FORGET = KILL TWICE

Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a star of Polish radio and cafe society in the 1930’s, a member of Warsaw’s assimilated Jewish middle class, who lived through the Nazi occupation and the Warsaw ghetto and a man who survived the Holocaust through patience, endurance and good luck. This film, unlike the usual Holocaust films is not a thriller; instead it is the pianist’s witness to what he saw and what happened to him.

“The Pianist” is based on the autobiography of Szpilman, p laying Chopin on a Warsaw radio station when the first German bombs fell and his immediate reaction was, “I’m not going anywhere.” But unfortunately, the city’s Jews are ordered to give up their possessions and move to the Warsaw ghetto, and there is a brick wall being built to enclose it. Szpilman is forced to move out who barely survived in a series of safe locations and abandoned buildings within Nazi-occupied Warsaw, with the help from the Polish resistance.

The character of Wladyslaw Szpilman in the film is played by Adrien Brody, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the same film. Szpilman’s role — a survivor and not a hero, is rather very different from that of a normal and clichéd film’s ‘hero’, which makes his character more powerful and strong.

The director Roman Polanski himself is a Holocaust survivor who was saved at one point when his father pushed him through the barbed wire of a camp and hence from his personal experience he knew that destiny and chance played an indelible role in most survival stories. Also from my view point, by showing Szpilman as a survivor and not as a hero, Polanski is reflecting his survival story, which etched a mark in himself.

One of the most unusual and disturbing elements of this film, is the depiction of the German people’s attitude towards their Jewish neighbors. The merciless killing of the Jews and their families is witnessed by Polanski, which makes him immune to death and also, fight hard to survive. The film portrays the famous adage “Survival of the fittest” in the most realistic way possible. The sets, music and lighting are also some elements worth noticing, because they depict the essence of the scene more beautifully than in that of Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg.

To me, the film’s climax offers the most dramatic paradox of all: a glimpse of how the impulses of civilization survive in the midst of unparalleled barbarism and that, from my point of view is the best part of this yet another sad, depressing and strong Holocaust film by Roman Polanski.

“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.”

– A Holocaust survivor.

Despite some minor shortcomings and series of extreme violence, this 150- minutes Holocaust film is certainly worth a watch!