"Le Pianiste" redirects here. Not to be confused with the 1993 film,The Piano.For the 2001 French film originally titledLa Pianiste, seeThe Piano Teacher (film).
In September 1939,Władysław Szpilman, aPolish-Jewish pianist, is playing live on the radio inWarsaw when the station is besieged duringNazi Germany'sbombing of Warsaw. Szpilman and his family prepare to leave the city when they learn thatBritain and France have declared war on Germany. Relieved at the news, Szpilman stays in Warsaw with his family but with Poland’s invasion, Warsaw falls under Nazi occupation. Jews are persecuted by thenew government, stripped of privileges and forced to wear blueStar of David armbands. Szpilman and his family sell their belongings, including his piano, in order to survive.
Szpilman and his family are forced to abandon their home in late 1940 into the overcrowdedWarsaw Ghetto where disease and starvation are rampant. Szpilman performs in a cafè frequented by upper-class Jews, who smuggle in forbidden goods to live comfortably. Szpilman witnesses a young boy savagely beaten by a guard and left for dead while attempting to escape the ghetto. The boy dies despite Szpilman's attempt to save him. Szpilman and his family also witness the SS murder an entire family while raiding a nearby apartment, in which a wheelchair-bound man is thrown off the building.
Szpilman and his family, having failed to obtain legitimate German work certificates, are ordered to be transported toTreblinka extermination camp in August 1942 as part ofOperation Reinhard.Jewish Ghetto Police separates Szpilman from his family at the railhead, allowing him to escape while his family is sent away to the death camp. Szpilman becomes a slave laborer and learns of an upcomingWarsaw Ghetto uprising. He smuggles weapons into the ghetto and goes into hiding with help fromAndrzej Bogucki and his wife Janina Godlewska.
Szpilman watches the uprising unfold and fail in April 1943. When a female neighbor attempts to report Szpilman he obtains another hiding place in the German quarter from the husband of his friend Dorota. The new apartment has a piano which Szpilman refuses to play to prevent his identity from being discovered. Szpilman suffers from malnourishment andjaundice, and following a final visit from Dorota and her husband, they provide a doctor to treat him.
Szpilman recovers by August 1944 when he witness theWarsaw Uprising unfolds. WhenHome Army forces attack theSchutzpolizei hospital across the street from Szpilman's apartment building, his home is destroyed by a German tank. Szpilman escapes and hides in the now abandoned hospital asWarsaw is destroyed in the fighting.
When German troops attack the hospital withflamethrowers, Szpilman flees through the city's ruins and is discovered byWehrmacht officerWilm Hosenfeld, who learns he is a pianist. When Szpilman playsChopin's "Ballade No. 1 in G minor" on Hosenfeld's grand piano, the officer hides him in his house, providing him food.
When the Germans retreat from theSoviet offensive in January 1945, Hosenfeld promises Szpilman he will listen to him onPolish Radio after the war, and leaves him a large supply of food and his greatcoat. After Warsaw is liberated, Szpilman is nearly killed byPeople's Army troops who mistake him for a German because of his coat.
Hosenfeld is held after the war in a Soviet POW camp. When surviving concentration camp inmates abuse the prisoners, one laments his former career as a violinist. Hosenfeld asks if he knows Szpilman and the violinist promises to bring Szpilman as a character reference, but when they return to the site, Hosenfeld and the camp are gone. Szpilman resumes his career, performing Chopin's "Grande polonaise" with an orchestra to a large, prestigious audience.
The epilogue notes Szpilman died in 2000 at the age of 88, while Hosenfeld died inSoviet captivity in 1952.
The story had deep connections with directorRoman Polanski because he escaped from theKraków Ghetto as a child after the death of his mother. He ended up living in a Polish farmer's barn until the war's end. His father almost died in the camps, but they reunited after theend of World War II.[10]
Joseph Fiennes was Polanski's first choice for the lead role, but he turned it down due to a previous commitment to a theatrical role.[11] Over 1,400 actors auditioned for the role of Szpilman at a casting call in London, but Polanski was unsatisfied with all who tried. Eventually, Polanski watchedHarrison's Flowers (2000), and then Polanski decided to offerAdrien Brody the leading role during their first meeting in Paris.[12][13]
The first scenes of the film were shot at the old army barracks. Soon after, the film crew moved to a villa inPotsdam, which served as the house where Szpilman meets Hosenfeld. On 2 March 2001, filming then moved to an abandonedSoviet military hospital inBeelitz, Germany. The scenes that featured German soldiers destroying a Warsaw hospital with flamethrowers were filmed there. On 15 March, filming finally moved to Babelsberg Studios. The first scene shot at the studio was the complex and technically demanding scene in which Szpilman witnesses the ghetto uprising.[14]
Filming at the studios ended on 26 March, and moved to Warsaw on 29 March. The rundown district ofPraga was chosen for filming because of its abundance of original buildings. The art department built onto these original buildings, re-creatingWorld War II-era Poland with signs and posters from the period. Additional filming also took place around Warsaw. TheUmschlagplatz scene where Szpilman, his family, and hundreds of other Jews wait to be taken to the extermination camps was filmed at theNational Defence University of Warsaw.[15]
Principal photography ended in July 2001, and was followed by months of post-production inParis.[13]
The piano piece that is heard being played by a next door neighbour while Szpilman was in hiding at an apartment is also an arrangement of "Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą".
The piano music heard in the abandoned house when Szpilman had just discovered a hiding place in the attic is thePiano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata) byBeethoven. It was later revealed that German officer Hosenfeld was the pianist. The German composition juxtaposed with the mainly Polish/Chopin selection of Szpilman.
The piano piece played when Szpilman is confronted by Hosenfeld is Chopin'sBallade in G minor, Op. 23, but the version played in the movie was shortened (the entire piece lasts about 10 minutes).
The cello piece heard at the middle of the film, played by Dorota, is the Prelude fromBach'sCello Suite No. 1.
The piano piece heard at the end of the film, played with an orchestra, is Chopin'sGrande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22.
Shots of Szpilman's hands playing the piano in close-up were performed by Polish classical pianistJanusz Olejniczak, who also performed on the soundtrack.
Since Polanski wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, any scene showing Brody playing was actually his playing, overdubbed by recordings performed by Olejniczak. In order for Brody's playing to look like it was at the level of Szpilman's, he spent many months prior to and during the filming practising so that his keystrokes on the piano would convince viewers that Brody himself was playing.[16]
The Pianist was widely acclaimed by critics, with Brody's performance, Harwood's screenplay, and Polanski's direction receiving special praise. On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 95% of 190 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Well-acted and dramatically moving,The Pianist is Polanski's best work in years."[17] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, noting that, "perhaps that impassive quality reflects what [director Roman] Polanski wants to say. ... 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 ... his own deepest feelings: that he survived, but need not have, and that his mother died and left a wound that had never healed."[19]
Michael Wilmington of theChicago Tribune said that the film "is the best dramatic feature I've seen on the Holocaust experience, so powerful a statement on war, inhumanity, and art's redemption that it may signal Polanski's artistic redemption". He later said that the film "illustrates that theme and proves that Polanski's own art has survived the chaos of his life—and the hell that war and bigotry once made of it".[20]
Richard Schickel ofTime magazine called it a "raw, unblinkable film", and said that "we admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies."[21]
Mick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle said that the film "contains moments of irony, of ambiguity, and of strange beauty, as when we finally get a look at Warsaw and see a panorama of destruction, a world of color bombed into black-and-white devastation". He also said that, "in the course of showing us a struggle for survival, in all its animal simplicity, Polanski also gives us humanity, in all its complexity."[22]
A.O. Scott ofThe New York Times said that Szpilman "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 punchline to a cosmic jest of unfathomable cruelty." He also felt that Szpilman's encounter, in the war's last days, with a music-loving German officer, "courted sentimentality by associating the love of art with moral decency, an equation the Nazis themselves, steeped in Beethoven and Wagner, definitively refuted".[23]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 140.[24]
The Pianist was released byUniversal Studios Home Entertainment onDVD in the US on 27 May 2003 in adouble-sided disc Special Edition, with the film on one side and the featurette "A Story of Survival" on the other. The making-of featurette included interviews with Brody, Polanski, and Harwood, and clips of Szpilman playing the piano.[25] The Polish DVD included an audio commentary track by production designerStarski and director of photographyEdelman.
Universal released the film onHD-DVD on 8 January 2008 with the featurette "A Story of Survival".[26]
Optimum Home Entertainment releasedThe Pianist to theEuropean market onBlu-ray as part of theirStudioCanal Collection on 13 September 2010,[27] the film's second release on Blu-ray. The first release was troublesome due to issues with subtitles; the initial BD lacked subtitles for spoken German dialogue.Optimum later rectified this,[28] but the initial release also lacked notable special features. TheStudioCanal Collection version includes the featurette "A Story of Survival", as well as several interviews with the makers of the film and Szpilman's relatives.[29]
Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray in the US for the first time on 13 July 2021.[30]
The film was completely restored in 2023 from the original negative by StudioCanal and DI Factory, with the assistance of the film's cinematographer Paweł Edelman.[31] It was released on 4K UHD by StudioCanal in Germany on 21 September 2023, in France on 27 September 2023 and in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2023.
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