Film Analysis Of Roman Polanski's The Pianist

The Pianist is trying to tell people that the Holocaust was not as black and white as people think and sometimes there are contradictions to how the audience thinks they are. Roman Polanski’s film trails after Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew struggle for survival in Warsaw during the Holocaust. By using an analysis of the narrator, understanding the imposed Jewish identity, the roles of others, and the contrasting between past and present, it can help the audience to further the narrative that nothing was clear cut as it is made to seem.

At the start of the film Wladyslaw, is a well-known, suave pianist quick to smile, however by the end of the war there is nothing, but “a weird, numb state that combines defiance and resignation.” (NYTimes).

There are many scenes throughout the film where a character believes something will happen and the opposite comes true. For instance, the scene where the Szpilman family listens to BBC radio explain that everything is going to be alright because the French and British have joined the Polish in fighting the Nazis, but then there is an immediate cut screen to buildings in rubble and the Nazis marching into town. When moving into the second safe house he is told that it will be the safe because it’s “right in the lion’s den”. However, the is an attack on the Nazis base on the corner and his building is attacked. This is when the major transition of “doubt creeps into his eyes, and then terror, and then blind animal panic” (LaSalle, SFGATE). Another important juxtaposition was at the being of the film the Nazis come matching in and there is a statue of Jesus Christ carrying the crucifix risen high above the Nazis and pointing at the destruction they have caused. At the end of the war, the statue lays among the rubble to subtly questioning how could there be faith or God after such a horrific event.

The Pianist is trying to tell people that the Holocaust was not the clearly labeled roles that people think. Roman Polanski’s depiction of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew living in Warsaw during the Holocaust, and his struggle for survival. To help further the big picture that life and the Holocaust are not as clearly defined as they seem, it helps to take an analysis of the narrator, the imposed Jewish identity, the roles of others and a comparison of the how things were and how things