say to the captured Germans? Why is this significant?“You took everything I had. Me, a musician. You took my violin. You took my soul.”In this film, music is more than just music; it represents those aspects of life above mere existence, the things that make life worth living, worth fighting to keep.

Techniques21

11. Analyse scenes 58 and 59 in detail.

12. Scene 60: Analyse the camera shots.

13. Identify examples of the following production techniques. Comment on their effect / suggest reasons for their use. Do not use examples from any scenes you have analysed in detail.

a. light effects torch that Hosenfeld uses – halo effect dramatic

b. LOW ANGLE shot Hosenfeld's POV of Szpilman in his loft reverses usual power angle – the man with the power looks up

c. INSERT the documents Hosenfeld signs a close shot of something being done

d. WIDE the ruins of Warsaw – fantastic

e. SIGNPOST his inability to open the can of pickles hints at future complications; the German coat he is given

EST shot

f. TRACKING follows Szp from kitchen to piano; Hosenfeld when he goes to sit down

we share the experience

g. CU Szp at piano emotions

h. TILT UP From Hosenfeld's boot up to his face a moment of frozen fear

i. MOTIF paper cf. snow fallingwatching through broken window

j. FADE OUT “I’m cold.” passage of time – the next scene is a few weeks later.

Close Analysis: Opening Scenes

camera action soundFADE IN

EXT. WARSAW – DAYChopin Nocturne, played on piano – no other sound accompanies the MONTAGE

MONTAGE: street scenesscreen text: Warsaw 1939

HIGH ANGLE wide street: trams, bicycles, cars, peopleHIGH ANGLE past pointing statue in foregroundWIDE cars, trams, bikesWIDE horse and carriageslightly H/A Grand Theatre and Opera HouseWIDE park and pedestriansHIGH ANGLE park, classical architectureHIGH ANGLE park, mothers, pramsWIDE people in the park

crowd, carsMCU crowd, poster-columnWIDE nearly empty street; man runs towards and past camera

INT. RADIO STATION – DAYINPOINT: BCUslightly H/A

hands on keyboards + their reflection in the polished top. [This shot will be repeated in reverse at the end of the film.]

slow TILT up to MCU

to show Szpilman //

LS producer behind window, turning the pages of the music // piano continuesMCU Szpilman;

he continues to play //an explosion

LS producer, worried //MCU Szp – he flinches and returns to his playing // louder closer

detonationLS producers stands, windows blown out //

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MCU Szp, plaster falls on his shoulders but he continues to play //

explosions

LS producer is told to cut the broadcast – silent //MCU Szp //LS told in mime to stop //MCU Szp shakes his head // more explosions LS producer flees //MCU Szp continues //MCU shot from behind him as window blown out and he is blown

off his seat//explosions

MS Szp gets up in the dust and //EXT. RADIO STATION – DAY

WIDE Chaos, people running screaming, shoutingTRACKS a pretty blonde,HOLDS Dorota, who stops when she sees Szpilman. //REVERSE TRACK Szpilman as he appears – Dorota’s POVTWO SHOT THREE SHOT

Dorota, Szpilmanas Jurek walks to join them

OVER-SHOULDER Szpilman blots blood off his face - slightly L/A – Jurek’s POVTHREE SHOT as Jurek pulls her away; she looks back adoringly at

Szpilman - slightly H/A, Szp’s POVL/A their POV of Szpilman on the top of the stepsH/A Szpilman’s POV as they leave; he follows

another explosion fills the scene with dust explosion

The film will end with the piano playing repeated – same shots in reverse at the concert. The idyllic Warsaw scenes will have been replaced by the wasteland left by the Nazis. Small variety in shots used – the images tell the story, not the camera work. All the views of the producer are LS – from Szpilman’s POV; he gets no closer so camera does not

either Dorota represents his adoring fans, indicates the level of his popularity – yet the attraction between

them is obvious.Close Analysis: Playing for his Life

Polanski’s direction of this scene, his use of pause and nuance, is masterful. He is prepared to take his time – the scene is 8 minutes, 46 seconds long, with the camera

lingering on faces and hands. The length of each shot is given in seconds. All shots are linked to the next by a CUT. Although the shots below are differentiated into CU and MCU, the CU shots of Szpilman and

the MCU shots of Hosenfeld are actually fairly similar in size – a little closer to CU for Szpilman, a little closer to MCU for Hosenfeld, shifting him a little further away.

SHOT ACTION SECS

COMMENT

INT. HOUSE – NIGHTREVERSE TRACK; TRACK

Szpilman through rooms to fireplace

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MS as he picks up fire irons, hammers at the can; it falls

32

TRACK camera holds

can rolling, spilling its precious liquid onto the floor;

23 Incredible suspense created by the slow camera movement here. *

then TILTS up very slowly

to the shoes and then the rest of a German officer

Silence – much more powerful than dramatic music.

MS Hosenfeld 's POV of Szpilman 9 Larger shot (MCU) of Hosenfeld, plus slightly low angle gives him power and authority; emphasises how vulnerable Szpilman is.

MCU Hosenfeld 9MS Szpilman 17MCU Hosenfeld 10MS Szpilman: I am - I was - a

pianist.15

MCU Hosenfeld sighs, jerks his head.

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MS Szpilman 4 23

LS Hosenfeld: Kommen Sie (= Come on.) Szpilman picks up can [OS] and shuffles past into a large room with a piano; "Play something"; Szpilman puts the can on the piano, opens lid, pulls up chair, sits;

110 This single shot lasts 1 minute 50 seconds, quite a remarkable length for a modern film where a few seconds is more usual. Compare the length of shots in the filming of the actual playing with that of the dialogue that follows. The playing is filmed the way a concert pianist would be filmed.

the camera circles and focuses

on his hands as he looks at them and begins to play - Chopin Ballad No 2. It is so cold his breath can be seen in the air

MCU Hosenfeld, 37TRACK as he goes to sit downLS Szpilman at piano, playing for

his life 11 Beautifully backlit - by moonlight or

streetlights - he plays with as much commitment as if in a concert hall.

MCU Hosenfeld 12CU Szpilman, back where we first

saw him – at the piano 14 ironic contrast in the situation

his hands 16 delicate, skilful, artistic / ragged cuffs

CU Szpilman 9CU his hands 13ELS WIDE street; the driver kicks his

heels 9 reminder of the wider context

CU Szpilman 5INSERT hands 18CU Szpilman 12MCU Hosenfeld 10INSERT hands 10CU Szpilman 21INSERT hands 15CU Szpilman 8MCU Hosenfeld 6CU Szpilman 5 note how much shorter these shots MCU Hosenfeld 3 areCU Szpilman 8MCU Hosenfeld 4LS piano; Szpilman picks up his

can 6 food is still his priority

MS Hosenfeld tugs his uniform straight

3 emphasises his uniform, and the ‘duty’ that goes with it

L/A LS Hosenfeld’s POV, lit by torch, as Szpilman drags ladder out

Contrast with cold light – warm halo effect of torch

H/A LS Hosenfeld and torch One of few examples of the use of LOW ANGLE shots – and reverses usual power position – it is Hosenfeld who has the power here.

L/A LS torch lights up Szpilman in attic

H/A LS Hosenfeld and torchL/A LS Szpilman in atticH/A LS Hosenfeld leavesL/A LS Szpilman hears door close silver moonlight on can, faceWIDE LS Hosenfeld goes to his car;

drives awayMCU Szpilman weeps

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* This is not a POV shot. Szpilman has already seen Hosenfeld and is frozen – he makes no attempt to stop his precious liquid from draining away. For once, the camera is used to create tension in us.

There is no great variety in the camera work – this is classical, mise en scène (and very satisfying) filming, where the camera is essentially static and the actors do the work.

Note how, in spite of his situation, the music takes over Szpilman, and he maybe even forgets where he is. Hosenfeld remains enigmatic.

Contrasts between the smart officer and the unkempt Szpilman; his delicate and skilful fingers and the frayed cuff the beauty of the music and the rubble around them; the memory of the suave and elegant Szpilman at the start of the film and the starving

scarecrow who plays now.

Hosenfeld uses the pronoun 'Sie" = the formal and respectful 'You', unlike other Germans earlier who use 'du' to the Jews.

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Setting Notes

The film was shot in Poland, in Prague and in a German studio Warsaw was recreated on giant sets in a German film studio back lot, including the street overlooked

by the apartment where Szpilman is hidden; from his high window the pianist can see the walls of the ghetto.

Some filming was done in Warsaw but the old city was largely obliterated by the Germans; the only part that survived is an area – Praga - across the river where the Russians waited until the Germans had put down the Polish resistance. The designers recreated the ghetto out of this.

The ruined city where Szpilman hides and scavenges was created out of an old Russian army camp due for destruction; they blew it up to create one of the most striking images of the film.

The scenes with Hosenfeld were filmed in a villa in Potsdam; the hospital was a recently abandoned Russian turn of the century hospital in East Germany (Belitz).

How many signifiers can you identify that signal time and place? screen text and references in dialogue trams, horses and carriages

languages used in signs costumes – see separate notes

1. Where does most of the action take place? In the streets and apartments of Warsaw; within the ghetto, and later outside the ghetto walls. Much of the story is told within or looking from buildings.

2. How do the buildings add to the impact of the film?The narrow streets and high buildings contribute to a feeling of claustrophobia, of being trapped. The damage to them – from bombs, and later from tanks and flamethrowers – turns Warsaw into a wasteland. That the solidness of them should be so easily destroyed suggests a metaphor for the fragility of civilisation.

3. What does their home tell us about the Szpilmans?They are middle class, comfortable rather than wealthy. A bit shabby, suggesting former wealth. It is a musical home – the piano is a Bechstein; Father’s violin is important to him. Tapestry on the wall, paintings, family photos. That they can afford a wagon to take their furniture to the ghetto puts them above the poorer class, but the privations of the ghetto soon tell.

4. Comment on the costumes. How much do they locate the film in a specific time and or place?The style of clothes – the fashions – are late 30s; the men and women all wear hats; Jewish women in headscarves. German uniforms. Stars. Overcoats – cold.The costumes help the atmospheres and mood also. The early costumes include a great deal of colour – browns, salmon pinks, reds, yellows – but the colour disappears once they are in the ghetto, where costumes are drab, monochromatic.

5. What aspects of camera work, sound and music, lighting, etc reinforce the impression you get from the basic setting?The high angle shots reinforce the idea of an imprisoned people; cool light emphasises the cold; the sound of explosions, guns, etc recreates the war; the trams and the bells recreate the busy street;

6. Society – the people around us – is an important aspect of setting. How is that shown in this film?Most noticeably in the teeming numbers within the ghetto, the bodies, the beggars, the filth, its enforced moral breakdown, and its grotesque administration.The absolute suddenness of Szpilman's solitude after he escapes the death train leads to one of the most stunning images – he stumbles toward a retreating camera, weeping through streets of abandoned belongings and dead bodies into the empty and trashed home of his friend.The formality of language when adults address one another: Mr Szpilman; Dr Ehrlich

7. What is the predominant mood? Are there significant changes?The mood is sombre, serious, sorrowful, occasionally frightening, occasionally suspenseful; yet leavened occasionally with a touch of humour (the “madman” Rubinstein, and Jehuda’s cheerful dismissal of musicians as too “musical”).

Which of the descriptions – montage or mise en scène - applies to Polanski’s direction of this film?Classical – mise en scène: Polanski uses the camera in as unobtrusive and unflashy a way as possible. The images and the actors do the work, tell the story.

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Characters: Who’s Who?

1. He hides Szpilman in an old fireplace on his first night out of the ghetto. Gebczynski2. A German officer who brings Szpilman food. Hosenfeld3. Szpilman’s younger brother. Henryk4. He collects money on Szpilman’s behalf but leaves him to starve. Szalas5. He publishes an underground paper in the ghetto. Jehuda

Zyskind6. A singer, she helps Szpilman when he first goes into hiding, bringing him

food.Janina

7. He is one of the leaders of the resistance. Majorek8. She is Szpilman’s younger sister. Halina9. She is a cellist who helps to hide him. Dorota10. The older of his two sisters, she is a lawyer. Regina11. A member of the Jewish police, he saves Szpilman from the death train. Itzak Heller12. A violinist who survives a concentration camp. Lednicki13. The manager of the café where Szpilman plays, he is later shot by a Nazi. Benek14. A German factory owner, who provides an employment certificate for

Father.Mr Schultz

15. Janina’s husband, he helps to hide Szpilman when he first leaves the ghetto.

Andrej

Character Notes

Wladyslaw (Wladek) Szpilman / Adrien Brody Brody was aged 29 when he played Szpilman who was 28 at the start of the war. He lost 30lb so he would look thin enough to be believable. He based his portrayal of Szpilman on Roman Polanski; the two men lived not dissimilar lives.

“Roman is a survivor. He survived things similar to what Szpilman survived." (Brody) Brody could play the piano but had lessons every day so he would look convincing as a pianist.

To begin with Szpilman has all the confidence and even smugness of a man who takes charm and good fortune as his birthright. He refuses to allow the German invasion to interfere with more pressing matters, like the seduction of a star-struck young woman named Dorota.

By the end he has been reduced to a nearly animal condition - sick, haggard and terrified. “Having learned that his family is dead, what do you live for? You live for something that is your

passion, and therefore I think that music played an enormous role in his survival.” (Polanski) Adrien understood that it was not going to be a showy performance, that it had to be very flat, very

realistic.” (Polanski)

As Szpilman, Brody gives an extraordinary, exhausting performance, often without much dialogue to speak. As he grows hungrier, his pride and humanity melt away so slowly that you can't quite visually register it - like a flower gradually dying. He shambles along, fingers twitching in mid-air, breathing through his nose as if afraid to open his mouth. He's like a reluctant Frankenstein monster created by uncaring villains. San Francisco Examiner

We sense that Szpilman is a man who came early and seriously to music, knows he is good, and has a certain aloofness to life around him. More than once we hear him reassuring others that everything will turn out all right; this faith is based not on information or even optimism, but essentially on his belief that, for anyone who plays the piano as well as he does, it must.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

It's a dehumanising process, and we see the effect on Szpilman, who, as played by Brody, starts the film with the bearing and confidence of a young man whose talent has paved the way to a golden future. Gradually, doubt creeps into his eyes, and then terror, and then blind animal panic. His performance is so true that we don't even notice it as a performance. It's as if he were a character in a documentary.

Mike LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

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Useful vocabularyFamous, delicate, charming, elegant, artistic, optimistic, sensitive, distanced, determined, focussed

Other Characters

The FamilyThey all have a strong sense of family. Father considers packing a photo of a distant family member. Being together is a mantra they cling to.HenrykAngry, sarcastic, snipes at Wladek, high principles, literate.FatherStoic, optimistic, dignified, even in the face of humiliation. Look for his reaction when he is given the employment certificate – an old man who is trying to hold things together. MotherProtective, maternal, tries to hold family togetherHalinaThe youngest, with so much promise; her costume helps track the effects of ghetto life – from pretty to drab. She seems helpless in the face of the persecutionReginaa lawyer – quiet, reasonable, peace-making neither Halina nor Regina has much chance to develop as a character; Henryk is more vivid as an individual.

Jehuda ZyskindA man who can find good in any situation; an optimist – “You worry too much, Wladek.” A socialist and a good friend, who helps out when he can. Sense of humour. A political activist who publishes an underground paper. None of these good qualities help him survive.MajorekRepresents the strong fighter; determined, organised, a fixer. Not passive, not ready to give in easily. A strong character who makes an impression.Itzak HellerThe other side of the Jewish face – a bully, brutal, susceptible to flattery, likes to show his power. Does he rescue Szpilman just because he can? or because he likes him? or because Szpilman is famous?DorotaA symbol of the many good women who helped Jews. A star-struck fan who is fascinated by Szpilman, though four years later she is married and pregnant. A decent and warm-hearted woman who is appalled by the Nazi decrees. She risks her life and that of her baby to shelter Szpilman.SzalasThe other side of the coin – a man whose ‘help’ is more to do with his own gain than with genuine concern for others. Untrustworthy, venal, rather unpleasant.HosenfeldStrong enigmatic performance – makes a mark in a short time; a good man in a situation he does not enjoy; he risks his life to help Szpilman; conscience-stricken, decent, honourable, pleasant

CostumesThe men wear suits and ties much of the time, even in the Umschlagplatz. Szpilman is in a 3-piece suit to play on the radio. Henryk is different; he wears a tight jersey over a long-collared shirt, braces. Is his costume to suggest his youth or his refusal to be like everybody else?Overcoats, scarves, gloves indicate seasons and colder weather. Szpilman’s gloves are good indicators of his changing status: leather at start; mittens on labour force; none at end, with his hands stiff like claws. The increasing drabness of the girls’ clothes helps signal their fall in fortune.Many of the suits and shirts are striped – allusions to the striped uniforms worn by concentration camp inmates. In the barracks where they are living in the large ghetto, Father is in stripes; Henryk in striped pyjamas. Later, even Szpilman’s scarf is striped. Culminates in the striped uniforms of the liberated men at the end.The Jewish police are in motley ‘uniforms’ – hats, belts, arm-bands but no real uniform. Nazis are immaculate.

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Background information to film

The Director

Polanski himself is a Holocaust survivor, his own survival as random as Szpilman's, which is perhaps why he was attracted to this story. Steven Spielberg tried to enlist him to direct Schindler’s List, but he refused, maybe because Schindler's story involved a man who deliberately set out to frustrate the Holocaust, while from personal experience Polanski knew that fate and chance played a huge role in most survivals. 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, perhaps, his own deepest feelings: that he was lucky to survive, when others did not have his luck.

PolanskiI always knew that one day I would make a film about this painful chapter in Polish history, but I did not want it to be autobiographical. When I read the first chapter of Szpilman’s memoir, I knew instantly that this would be the subject of my next film. It was the story I was seeking: in spite of the horror, the account has a positive side and is full of hope. I survived the bombing of Poland and the Krakow ghetto and I wanted to recreate memories from my childhood. It was also important for me to remain as close to reality as possible and not make a film that was typically Hollywood.Szpilman’s account was written just after the war – perhaps that is why the story is so strong and genuine. He describes the reality of this period with surprising objectivity that is almost cool and scientific. In this book there are bad Poles and good Poles, just as there were bad and good Jews.

Aspects of the design and directionThe film is characterised by a rigorous lack of sentimentality, which reflects the tone of the book.“We tried to change as little as possible; we tried to stick to the line of the book. But you need the

action; many of the events as written are like a journal and so unfilmable. We had to give it a shape. I think we are very faithful to the book. I wanted to tell it honestly.”

The director and designers took great pains to be accurate to the times, to be authentic re details. They studied the films, the archives; many scenes replicate actual footage filmed at the time: the procession into the ghetto, the loading of the trains, the figures in flames jumping from the ghetto buildings, the surrender of the few survivor, etc

Polanski himself was the touchstone of authenticity - whole atmosphere, detail, attitudes. Much of the film is virtually autobiographical.Polanski“I used a great deal of my own recollection.” His father being slapped for not walking in the gutter; the woman who is shot when she asks where

they were being taken; the whole general atmosphere, the details of German officers’ attitudes. Heller’s instruction: “Don’t run!” In the book, Szpilman runs, but when Polanski escaped from the

Umschlagplatz as a small boy (he said he was going to get some food) the Polish policeman said, “Don’t run.” The scene where Szpilman walks thorough the empty street is inspired by Polanski’s own experience.

Pawel Edelman, Director of Photography: “We realised it should be a quiet film. Low-key camera work, low-key lighting. Everything should be invisible; all technique, all our tricks, we should forget. We should think rather about characters and we should hide behind characters.”

Polanski: “Everyone has a tendency to show off his ability and his art, and they understood very well and they limited all those desires. They serve the picture. We just had to tell the story, and tell the story honestly, to our best recollection – at least, those who remember those times. Tell it the way it was – no more, no less. . . I wanted it to look like scenes from life. I didn’t want to give more than is necessary.”

Ronald Harwood, Screenwriter: I didn't speak to Polanski in great detail about his own experiences in the ghetto, but it kept coming up in conversation. He was the best sounding board to know if something was true or real. He doesn't like talking about it and when he does he speaks as if it all happened to someone else. His tone is like that of the book and we kept that objectivity and lack of sentimentality in the movie.

Polanski had turned down the chance to direct Schindler's List. It was set in the Krakow ghetto from which he'd escaped and he knew all the survivors and felt too close to it. But when he got this book, he knew it was a story he could tackle; not a personal dredging of the soul.

Polanski – a Brief Biography

The son of a Polish Jew and a Russian immigrant, Polanski was born in Paris on August 18, 1933. When he was three, his family moved to the Polish town of Krakow - an unfortunate decision, since the Germans invaded the city in 1940. Krakow’s Jews were forced to move to a “Jewish residential area”, the Krakow

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ghetto, and Polanski's parents were deported to a concentration camp. Polanski escaped deportation when he and another boy were allowed to leave the dreaded Umschlagplatz by a Polish policeman.

The boy managed to survive with help from kindly Catholic families, although he was at times forced to fend for himself. At one point, the Germans used him for idle target practice. It was during this period that Polanski became a devoted cinephile, seeking refuge in movie houses whenever possible. The cinemas provided him a type of protection that was brutally absent in the outside world. Shortly after sustaining serious injuries in an explosion, Polanski learned of his mother's death at Auschwitz; he has said that he will never get over the pain of that. His father, driven by the desire to see his son again, survived the camps.

His love of cinema continued to help him to cope with the personal trauma he had suffered; two films that particularly influenced him at this time were Laurence Olivier's Hamlet and Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. At the age of 16, he nearly became the next victim of a man who had just killed three people. His father enrolled him in a technical school, which he left in 1950 to attend film school. At the same time he became an actor with the Krakow Theatre and made his onscreen acting debut in 1954. That same year, he was one of six applicants accepted into the rigorous director's course at Lodz's prestigious State Film School, where he made a series of acclaimed short films; all featured the black humour that would characterise his later features.

Polanski made his feature film debut in 1962 with Knife in the Water; as with most of his subsequent features, he also worked on the screenplay, in this case collaborating with Jerzy Skolimowski and Jakub Goldberg. A suspenseful, symbolic psychological drama set aboard a sailboat, the film tells the story of a husband's misbegotten attempts to impress his wife and a potential rival, a young hitchhiker they bring aboard. It was applauded for its visual precision, another characteristic of Polanski's work; it was also the only full-length feature the director made in Poland until The Pianist.

Polanski moved to England to make his next two films, Cul de Sac and Repulsion; the latter became a cornerstone of contemporary psychological thrillers and, despite poor box-office returns, is said to be the director's favourite film. He made his Hollywood debut in 1968 with the horror classic Rosemary's Baby. As with his earlier works, the film was more concerned with psychological terror than cheap shocks, creating a sense of foreboding terror that many directors have since tried to copy with limited success. Polanski's next film, Macbeth, is a violent and controversial adaptation of Shakespeare’s great play. Made shortly after his wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family, its graphic violence was said to reflect the director's grief and outrage.

He directed comedy (What?) in Italy and then returned to Hollywood to direct one of his finest films, Chinatown (1974), a film that revitalised the nearly dead film noir genre and earned Polanski an Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award, and won screenwriter Robert Townsend an Oscar, partly thanks to Polanski’s insistence on keeping the brilliant and perfect ending that Townsend wanted to make more up-beat.

Since 1976, Polanski has lived and worked in Europe, and has directed a mixed bag, including Tess, Pirates, Frantic, Bitter Moon and Death and the Maiden. Although the quality is uneven, what his oeuvre demonstrates is his versatility and his interest in trying different genres.

The Pianist is a dark film, but it is also a triumph, a story not just of survival, but of the spirit prevailing. Whatever this work means to Polanski personally, it is also his finest film since Chinatown. It's been nearly 30 years since he achieved that kind of excellence, but it was worth the wait.

What strikes you first about The Pianist, aside from the fact that it is Roman Polanski's most personal and powerful film in years, is its rigorous lack of sentimentality. Polanski and screenwriter Ronald Harwood never resort to phoney Life Is Beautiful uplift in telling the true story of young pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who survived the Nazi invasion of Warsaw (where much of this film was shot) by hiding out and living like an animal. If the film lacks the heroic heft of Schindler's List, it is second to none in unflinching honesty.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Perhaps because of his own experiences, Mr. Polanski approaches this material with a calm, fierce authority. This is certainly the best work Mr. Polanski has done in many years (which, unfortunately, is not saying a lot)... and it is also one of the very few non-documentary movies about Jewish life and death under the Nazis that can be called definitive (which is saying a lot). And - again paradoxically - this is achieved by realising the modest, deliberate intention to tell a single person's story, to recreate a specific and finite set of events.

A.O. Scott, New York Times

Timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto

Events shown or mentioned in the film are in bold. NB The Nazis forbade the use of the term ‘ghetto’, preferring to call it the “separate Jewish quarter” or the “Jewish residential district”.

1939September

Germany invades Poland; Warsaw bombed

Sept 27 Poland surrenders

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Oct Hitler reviews his troops in WarsawAll Jews to serve two years in a labour camp; all Jewish males between 14 and 60 must register.

Oct 31 All Jews must wear blue Star of DavidNov Jews are forbidden to buy from or sell to Aryans; or to bake bread.Dec 11 Curfew – no Jews allowed out between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.Dec One hundred Jewish intellectuals – teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, musicians – shot1940Jan 26 Jews forbidden to travel by train without special permission

Large numbers of Jews transported to Warsaw by train – three days jammed in cattle trucks without water, food or warm clothes in the middle of winter; about half were dead on arrival.Jews forbidden to enter German shops.

Jews must raise their hats and bow to all German soldiers August The city is divided into three zones: German, Polish and JewishSept 1 All Jewish cafés and then chemist shops transferred to German ownership

Transportation to labour camps beginsOct 12 Establishment of ghetto announcedOct 31 All Jews forced into the ghetto. 130,000 Jews and 113,000 Poles dispossessed of their

homes and forced to move.Nov 16 The ghetto is sealed in1941winter Jews forbidden to burn fuel for heatingMarch Between 2,000 and 10,000 new arrivals dailyApril Young men rounded up for labour camps (Henryk among them) – but those who

went were those who could not afford to buy their way outJune After the invasion of USSR, the comprehensive and systematic destruction of the Jews

beginsOct 15 Death penalty announced for leaving the ghetto, for helping someone leave, for

sheltering JewsDec Jew forbidden electricity, then gasDec 26 All fur – coats, hats etc – confiscated. In return, the Jews are given a receipt for which they

have to pay 2 zlotys1942March 15 Small ghetto closedJuly 22 – Sept 2

Deportations to Treblinka begin. The Chairman of the Jewish Council commits suicide.

August 400,000 Jews from all over German-occupied Europe sent to death campsAug 4 13,000 sent to Treblinka from Warsaw in one dayAugust 16 Szpilman family deportedSept 21 Most of the Jewish police are deported. From the end of Sept, there is a 4 month hiatus.Dec 31 Szpilman’s work group is attacked by Nazi officers1943January SS tries to clear out ghetto and is repulsedJan 18 5,000 rounded up; another 600 murderedFebruary Szpilman escapes the ghettoApril 14 Second attempt to clear out the ghetto - Jewish uprising May 6 The last Jews surrender; 7000 are executed; rest sent to death camps1944June 6 Normandy LandingAugust 1 Warsaw uprising

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The Warsaw Ghetto – some Facts

An official German document from 1941 states:The Jewish residential district covers an area of 403 hectares (995 acres). The Judenrat [Jewish Council], which claims to have conducted a census, estimates the population of this area to be approximately 410,000 Jews, while our own observations and calculations point to between around 470,000 and 590,000 Jews. Adopting the statistical figures of the Judenrat and subtracting empty lots and cemeteries, the population density equals 1,108 persons per hectare of built-up territory, or 110,800 per sq. km (247 acres). The corresponding figures for the city of Warsaw as a whole are 14,000 persons per square km of the total metropolitan district and 38,000 persons per square km of built-up and habitable space. The Jewish residential district comprises around 27,000 apartments with an average of two and a half rooms each. Consequently, the average occupancy can be put at 15 persons per apartment and six to seven persons per room. The Jewish quarter is separated from the rest of the walled-in streets, windows, doors and empty lots, fire and partition walls having been incorporated. The walls are 3 metres high; another metre is added by a parapet of barbed wire. In addition, surveillance is provided by police patrols on horseback and in motor vehicles.

This chilling description is largely accurate, except that it underestimates the overcrowding which characterised the ghetto. According to post-war calculations, population density was 128,000 per sq. km and the number of people concentrated in each room was 9.2. The area was thus neither 'Jewish residential district' nor a 'ghetto' but a combination of the largest Jewish 'prison city' in Europe and a forced labour camp. This was clearly understood by its inhabitants. According to Emanuel Ringelblum, one of the most important diarists of the ghetto and the main organizer of underground historical activity there: “Any comparison with the ghetto of the past is inappropriate because the ghetto then was the product of historical processes and corresponded to the general significance of such developments. But the ghetto today is a concentration camp whose inmates must support themselves.” [Lewin, p.2]

The wall was built, according to the Nazis, to prevent “typhus and other Jewish diseases” spreading into the rest of the city.

The ghetto housed not just Warsaw’s Jews but Jews from other parts of Europe, including Germany. At its largest, 500,000 lived within its walls, many starving to death.

The official German figures for the transportation were 310,322 deported: 254,000 to Treblinka, where they were gassed with carbon monoxide; 5,000 murdered on the way; 11,000 to labour camps.

The starving Jews were bribed to volunteer for transportation with offers of bread and marmalade.

About 70,000 remained behind: 35,000 kept as slave labourers; 20-25,000 in hiding The Werterfassung, the German Department responsible for looting Jewish property, by Jan-

April 1942, had £2 million ($4 million) worth of confiscated goods.

Before the Nazis destroyed it, Warsaw had one of the most vibrant and vigorous Jewish communities in Europe; the arts, music, theatre, education, literature all flourished. Many Jews, however, like Szpilman himself, thought of themselves simply as Poles.

Of the 3.5 million Jews who lived in Poland before the war, only 240,000 survived the Nazis. It is well known that Polish anti-Semitism aided the Nazi extermination plans. What is not well known is that no other nation hid so many Jews from the Nazis. If you hid a Jew in France, the penalty was prison or a concentration camp; in Germany, it cost you your life. In Poland it cost the lives of your entire family, yet nearly 400,000 Poles risked their lives and their families to save Jews. Of the 16,000 Aryans remembered in Yad Vashem, the central Jewish place of remembrance in Jerusalem, one third are Polish.

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Life in the Warsaw Ghetto

In July, 1942, it is estimated that only 70,000 ghetto inhabitants were employed (60th men, 10th women) which left as many as 200,000 with no means of supporting themselves.

The makeup of the ghetto population was a social elite of about 20-30,000; another 200,000 who make do; and 250,000 beggars and destitute.

The Szpilmans were in the second group. Only Wladek earned anything; he was paid by the day and it all went to feed the family. The rest taught music or English – but obviously earned little.

Szpilman says he worried about survival – he felt responsible for keeping his family fed and alive. They were more phlegmatic – just got on with living.

By 1941, the daily food ration in Warsaw was 2613 calories for a German, 669 for a Pole, and 184 for a Jew. Hunger and malnutrition were widespread; between January 1941 and July 1942, nearly 61 thousand died of starvation.

Soup kitchens financed by American Jews stopped after US entered the war. Although smuggling officially carried the death penalty, it was the only way the ghetto stayed alive.

Eighty percent of the food needed was smuggled in, mostly past bribed German and Polish guards. After the war, it was suggested that a memorial to “the unknown smuggler” should be erected in

Warsaw.

In November, 1940, there were 22 gates into the ghetto; by July, 1942, there were only 4. Most dwellings had no heating. Disease, especially typhus, and the lice which carried it, were rife

Value of Money Before the war, an average lunch – the main meal of the day in Poland - cost 1 or 1.5 zloty; an

excellent lunch up to 8 zlotys. In the ghetto, at the beginning, 1.25 zlotys bought a plate of soup; 3.5 bought soup with a piece of

meat in it; a substantial meal cost 14 – 15.5 zlotys, and sometimes up to 20. By July 1942, bread cost 60 zlotys; by August, it cost 88, and then 120 zlotys; potatoes 20 zlotys a

kilo; by August, 30 zlotys. Szpilman records that when he was working outside the ghetto in late 1942, he borrowed 50 zlotys,

bought bread for 20 zlotys and potatoes for 3 zlotys a kilo and sold the bread for 50 and the potatoes for 18 a kilo. He had enough to eat for once and enough to buy more the next day.

A freedom bribe increased over the months from 500 zlotys to 6000 zlotys.

Jewish Police Initially supported by Jews, it was made up of volunteers, including many lawyers and army officers By Dec 1941, there were 1000 – 1600; by July 1942, there were 2200. By July 1942, they had become a hated symbol of authority. They co-operated with Nazis, rounded up

people for the camps; were susceptible to bribes. Their self-preservation was limited - one could save his wife but not his mother from the transport. They were eventually sent to the gas chambers themselves, so their efforts to save their own lives

were unavailing.

Aspects of the ghetto that others have recorded: Secret schools; diaries and journals being written German Jews, wearing yellow stars, being sent to the ghetto, as were gipsies also. Typhus epidemic – 5000 deaths a month In spite of the appalling conditions under which they were forced to live, the Warsaw Jews continued

to try to make the best of things. Artistic, theatrical and musical aspects of life continued to flourish; children continued to go to school. Szpilman’s family taught music.

So why didn’t the Jews fight back? They outnumbered the Germans.The age-old Jewish response to persecution, which has dogged them for 2000 years, was to keep their heads down and wait for better times. Some did fight back but vicious reprisals followed.Szpilman tells of a man shot for not lifting his hat to a soldier, a Christian woman shot for cursing the Germans, another for objecting to the mistreatment of a Jew.

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The Ghetto in Warsaw

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Interesting Trivia

Adrien Brody lost 14 kilograms for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman by eating a daily diet of two boiled eggs and green tea for breakfast, a little chicken for lunch, and a small piece of fish or chicken with steamed vegetables for dinner, over a six-week period. Initially his weight was 73 kilograms.

In order to connect with the feeling of loss required to play the role, Brody got rid of his apartment, sold his car, and didn't watch television.

Roman Polanski originally wanted Joseph Fiennes for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman.

Over 1,400 actors came to open auditions for the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman at a casting call in London, including oriental and black women. Unsatisfied with all who tried, Polanski looked to American actors, where he found Adrien Brody. He decided during their first meeting in Paris that he was perfect for the role. At that time Brody was shooting The Affair of the Necklace (2001).

Lew Rywin (the producer) was supposed to play the "Customer with Coins" who quiets Szpilman in the restaurant. Because of Rywin's unexpected sunburn, the role was eventually given to Zbigniew Zamachowski.

Polanski provides the voice of the man waiting to cross the street who complains about a Gentile street running across the ghetto.

While scouting locations in Krakow, Polanski met a man who had helped his family survive the war.

For those who don't speak German: in general, the Germans use the informal version of "you" – du - when talking to the Jews, which reflects their views that the Jews are lesser beings. You wouldn't talk to adult strangers that way. However, Hosenfeld (the officer who discovers Szpilman in hiding) always uses the proper formal form – Sie - because of the way he personally feels.

Useful quotations

Szpilman I'm not going anywhere.Halina Good. Then nor am I.Mother Don't be ridiculous. We've got to keep together.Szpilman If I'm going to die, I prefer to die in my own home.

BBC Radio Poland is no longer alone.Father Didn't I tell you? All will be well.

Szpilman You know what people are like. They want to be better Nazis than Hitler. Dorota It's so humiliating for someone like you.

Szpilman It's an official decree - no Jews allowed in the parks. Dorota What, are you joking? Szpilman No, I'm not. I would suggest we sit down on a bench, but that's also an official decree. No

Jews allowed on benches. Dorota This is absurd. Szpilman So, we should just stand here and talk. I don't think we're not allowed to do that.

Dorota This is disgraceful.Szpilman Don't worry. It won't last long.Dorota That's what I said. It's too absurd.

Szpilman [of the ghetto] It’s too small! There's 400,000 of us in WarsawHenryk No, 360,000. So it will be easy.

Henryk There are people here making millions. They bribe the guards; the guards turn a blind eye. They are bringing in cartloads – food, tobacco, liquor, French cosmetics – and the poor are dying all around us and they don't give a damn.

Jehuda This is the greatest pianist in Poland, maybe the whole world.

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Henryk Playing the piano for all the parasites in the ghetto... They don't give a damn about people's suffering. They don't even notice what's going on around them.

Father I blame the Americans... American Jews – and there are lots of them. What have they done for us? What do they think they are doing? People here are dying – haven't got a bite to eat. Jewish bankers over there should be persuading America to declare war on Germany.

Dr Ehrlich I’m telling you, it’s a disgrace. We’re letting them take us to our deaths like sheep to the slaughter. Why don’t we attack them? There are half a million of us. We could break out of the ghetto. At least we could die honourably, not as a stain on the face of history.

Mr Grun Why are you so sure they are sending us to our death?Dr Ehrlich I’m not sure. You know why I’m not sure? Because they didn’t tell me. I’m telling you –

they are going to wipe us all out.Mr Grun The Germans will never squander a huge labour force like this. They are sending us to a

labour camp; it's obvious.Dr Ehrlich Oh sure. Look at that cripple there. Look at the old people, the children. They're going to

work?

Szpilman [taking off his watch] Here, sell this. Food is more important than time.

Szpilman I don't know how to thank you. Hosenfeld Thank God, not me. He wants us to survive. Well, that's what we have to believe.

Szpilman Please, don't shoot! I'm Polish!Soldier You're Polish? Then why the coat? Szpilman I'm cold.

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Glossary of Film Termsambient sound background sound (not music): footsteps, bushes rustling – FOLEY effectsanimation The process of assembling drawings to be photographed one frame at a time, to create an illusion of

movement. Cartoons are best-known form of animation. art director The designer of sets and costumes.aural bridge hearing the sound of the next shot before cutting to it - signals a transitionauteur A director (or occasionally some other type of film-maker) with a recognisable style and view of life.‘b’ movie A low budget movie of the kind used to fill out a double feature. (Compare the phrase ‘B side’ of a record.)backlighting Light from behind a person or object, sometimes creating a halo effect.back (rear) projection Adding a filmed background to live action, so it looks as though the action is taking place in that location.body language The way our feelings are expressed through our body.camera angle The angle at which the camera is pointed at a person or object (high, low, neutral = eye-level). A camera

tilted to one side so the horizon is on a slant is canted or tilted (not to be confused with a ‘tilt shot’.]cinematographer A movie cameraman, usually the ‘director of photography’.close-up (C.U.) A camera shot that seems to bring us close to the person or object being filmed; a shot of a person’s face

only is a ‘close-up’. + ‘Extreme close-up’ (E.C.U.) or ‘big close-up’ (B.C.U.).continuity The script supervisor keeps a record of ‘takes’ and makes sure that the details are consistent from one shot

to another (e.g. a character must wear exactly the same clothes even if a scene is shot over several days).crane shot A shot taken from a crane (a kind of high angle shot).credits The list of cast, crew, and other people involved in making a film. ‘Head credits’ at beginning, & ‘tail credits’.cross-cutting The alternating of shots from two different sequences, often in different locales, suggesting they are taking

place at the same time.cut The place where one shot as been spliced to another.cut-away A shot which briefly turns our attention away from the main action to someone or something on the sidelines.deep focus Every object is in focus to a great depth. [cf. shallow focus]dissolve One image fades in while another fades out, so that they are superimposed for a few moments.dolly Any platform with wheels that allows the camera to be moved: ‘dolly shot’, ‘tracking’ or ‘trucking’ shot.dub To record dialogue after a film has been shot, usually replacing one language with another.editing The process of selecting, arranging and trimming the various shots to make up a film. establishing shot Usually a long-shot, it gives an overview of a scene so the audience is not confused about what is

happening and where.exposition The basic information that must be supplied to an audience at the beginning of a story, so they can follow

the story and feel involved with it.extra Someone acting a minor part, in a crowd scene for example.fade-in An image appears out of blackness, gradually brightening to full strength. Fade-out = image fades to blackfilm noir A French term (‘black cinema’) for a genre of thrillers in which the universe is despairing and fatalistic.fish eye lens A very wide lens that distorts the image.flashback A return to a scene in the past. (A flash forward = a premonition of the future.)focus The sharpness of an image. To focus a camera is to adjust the lens so that it gives a sharper image.footage The amount of film used, or to be used (measured in feet or metres).frame A term used to refer to: 1. any single image of a film (there are 24 frames per second)

2. the rectangular shape of the image (like the ‘frame’ of a painting).freeze frame A single frame repeated many times so it looks like a still photograph. gaffer The chief electrician in charge of the lights. Their assistant is the ‘best boy’.genre A type of film (e.g. the western, sci-fi.).grain The texture of the film emulsion. A film image with coarse texture is said to be ‘grainy’. hand held camera The camera is sometimes held in the hand, even though a tripod gives smoother results. see Steadicam.high key lighting Bright lighting, usually provided by one source of light (the ‘key light’).inpoint The detail or image at the beginning of a scene, selected for its impact, or because it provides a smooth

transition from the previous scene to the new scene. Compare OUTPOINT.insert A detail shot (for example a close-up of a letter).jump cut An abrupt transition between shots, usually deliberate, which is disorienting in terms of time and space; a

startling transition that requires a leap of the imagination. Peter Jackson uses the term ‘crash cut’ for really shocking jumps.

leader A square piece of film added to the ‘head’ (beginning) or ‘tail’ (end) of a film.location A place, other than a studio, where a film is shot.long lens A lens with a long focal effect that has a telescopic effect.long shot /L.S. A shot from a distance - it shows a person from head to foot, and perhaps more than this. master shot A long take of an entire scene, into which other shots e.g. reaction shots, are cut.matte A process of combining several images during the printing process (e.g. to add a background).medium (mid) shot [M.S.] A shot between a close-up and a long shot in the sense of closeness it creates. mise en scène Getting a scene together, the choices made about the details of the imaged; what items will be in it, and how

those items are to be presented.

montage A fast-moving sequence in which many shots are combined - to create a mood, or to sum up a long process, to suggest connections. A series of short clips which add up to more than the sum of the whole. Compresses a passage of time into brief symbolic or typical images.

morphing Transforming from one image into anotheroutpoint The final detail or image in a particular scene. It may sum up what has happened, add a touch of irony, or

point towards the following scene. Compare ‘INPOINT’.37

out of shot [O.S.] A character speaks while the camera looks elsewhere. Not the same as voice over.out-take A take not used in the final version of a film.over-shoulder shot A camera position often used in dialogue scenes.pan The movement of the camera when it swivels from left to right or right to leftparallel montage Two scenes that the editor has alternated. Also known as ‘cross-cutting’.point-of-view shot [POV shot] A shot in which the camera is associated with the eyes of a character (‘this is what s/he sees’).pull focus To shift focus from one part of a scene to another (also known as ‘follow focus’ or ‘rack focus’)reaction shot A shot that shows a person’s reaction to what happened in the previous shot. (It is known as a ‘noddy’ if the

person is merely nodding, like a television interviewer!)reverse angle: A shot from the opposite side. When two people are talking, there is often a ‘shot and reverse shot’

alternation.rough cut The first edited version of the film, like a rough copy. It is revised to become the final cut.rushes (or dailies) ‘Takes’ rushed back from the laboratory so the film-makers can check that they got what they wanted.screenplay A film or television script.set-up The position of the camera and lighting, selected for a particular shot.shallow focus Objects in foreground will be sharp; those in background will be blurred or softened. Opposite = deep focus.shooting/ filming The ‘shoot’ is the period of time spent filming.shot A film is made up of many different shots. During the shooting of a film, a shot ends when the camera is

turned off. Each shot involves a different camera set-up. During and after the editing of the film a shot ends where the editor has cut it off. See ‘TAKE’.

side lighting light coming from one side – can create sense of volume, bring out surface tensions, fill in unlit areas. Skycam A lightweight camera is suspended via wires and pulleys and controlled from a computer. soft focus Opposite of sharp focus, sometimes produced by filters or Vaseline to add a romantic effect. sound mix The combination of different elements (dialogue, music, sound effects) to make up the sound tracksound effects Sounds other than words.special effects (SFX) Creating illusions by the use of trick photography, miniature models and various types of equipment. A

bomb can explode; a flying saucer can appear etc, thanks to SFX.split screen Two or more separate images within the same frame.Steadicam The camera is attached to a vest on the camera operator who can then move it without jerkiness.still A single photograph, the enlargement of one frame.storyboard A script presented as a serious of drawings and captions.sub-text A person’s private thoughts and feelings which may be different from those expressed publicly.synchronisation Matching up sounds with visuals. When words match the movements of the actor’s lips, the film is ‘in sync’.subjective shot A point of view shot, sometimes distorted to emphasise the character’s state of mind.tail The end of a film.take One attempt at a shot. To get the effect wanted, the director may ask for more than one version (or ‘take’).

Same as ‘shot’ but it refers more narrowly to the period when the film is being made.telephoto lens A long lens with a telescopic effect.texture A term used to refer to: (1) the actual physical look of a film image, those qualities that allow us to

distinguish it from a video, image or an oil painting, or other kind of image. (2) richness of detail – clouds, faces, wind tugging at clothes, cars passing in the background, etc. To respond to texture is to notice not just the main meaning or the main objects in a film scene, but also to notice the many details, colours and surfaces.

threnody an unnerving sound, signalling a change of mood (threnody = song of lament)tighter shot A closer shot, leaving less space around the people or objects on which the camera is concentrating.tilt shot The stationery camera starts at the top of an object/figure and scans down to the bottom (tilt down) or at the

bottom and scans to the top (tilt up). Only the lens moves; when the whole camera is lifted = crane shot.tracking shot the camera moves on a ‘dolly’, enabling it to follow people who are moving along.two-shot A shot in which two people are shown (cameramen also speak of ‘one-shot’ and ‘three-shot’).video Television filming. The images are recorded not on film stock, but on videotape.visuals The images of a film.voice over (VO) Commentary by an unseen narrator.wide-angle lens A lens with a broad angle of view, increasing the sense of depth and distance.wipe An optical effect in which one image appears to push the previous image off the screen.zoom A lens that can be adjusted from ‘wide-angle’ to ‘telephoto’. Such a lens can ‘zoom in’ or ‘zoom out’ (seem

to move closer or further away from an object).

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