Szpilman and his parents pre-war, elegantly dressed
In Your Pocket
This promising musical career was stopped by Germany's invasion of Poland, Sept 1939. Szpilman & his family were driven into the Warsaw ghetto, along with thousands of other local Jews. To protect them from starvation, Szpilman played piano at Café Nowaczesna Sienna St, a happy gathering place for Nazis, while thousands outside were starving. He also worked at other cafés and nightclubs, possible because Szpilman had strong connections to many other artists in the ghetto. Ironically Café Nowaczesna had once been frequented by the Jewish elite.
Tragically in mid 1942, when packed deportations from the ghetto began, Szpilman saw his relatives and friends being sent on trucks but managed to keep his immediate family safe. Alas they too were finally put on board for transport to The East, Treblinka. As they were boarding the train, an unknown hand pulled him away to safety, and he watched as his family was sent to the gas chambers.
Jewish families being deported from Warsaw Ghetto
by German soldiers, Yad Vashem
by German soldiers, Wiki
Unable to leave the ghetto due to the constant threats, Szpilman relied on the kindness of colleagues to live. In the following months, Warsaw was largely destroyed; Szpilman barely survived, moving from destroyed buildings.
After months of a hungry life, it was in winter 1945 that Szpilman met the German officer who saved his life. The film’s closing scenes involved Szpilman's meeting with Capt Wilm Hosenfeld who accidentally found the hiding place.
Once the war ended, Szpilman returned to Polish Radio and to composing. He also gave concert performances as a soloist and member of chamber ensembles. He stopped touring in 1986 to devote himself to composing, and died in Warsaw in 2000. By then Szpilman was a very popular musician of post-war Poland. But until his biography was published in German and English, and especially Roman Polanski’s great film, Szpilman was virtually unknown in the West.
Szpilman at Polish Radio after WW2
In Your Pocket
The Pianist (2002) told the true story of acclaimed musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who struggled to keep his family alive in WW2 but failed. Directed by Roman Polanski, filmed in Poland and released in 2002, the drama was inspired by the autobiography, The Pianist: Extraordinary True Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw 1939-45, and followed the radio station pianist as he went on a terrible journey in the Warsaw Ghetto once it was sealed off in Nov 1940.
What music was used in The Pianist film? Polanski’s screen adaptation demanded a melancholy soundtrack to match its sombre themes, and no one suited better than Romantic composer, Frédéric Chopin. Appropriately, Szpilman had often shared his love of Chopin with listeners while working on air, so many of Chopin’s masterpieces featured in the film, played on the soundtrack album by Polish classical pianist and Chopin Competition winner, Janusz Olejniczak.
Did young American method actor star Adrien Brody really play the piano in The Pianist? Polanski made Brody practise the piano for four hours a day, until he could master passages from some of Chopin’s finest works. Brody also made a lot of personal sacrifices to live the life of the tragic Polish pianist. To embody a man who had lost everything, Brody left his girlfriend and went on a severe diet, losing 14 ks. Despite having very little energy, starving himself to experience the desperation that comes with hunger, Brody persisted with his piano lessons. There was an emptiness that came with starving that he hadn’t experienced.
What music was used in The Pianist film? Polanski’s screen adaptation demanded a melancholy soundtrack to match its sombre themes, and no one suited better than Romantic composer, Frédéric Chopin. Appropriately, Szpilman had often shared his love of Chopin with listeners while working on air, so many of Chopin’s masterpieces featured in the film, played on the soundtrack album by Polish classical pianist and Chopin Competition winner, Janusz Olejniczak.
Did young American method actor star Adrien Brody really play the piano in The Pianist? Polanski made Brody practise the piano for four hours a day, until he could master passages from some of Chopin’s finest works. Brody also made a lot of personal sacrifices to live the life of the tragic Polish pianist. To embody a man who had lost everything, Brody left his girlfriend and went on a severe diet, losing 14 ks. Despite having very little energy, starving himself to experience the desperation that comes with hunger, Brody persisted with his piano lessons. There was an emptiness that came with starving that he hadn’t experienced.
actor Adrien Brody, playing piano in the film
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Brody also spent time self-educating on the Holocaust, even though his maternal grandmother was a Hungarian Jew. “I was depressed for a year after The Pianist. And I don’t suffer from depression generally, but this was mourning. I was very disturbed by what I embraced in making that film, and of the awareness that it opened up in me. I gave up my apartment, sold my car, disconnected the phones and left. I took two bags and my keyboard and moved to Europe.”
The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. At the 2003 Academy Awards, The Pianist won Oscars for Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood) and Best Actor (Adrien Brody), and was nominated for Best Picture.
This was called Roman Polanski’s strongest and most personally felt movie, given that as a child Polanski survived the Kraków ghetto and lost beloved family in the camps.
The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. At the 2003 Academy Awards, The Pianist won Oscars for Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood) and Best Actor (Adrien Brody), and was nominated for Best Picture.
This was called Roman Polanski’s strongest and most personally felt movie, given that as a child Polanski survived the Kraków ghetto and lost beloved family in the camps.
18 comments:
Szpilman and Chopin fans will be delighted to hear Chopin Nocturne No. 20 performed by Wladyslaw Szpilman in "The Pianist".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9oQEa-d5rU
Many thanks. I thought the film was powerful and painful. But I appreciate that Szpilman shared his love of Chopin with listeners on air, and that many Chopin treasures featured in the film.
There is no doubt that Polanski is a brilliant director and I can imagine this film is haunting. I'll track it down.
jabblog
when Roman Polanski directed and released the film back in 2002, he clarified it was closely based on the autobiographical book The Pianist, the post-war memoir by Poland's Jewish pianist-composer Władysław Szpilman. Although I saw it 20+ years ago, the film still reverberates in my memory.
Boa tarde e uma excelente terça-feira. Obrigado pela excelente aula e matéria, minha querida amiga.
What better person to make the film than Polanski. I remember reading Polanski autobiography in the 1980s and being shocked to find he had been in the Krakow Ghetto and to read of his early life. Until that point I had only known him through school many years before and seeing his Macbeth as a fifth former in preparation for my school exam. I did not know of The Piano film. Thank you for this post.
I knew the name but had to read the post to recall from where, the film The Piano, he was one of many who had not the easiest of life's but survived and did well
Unfortunately, I had never heard of Władysław Szpilman before. Thank you for writing about his life. I only knew the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin.
The Second World War destroyed many families and took millions of lives.
I haven't heard of Wladyslaw Szpilman either, but it's interesting reading about him. My great grandfather came from Poland, and so it's interesting to read a snippet about my ancestors homeland. (Not to make this man's life into a snippet though.)
Luiz
Thank you.
When I retired at the beginning of the covid lockdowns, I feared all those years of research and lecturing would be gone forever. But thanks to my blog and other bloggers' responses, all that work will be preserved and recycled.
Rachel
I never examined Polansk's work as a director before seeing The Pianist, and even then it only occurred to me to take notice of what the critics were saying. He clearly had an amazing career.
Jo-Anne
Polanski had the worst of lives, but he did survive the Holocaust. He may have behaved badly in his later career, but his films were largely very successful.
Irina
I also had not heard of Władysław Szpilman before the film The Pianist came out.. only then did he become very famous outside of Poland. How ironic that horror made him famous.
Erika
perhaps your passion for the arts came via your Polish ancestors :)
Adrien Brody was the actor who was the youngest ever Academy Award winner for Best Actor. Only in his 20s, he thoroughly deserved the Oscar, although I imagine he suffered terribly from his role.
It's a movie I'm yet to watch but can't bring myself to do so as I knew/know it's a sad one and good. One day I will watch it.
Joe
Adrien Brody might have been very young, but in the film he looked skinny, maltreated, badly dressed, desperate and middle aged. I am also certain that he suffered misery and hunger in preparing for his role.
He really did deserve the Oscar.. even if he is never nominated again for the rest of his career.
I read literature largely without concerns for anxiety and nightmares, but I am also very cautious when it comes to visual presentations eg films. I have always censored my viewing habits very carefully.
But The Pianist is well worth watching.
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