Holocaust is one of the most dreadful and unforgettable time in human history. This event of a huge genocide has become the topic of many films; and “The Pianist” is one of the films.“The Pianist” is a historical drama directed by Roman Polanski. The movie is based on the true memories of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who had survived from the Holocaust. The movie describes how Wladyslaw Szpilman manages to escape from the Ghetto and survive through the massacre of Jews in Poland by luck. The most surprising scene in the movie is when a German captain, Wilm Hosenfeld, help Wladyslaw Szpilman by bringing him food and not letting other Nazi officers find him. The director himself, Roman Polanski, is a survivor of the Holocaust as well. …show more content…
The storyline of “The Pianist” is arranged in a chronological order. Polanski made the overall pace of the movie is really slow. In the movie, Szpilman gradually changes from a gentleman into a savage. There are many scenes where Szpilman is alone, struggling to stay alive and keep humanity within him. Szpilman’s mental state grow stronger as he tries to survive in the crumble Warsaw city. A slow pace in the movie is necessary to show how Szpilman has developed a stronger inner character throughout the whole incident. The way how Polanski chose to direct this movie is very interesting. Polanski chose to film the movie in a subjective way, where the audience can only see the incidents through Szpilman’s perspective. While watching the movie, we are not just looking at Szpilman in a third person perspective, instead, we existed in Szpilman’s mind. The audience can get an idea of how the situation must have been during the Holocaust. There is a particular scene in the movie where an ear-piercing sound appeared after the explosion. In the scene, Polanski put the audiences straight into Szpilman’s mind, so they can experience how Szpilman feel after the bombing. Polanski’s unique directing style allow him to won “Best Director” in
The Holocaust was a distressing time in history and is not a story everyone can absorb. Both the book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas written by John Boyne and the film, Life is Beautiful, directed by Robert Benigni, are based upon the real life events of the Holocaust but with a difference. They made clever use of different techniques to dim and censor the reality of the events and interpret it in a more tolerable way. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas depicts the life of a young nine year old boy named Bruno who is the son of the Commandant of the Auschwitz
In Maus the main character is young son named Artie. His father Vladek survived the concentration camp and he also shows compassion towards his father on his unbelievable will to survive. The Pianist” is a little different. In it the main
The piano, created by Bartolomeo Christofori in 1709, has impacted our society by becoming a popular instrument and a popular medium for musicians to create musical masterpieces. Also called the pianoforte, the piano is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments that can range in sound from as low as a gust of wind, to as high as the shrill sound of a bird. It has evolved over time and become an amazing instrument. The piano was accepted very well in history and it has generated many changes in the music industry. The piano was also used a lot in society and has had many applications grow from it. Without it, many classical masterpieces as well as modern songs wouldn’t have been possible.
Holocaust film has emerged as its own genre throughout time. Originally, directors ignored the possibility of Holocaust films, then the content started to take form in non-fiction recordings. Eventually, the genre of Holocaust film took off and today there is an abundance of Holocaust related films that appear when one scrolls through movie streaming sites. The Pawnbroker (1964), directed by Sidney Lumet, is a perfect example of a film that deals with both the lasting effect of the Holocaust and the stereotyping of a multitude of characters. Exploring the Holocaust in media through The Pawnbroker and The Pawnbroker’s film techniques, serve as a prime example for not only how Holocaust survivors felt emotionally imprisoned, but stereotypes different groups as well. Critics responded harshly to this stereotypical labeling and this shows how the meaning of the film has been interpreted by society differently over time.
Wladyslaw Szpilman was a pianist for a radio station during the beginning of the Second World War in the Fall of 1939. Living in Warsaw at the time, it only took a few weeks until the German forces took full control over the city. Szpilman and his family decide to stay in Warsaw after hearing that the Allied forces (Great Britain) were joining the war against Germany. From that point on the conditions for Jews exponentially deteriorate, suffering caused by both the German forces and the Polish people. Under the Nazi regime, the Jewish people are exposed to many injustices. Polish businesses that once welcomed all, now strictly disallowed the Jewish people. As well as instances of German forces bullying the jewish community, Szpilman’s father was struck in the face by and German officer and told that he was forbidden to walk on the sidewalk. The Nazi control over Warsaw was the start to the horrors of the holocaust, caused by both the assault of the German forces and the acts of the Polish people under the Nazi
“The Pianist” by Wladyslaw Spilman is a extraordianry story about a man’s survival in the holocaust in Warsaw, Poland. The book explains how Szpilman survives the holocaust in Poland by hiding, escaping, and with luck. Szpilman is important to society because he explains the following topics in his perspective for them not to happen again, religious discrimination, human rights, and punishment in crimes involving genocide. Many of the issues raised by the holocaust continue to have an impact on the world today.
"It was crying and praying. So long we survived. And now we waited only that they shoot, because we had not else to do" (267). This quote from the end of the novel ironically describes what the Jewish people endured after the concentration camps. Vladek Spieglman among other suffered through traumatic experiences; though Vladek certainly did survive the holocaust, old Vladek did not. Post-Holocaust it is revealed by Spieglman that his father, Vladek, develops two personalities—before and after the concentration camps. Vladek’s post-holocaust life was haunted by the horrors he witnessed while being in the concentration camps; he went from a young, handsome resourceful man to a miserable, old man who does nothing but complain.
In Player Piano, everything is controlled by machines and computers and depends on productivity. The managers and engineers only create new programs for more productive production. Even the rates of production and consumption are calculated by a computer (EPICAC), which is seated in the large Carlsbad cavern system. The EPICAC computer even determines the people's careers and in this way their whole lives. It gives intelligence tests to everyone, and on the basis of their results it sorts people into two categories - suitable for university entering exams and suitable for 'work'. The university studies allow their graduates to become managers, engineers, writers or public relation workers. You may become a writer only if
The Pianist is a movie that shows the life of one man, Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a popular Jewish Pole radio station pianist. In the World War II which is a background of the movie, How Szpilman suffered and how he survived are presented in the movie. While the movie portrays Szpilman’s life, it also shows how the Jewish people are dehumanized by Nazi during the war. The director, Roman Polanski, successfully uses camera angle, lighting and plot structure, and characterization to present the theme of dehumanization.
‘The Pianist’ is a cinematic masterpiece by the Polish director Roman Polanski. One of the key ideas that appear throughout much of the film is that of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’. This idea is portrayed through Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish pianist, as he struggles for survival in Warsaw as everybody that he once knew and everything that he once had is lost. The idea of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’ is worth learning about as it allows the audience to realise the importance of hope in todays society – and to understand how Polanski uses music to symbolise ‘hope’ for Szpilman in the film. Polanski effectively utilises an array of visual and oral text features such as music, dialogue, and lighting to build further
The holocaust has effected more lives than anybody could imagine, the tragedy has not only affected those who were there or primarily affected but those of every generation to come after that. This illustrated by Art and Vladek’s inability to get along, Vladek’s personality quirks, Anja’s suicide, Art’s guilt, are all factors that contributed to the rocky family relationship the Spieglemans had, and are all due to the horrors of the holocaust. The horrors of which did not end when the Nazi’s were defeated in WW2, rather continuing to have an impact on further generations, in which all of their stories will never be
My life has always been tied to the piano in some shape or form. I can remember the first notes I ever produced. They came from a large Cable upright piano that had sat unused and out of tune for decades. From my early childhood and on my relationship with the piano consisted of nothing more than fleeting encounters. Some days I would sit down and simply play notes I thought sounded nice, but mostly the piano acted as a decoration in my home. It wasn 't until moving to Oklahoma to be with my mother 's family that anything serious developed concerning the piano. I had always been far away from my family, so when I met up with my grandmother we took the time to catch up. She mentioned that my mother used to play the piano quite well. Up until that point I had never given the piano much thought, but I began to think about my mother and all the old piano books she had accumulated from her adolescence. That set in motion my desire to learn how to play and an eventual reappraisal of the way I looked at music and the world around me.
An important aspect of polanski is the use of aural elements such as diegetic and nondiegetic sound of the piano playing which is a motif throughout the visual text as we see the same piece of music being played either by Szpilman himself or as background music the song is played in the beginning and also in the scene parallel to the scene where he encounters the german soldier. In the encounter with housefield the lack of verbalization where the music is the factor which determines Szpilman’s fate. Because Szpilman had such a passion for music that he would hold onto his whole life and this was the thing he would hold close to himself even when all his family was gone and when Szpilman begins playing the piano we
The film I have chosen to explore the micro features on is The Pianist (2002) which is directed by Roman Polanski. Polanski assures that the audience gets a sense of belonging to that period of history and gets to explore the theme of discrimination through the characters life risking challenges that they face throughout the film. This micro essay will explore the following features, framing and camera movement in a 5 minute sequence.
The beautiful sound of piano music has captured the hearts of people since the early eighteenth century. Since then, many musicians have dedicated their lives to this instrument. Some players even play piano so well that it may seem that this instrument is easy to play. However, to be able to play the piano well isn’t easy; it takes a lot of skill. To become a good piano player, one must love music very much, have good finger techniques, and body flexibility.