The Pianist

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Many people, with good reason, find it difficult to watch a film directed by Roman Polanski (who won the Oscar for this movie), because of the sexual abuse charges against him. I understand, because right now I am not comfortable seeing a film starring Kevin Spacey, although he is one of my favorite actors. But, I try to separate the work from the person, since many artists were not exactly admirable people, such as Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Hitchcock. But, to dismiss their work would deprive us of notable achievements.

The Pianist is a 2002 movie based on the memoir of the Polish musician Wladek Szpilman, portrayed by Adrien Brody, who received the Oscar for Best Actor. (Brody, in a method acting move, sold his apartment and his car, isolated himself, and lost over thirty pounds to prepare for the mentally and physically deprived state of the character, and he enhanced his piano playing ability by receiving several weeks of instruction). The film’s title reflects the focus of the movie, which views The Holocaust from the perspective of one man through its cinematic perspective. The story shows literally and figuratively how the Nazis progressively shrunk the quality of life of its victims.

The movie starts with real footage of Warsaw in September, 1939, with a Chopin piano piece being played. The film immediately establishes the importance of music to the story. The first images are of historical black and white footage, which shows a bustling city, and communicates the desire to equate this story with what really happened. There is then a switch to color as the current movie begins. There are vibrant colors in the beginning, which change as the picture unfolds to an almost monochromatic look as the Nazis take over. As was noted by the filmmakers, the draining of the color symbolizes how life was siphoned off from the Polish Jews. Szpilman is playing in a radio studio. The beautiful sounds are interrupted by shell fire which blows out a window and causes parts of the ceiling over Szpilman to fall down. Yet, he continues to play, to stress the need to persevere in dire times, with art as a tool to do so. He finally has to evacuate as the explosions become too powerful to deal with. As people flee from the building, he encounters a female gentile, Dorota (Emilia Fox), who is the sister of one of his friends, Jurek (Michal Zebrowski). She tells Szpilman that she loves the way he plays.

Szpilman goes home where his relatives try to gather some things before abandoning their house. He has not heard the news that the government has ordered the relocation of all “able-bodied men” to leave the city and set up a defense line outside Warsaw. Besides music, the movie shows humor can be used to deal with the scary time. By jokingly displacing the real fear with a pretend problem, Szpilman’s brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard) says that the family didn’t have to worry about Szpilman because he had his papers on him. So if he were killed, the bureaucrats knew where to send his body. Szpilman says if he is going to die he would rather do it in his own home, and says he is not leaving. That love of his home is admirable, but flawed since it does not show understanding of the pervasive peril. On the radio, they hear that Britain has declared war on Germany and that France will be joining in, so “Poland is no longer alone.” But the broadcast signal fluctuates and Hitler is heard speaking, undermining the optimistic news.

Instead of leaving, the family have a celebratory dinner, saying all will be well. We, however, with our knowledge of the Holocaust, find this optimism heartbreakingly sad to hear. Later the Germans march in and start to enforce directives that increasingly marginalize the Jewish population. The family debates where to hide the meager amount of money they have that is in excess allowed to Jewish people, as they try to adapt to the encroaching repression. Szpilman calls Jurek, who says the radio station won’t reopen, and, in fact the Poles aren’t allowed to have radios. Dictators stop the flow of information to eliminate the truth from being heard, which differs from their propaganda, and to prevent people from mounting any organized resistance through communication.

Dorota and Szpilman, who is attracted to her, take a walk. She tells him she plays the cello. Their love of music has transformative powers as it ignites passionate feelings between them. But anti-Semitism douses that fire when they go for some coffee at a cafe, which has a sign on the door that says, “No Jews.” She is outraged, and says that it is humiliating, especially for someone like Szpilman, who is a great musician. She wants to go in and protest. But Szpilman wants to protect her and tells her not to make a scene. Based on his people’s history, he knows the dangers of fighting the bigots who have power. She suggests that they walk in the park. But, Szpilman now is caught up with what’s happening. He informs her that there is “an official decree,” that says, “No Jews allowed in the park.” The noose is tightening. He says they can sit on a bench until that is outlawed, as he foresees how life will become more circumscribed under the Nazis. For a momentary escape, he fantasizes with her that they may play Chopin together sometime.

That brief hope is undercut by the scene with Szpilman’s father (Frank Finlay) reading that another decree will order Jews to wear an “emblem,” which of course turns out to be the Jewish star of David. Another tactic of dictators is to place the blame for the problems of members of their own group on those who come from other cultural backgrounds. These scapegoats must be easily identified by separating them from the general population. In this case, the Jews are visually cut off from others by being forced to display the Jewish star. Of course, this signaling out is even easier if the “enemy” has a different appearance, such as skin color. Diversity is the target of the racist. Henryk says he will not be “branded,” the word showing how they are being treated like cattle to be herded and slaughtered. He shows resistance despite the warning that if they don’t comply, they will be severely punished.

The next scene shows that Mr. Szpilman has submitted to wearing the band, and is walking on the sidewalk. German soldiers, demonstrating how unlimited power, by definition, is never satisfied, signal Mr. Szpilman out among the pedestrians because he does not bow as he passes. He apologizes and bows, but one of the soldiers hits him across the face anyway. (This slapping came from a memory of what happened to Polanski’s father in Krakow). He is then told to get off of the sidewalk and to walk in the “gutter,” to demean him, but maybe in their minds, to keep him from being infectiously close to those who are not Jewish. This act is another example of restricting another’s life, almost like putting the person in quarantine.

Szpilman continues to try to work on his music, but his sister interrupts his attempt to hold onto what makes him feel special and allows his soul to soar, by reading how the Warsaw Jews will be forced to live in a “Jewish district.” This section of the city becomes the Warsaw Ghetto, which inhumanely squeezes almost 400,000 Jews in a severely restricted space. The progression by the Nazis to extract and isolate the Jewish population is relentless. This concentrating of people has the added benefit for the tyrannical rulers that many will die due to the unlivable conditions. Szpilman’s mother (Maureen Lipman) cries because they have been increasingly denied money. She has been only able to cook potatoes over and over for their meals. Another tactic of the Nazis to deprive the Jews of having any power is to limit them from having funds which they could use as a tool to bribe and escape. The man who offers to buy Szpilman’s piano says he should take the reduced price, because, “What will you do when you’re hungry? Eat the Piano?” The terrible choices (like Sophie’s Choice) that result from others narrowing a person’s existence is shown here. Szpilman decides to sell his piano, but for him it is an extremely significant example of how the quality of this artist’s life has been diminished.

It is now October 31, 1940. The Germans herd the Jews, wearing their emblems and carrying what remains of their belongings, into the ghetto. Szpilman sees Dorota, who says she didn’t want to come to see this relocation, but could not stay away from the terrible scene. She says that they arrested her cousin, and tells him the absurdity of the situation is hard to believe. When what is horrible happens it can seem surreal. He says he’ll see her soon, which we know by his voice indicates how difficult that will be. The Szpilman family moves to a tiny apartment, where it will be difficult for them to even sleep. The father tries to adapt by being positive despite the deprivation by saying he thought it would be smaller. They look outside the window and see the Germans erecting a wall to ensure the ever-increasing confinement of the Jews. There are shots throughout the film that look through windows to the outside, stressing the point of view of the protagonist, which makes the audience better empathize with Szpilman’s perspective.

Szpilman walks in the street and sees a dead man as his small son cries out. At one point he tries to help a screaming young boy from being beaten as he attempts to return to the ghetto from under the wall after getting supplies. The boy is limp in his arms, having died from the assault. Szpilman is badly shaken as the atrocities begin to break down his spirit. There is a shot later in the story of a Jewish man trying to steal a woman’s small pan of food, which falls to the ground. The man drops to the ground and tries to lick it up. The desperate situation drives people to commit despicable acts against others and demean themselves. The unspeakable becomes commonplace after a while and people begin to walk past those who have collapsed and died as they become emotionally numb to the horrific circumstances.

Szpilman and his brother, Henryk, try to sell small items, such as books, to acquire some money. Many who have been able to bring wealth with them bribe guards and live in luxury while others starve. So there is some lack of communal caring among the Jewish population. Polanski said Szpilman’s book is very objective and shows good and bad people no matter their origins. There is a distraught woman asking if anyone has seen her husband, which shows how precarious life has become. She is seen again a year later requesting the same information, which stresses the severity and duration of her loss. Soldiers humiliate the Jews, making them dance in the street, demonstrating how the state of violence dehumanizes those on both sides when punishment is threatened.

A Jewish man, Itzak Heller (Roy Smiles), comes to the family’s place saying they are recruiting men for the “Jewish police,” because the Germans are bringing more Jews to pack the ghetto. The issue of collaboration is presented here, and the movie does not spare its criticism of those Jews who tried to remain prosperous and escape punishment by trying to cooperate with the Germans while others suffered. The Jewish policemen beat and help to send fellow Jews to death camps because they thought their cooperation would allow them to escape punishment. Henryk, angry at some of his people not caring for those less fortunate, is scornful of Itzak because he thought the Nazis only recruited “boys with rich fathers,” like Itzak, whose father did well in the jewelry business. The man says there is a “police jazz band” that Szpilman can join, which would be a demonic version of his prior life as a renowned pianist. He refuses rather than be complicit in the exploitation of his own people. Szpilman says he already has a job. There is a scene showing Szpilman playing background music at a restaurant, quite a misuse of his talent. He is told to stop playing for a while as one of the Jewish patrons must hear the sound of coins to verify that they are gold by flipping them. This incident shows how some, no matter their background, use wealth as power over others.

In contrast to the collaborators are those that try to fight against the Nazis. Szpilman visits a man, Yehuda, (Paul Bradley), who has a printing press and publishes information illegally for the ghetto inhabitants to read. Szpilman wants to help with the cause, but Yehuda says he’s too well known, so he wouldn’t be a good conspirator. And, being a musician, he implies Szpilman doesn’t have the right personality to do this kind of dangerous grunt work. Szpilman says that there are notices that the ghetto is to be “cleansed of undesirables,” another euphemism to categorize those the rulers want to eliminate from the population. Majorek (Daniel Caltagirone) now visits, who was in the military. He says he hides the newspapers in his pants and puts them in Jewish toilets, where the Germans won’t go. He says, “Germans never use Jewish toilets. They’re too clean for them.” He is obviously making fun of the Germans, but he shows how he has used the Nazis’ bigotry as a tool against them. Yehuda, despite the dire situation, is an optimistic person as he hopes that the printed material will start an uprising.

At the dinner table Szpilman’s mother does not want to hear bad news, but Henryk, adopting the coping mechanism of gallows humor, says that they inexplicably let in a Polish surgeon to operate on a Jew. The gestapo burst in and shot everyone in the operating room, including the doctor and the patient. Henryk laughs as he says since the patient was anesthetized, he felt nothing. Szpilman says it’s not funny, and then Henryk criticizes his brother for playing piano for “parasites,” those Jews who are feeding financially off of others living in the ghetto. Henryk is angry about the apathy his people are showing toward the plight of their fellow Jews. The father blames the American Jews who should be pressuring their country to enter the war, a bit of criticism that the United States waited too long before entering the conflict.

Tires screech outside and we get another shot from the family’s window, as soldiers forcibly enter a building across the street. We look into the window of a Jewish residence where the shouting Germans order the people sitting around a dinner table to stand. There is an old man who can’t get up, and the soldiers throw him in his wheelchair to his death onto the street below. The rest of the family are told to run in the street and they are shot to death. The soldiers continue their terrorism as they run over the bodies, demonstrating the horrendous acts of these men.

Szpilman learns from his sister that Henryk was rounded up by the police.  On his way to discover what happened to his brother, Szpilman encounters a man who says that they took his grandson. He says he no longer believes in God, as the oppression continues to destroy the faith of these oppressed people. Szpilman pleads to the Jewish policeman who came to their home, Itzak, to release his brother who is inside the building where they placed those the Germans rounded up. Itzak beats his own people, which is a condemning image of a collaborator. He says he can only help if he pays, but Szpilman has no money, so Yitzchak says it’s too bad, because now he wants his help, and should have joined the police when he had the chance. He is saying that Szpilman is being punished for not betraying his sense of morality. Szpilman targets the man’s ego, telling Itzak that he is a powerful man and asks him to use his influence. The tactic works, as Itzak tosses Henryk out of the building.

In contrast to the collaborators, Henryk is rebellious, but his anger is mentally blinding since it doesn’t allow himself to be grateful to his brother, blaming him for “groveling” to get him freed. There is the suggestion that self-sacrifice must be useful, not just recklessly defiant. Henryk is famished and almost collapses. Szpilman gets him to the cafe where he works as a pianist and has him fed. Henryk says one can now work only with a permit, and the rest will be “deported.” Henryk says he heard that the part of the ghetto where their family lives will be eliminated, a further act in the progressive dehumanizing of the Jewish residents. Szpilman runs into Jehuda and Majorek and they help him get a work permit for Szpilman’s father. But the man granting the permit says ominously that it won’t help him anyway.

It is now March 15, 1942. The Nazis are confiscating all of the Jewish possessions, forcing the Jews to unload their belongings themselves, which makes the deprivation punishing. The Szpilman family is now sleeping in a barracks, as their living space is again reduced in size. The father’s thankfulness that they have work and are together is undercut by a shot outside and the soldiers bursting in. They tell the residents to vacate, and when Szpilman says they have work permits, the soldier smacks him across the face, since any resistance is not tolerated. Outside, some are told to step out of line, while those remaining must gather their limited belongings. When a woman dares to ask where they will be taking them, the soldier shoots her in the head. (This scene is similar to the one in Schindler’s List, when the woman who dares to criticize the construction of a building is immediately shot. Another scene, where a Jewish victim must wait for his death as the soldier must reload his gun before shooting the man in the head, also recalls one in the Spielberg movie when pistols jam as a man excruciatingly awaits his execution).

In the large gathering area where the Jews await transport, one man says they should revolt, arguing it is better to go out fighting honorably than be “a stain on the face of history.” Another man, arguing against defiance, says the Germans won’t waste a large labor force, so they will live. But, the first man says that there are cripples, old people and children there, who would not be worth saving to the Nazis. He correctly believes that they are being sent to be exterminated. One woman is crying constantly because she was hiding with others and tried to quiet her crying baby, smothering the child in the process. Her story shows how the relentless infliction of fear has caused a mother to kill her own baby. Henryk reads from Shylock’s speech from The Merchant of Venice, which equates Jews with the same traits as all other people. Henryk uses the play’s words to question the prejudicial singling out of Jewish people in order to inflict persecution against them. A boy is selling caramels, and Henryk wonders what he will do with the money. But, the desire to see money as power even in the direst of circumstances tends to prevail. The father buys a caramel, and divides it up between the family members, who are so hungry even a morsel of food is better than nothing.

As the soldiers march them toward the trains, and he is about to lose his family, Szpilman tells his sister, Halina (Jessica Kate Meyer), that he regrets that he didn’t get to know her better. It is a poignant moment, stressing that we take for granted those we love in our lives. Itzak sees Szpilman in the crowd, pulls him out, and pushes him behind the Jewish policemen. Szpilman yells for his family, but Itzak tells him to be quiet and “don’t run!” so he won’t be noticed, which saves Szpilman’s life (this incident mirrors what actually happened to Polanski when he escaped the Nazis). The large group is headed to a concentration camp. The soldiers cram the people into the train cars, killing anyone who interferes. A soldier takes away Mr. Szpilman’s violin, which like his son’s piano, was that part of him that made him feel special. Szpilman holds onto a stretcher that carries away the dead, acting like he was one of the workers not designated to be on the train. The shot implies that Szpilman’s countrymen, in death, help to save his life.

Szpilman is all alone now, the Nazis having shrunk his family to one person. He walks crying through the deserted streets littered with the debris of the furniture that once belonged to the inhabitants of the ghetto. He seems almost to be in mourning due to the violent extraction of his people from the life to which they were attached. The objects look like symbolic representations of the corpses of their owners headed to the death camps. He goes to Jehuda’s place, and finds the man dead on the sidewalk with his son. The scene is particularly devastating for Szpilman since Jehuda was a man who would say to look on the bright side of things, and had hopes for a resistance that would overcome the Nazis.

As he walks on, the city looks decimated, looking like an open graveyard with bodies and belongings scattered about. Szpilman goes to the Cafe Capri where he played piano. The place is a wreck. The owner is hiding himself under a part of the stage where the piano sits, and Szpilman gets into the cramped area with him. Again, we have the living space reduced, now to the size of a coffin. But, it also shows how Szpilman’s music is his salvation, since the place where he played piano now keeps him safe. The owner says Szpilman’s family may be better off going to the camps, implying a quick death is better than a dragged out one. The owner says he bribed a policeman and he will come for them to let them out when things die down.

We next see Szpilman marching in a work detail. He says to a man that he hasn’t been outside in two years, indicating that there has been quite a bit of time that has passed. He is put on a masonry detail. He sees a woman shopping at the food stalls. He tells a fellow worker she is a singer and her husband an actor. Szpilman recognizes Majorek, Jehuda’s friend, the resistance fighter, who helped get his father the work permit. The man has joined his work assignment. He tells Szpilman that the Germans are going to “start a final resettlement.” He says that trains go to Treblinka and come back empty. No supplies are sent there, and people are kept away from the train stop. Majorek says the Jews are being exterminated, and there are only 60,000 of them left out of the half million that were in Warsaw. These numbers show the extent to which the Nazis had decimated the Jewish population in Warsaw. Those that remain are the strongest because the Germans needed them for labor. Thus, Majorek implies that these survivors are the best prepared to fight.

Szpilman does not have enough strength left to carry the bricks at the construction site. After he drops a load, looking up at an airplane (daydreaming about flying away to freedom?), and is beaten by a soldier, a fellow worker gets him assigned to tending a supply shed. Probably in an attempt to prevent a rebellion of those remaining, a German officer tells the Jewish workers that they will not be resettled. He says they will be allowed some extra food, which is still a paltry amount, and says what they don’t eat, they can make a profit trading, which is “something where you Jews are good in.” He presents the stereotype about Jewish people being innately obsessed about making money.

Despite wanting to aid in the resistance, Szpilman tells Majorek that he needs to get out of the ghetto. Majorek says it is easy to leave, but “It’s how you survive on the other side that’s hard.” He will have no money and, being a Jew, he no longer has any legitimacy to exist in the German occupation. Szpilman says he saw his vocalist friend, Janina (Ruth Platt) and gives Majorek her name and that of her actor husband, Andrzej (Ronan Vibert), and their address. He asks Majorek if he can find out if they may help him. Majorek investigates and learns that his friends have moved, but he made contact with them. He tells Szpilman that he should get ready to make his escape. He gives Szpilman this information as drunk officers start to whip their work group, telling the Jewish prisoners that they are celebrating the New Year’s holiday. The Nazis have become so cruel that their way of enjoying a holiday is to inflict pain on others. A soldier tells Szpilman’s group to sing, and they, in an act of subterfuge, sing a song of rebellion in Polish, so as to hide its meaning from the Germans.

Szpilman gets rid of his Jewish star emblem, a practical as well as symbolic act against discrimination, and joins a non-Jewish work group leaving the ghetto. He meets Janina who is sad to see him so run down, dirty and malnourished. He is able to bathe and eat but must hurry because the Germans are rounding up Polish people of all backgrounds. Szpilman is to be looked over by a man named Marek Gebczynski (Krzysztof Pieczynski). He must sleep in hiding for one night before being relocated. In another image of marginalization, he is again placed in a very constricted space behind shelving in an alcove where weapons are stored.

After moving to an apartment near the ghetto, we again have a view from a window, which provides Szpilman, and the audience, a look at the goings on outside his place. He may be in an apartment now, but he must remain there and is dependent on others for subsistence, so the place resembles a cell. When he is asked by Marek if it’s better on this side of the wall, he says yes, “But sometimes I’m not sure which side of the wall I’m on.” He now carries his lengthy time of imprisonment inside of himself. Marek gives him the name of a person and his address in case of an emergency. Szpilman hears a neighbor playing piano, which makes him smile, as he probably thinks about his old life. But in contrast to the beautiful music which signifies civilization at its best, there is the loud noise of an explosion outside detracting from the melodic sounds inside the apartment.

From his window, Szpilman, and the audience, see a battle between German soldiers and others attacking them from a building on the enclosed side of the ghetto wall. The sound sensitive Szpilman tries to shut out the noise of violence, closing the window. More conflict wakes him as the Germans fire on that part of the wall and the buildings on the other side of it where resistance fighters have attacked them. These battles go on day and night, and the effect on Szpilman is draining since he can find no peace even though he has escaped the ghetto.

It is now May 16, 1943. The Germans bring resistance fighters up against the ghetto wall and shoot them. Janina visits Szpilman and says the Jews fought back and died with dignity. Szpilman feels guilt, saying he should have fought with them instead of hiding. He shares his feelings of pointlessness at fighting the Nazi machine, and Janina chastises him for his pessimism. The next scene undercuts her optimism when Marek arrives and tells Szpilman he must pack his things. Marek says the gestapo found their weapons and arrested Janina and her husband, and he suspects they will discover Szpilman’s hiding place. Szpilman says he doesn’t know where to go and says he’ll take his chances staying there. Marek says if they storm the flat he should throw himself out of the window in defiance, as opposed to those that collaborated. Marek has poison himself, and advocates suicide, it being more dignified than being caught by the Nazis.

When a military truck parks in front of his building, Szpilman is ready to follow Marek’s advice as he puts a chair in front of the window to get ready to leap. But the soldiers don’t go to his door and they take another man instead. The threat of death and a reprieve from it create an emotional roller-coaster which defines existence in this life. Since nobody now comes to give him food Szpilman looks weak as he scrounges around the kitchen for something to eat. The neighbor continues to play piano, punishing him by contrasting, again, his former life with the current one. He accidentally causes dishes to fall and break as he pulls on a shelf. The crash causes the neighbor to bang on the door and says she will call the police, since she probably thinks there may be burglars inside. He begins to gather his belongings and is ready to leave. But the woman next door starts to question why he is there. She asks for an identity card, and yells that he is a Jew as Szpilman runs out of the building into the snow. It seems to be his life consists of either being incarcerated or fleeing from danger.

He has the emergency number Malek gave him and he visits the location. It is Dorota who answers the door, the sister of his friend, who played the cello and who he was attracted to. The man’s name on the slip of paper is her husband and she is pregnant. What is heartbreaking for Szpilman is that if the Nazis hadn’t come into power, it might be he who would be her husband, and she would be carrying his child. To add injury to the moment, she tells him that his friend, her brother, Yurek is dead. She stresses the dire situation when she says it is not a good time to have children. Her baby is due around Christmas, which can be seen as a sign of hope, or a bit of irony to comment on how the Nazis have desecrated the holiday and made life threatening for future generations. Her husband (Valentine Pelka) arrives and because Szpilman is starving they feed him and he sleeps on the couch because they can’t move him yet. He wakes to Dorota playing her cello, and in Szpilman’s expression it looks like he is listening to the music of an angel, and a remembrance of what made his life worthwhile.

Dorota’s husband takes Szpilman to a place that is in a “very German” area, with a police station and hospital which cares for the wounded from the Russian front. The husband says that Szpilman is in the safest place, “right in the heart of the lion’s den.” Nobody knows that there is someone in the flat, so he locks Szpilman in and tells him to be quiet. Again, he is still enduring a form of imprisonment. There is a piano in the apartment, which in a way is just another torture, because he can’t play it. He pretends to finger the keys as the soundtrack plays music that Szpilman imagines he hears, since the memory of the sounds is all he has left.

Dorota’s husband comes with a man named Antek Szalas (Andrew Tiernan) who is with the resistance and is supposed to look after Szpilman. Antek notes that Szpilman doesn’t remember him but he saw him every day as a technician at the Warsaw radio station. Although Szpilman feels badly that he doesn’t recognize him, Antek says it’s okay, but by mentioning the fact shows him to be upset. They report that the Allies are bombing Germany and the Russians are also putting up a good fight. They hope it’s the beginning of the end of the war.

It’s been two weeks until Antek visits him again. Szpilman looks haggard and unkempt, with a full beard and straggly hair. Antek says with a smile that Szpilman is still alive. Szpilman’s look shows that the remark is not funny to him. Antek did bring him bread and sausage, though, which Szpilman immediately devours. Szpilman says he thinks he has jaundice. Antek downplays the health problem and says not to worry about it, that it “just makes you look funny.” He says something dismissive about the illness by mentioning that his grandfather had the condition when he was jilted by his girlfriend. He tells Szpilman to drink his vodka, which would definitely not help his jaundice. Antek says money is a problem, and he needs things to sell. Szpilman gives him his watch. Antek tells him about D-Day and says the Russians should arrive soon.

Time passes and all Szpilman has to eat is a potato that is partially spoiled. Dorota visits with her husband and they find him bedridden and delirious. Despite her husband's warning about attracting attention by getting medical attention, she insists that they bring a doctor. Dorota tends to Szpilman but says she is leaving to be with her mother where her baby is now and where it is safer. This fact points again to Szpilman again having to be on his own soon. Dorota says that Antek betrayed Szpilman, collecting money on his behalf and keeping it for himself. Even after all the misery that the Jews have endured, there are still those who turn against their own people out of bitterness and for profit. The doctor arrives and takes care of Szpilman. Dorota prepares food for him before she leaves. He must find a way to continue to survive.

Szpilman looks better as outside his window are attacks against the Germans by resistance fighters. Parts of the city are now in flames. Szpilman’s water supply is cut off. As more fighting continues, people pound on his door and say that everyone should get out of the building because the Germans are coming. But he’s locked in, trapped like an animal in a cage. A tank is heading up the street and it aims at his building and starts firing. The tank blows a hole in the side of his room. He escapes through it but is shot at as he climbs up some floors to the top of the building and as he hangs from the roof. He then gets to the ground and hides again, this time outside.

He again wanders the streets among the dead and the rubble as he did before when the ghetto was evacuated. He pretends to be one of the dead, implying he almost is like a corpse himself, as the soldiers run past him. He goes into the hospital but there is no healing going on there now. He sleeps and wakes to the continuous sound of gunfire. He scrounges for food and water. Again we have his personalized view through a crack in a bathroom window. He sees German soldiers burn bodies. He is suffering hunger deprivation as he watches the soldiers eat despite being in the presence of the burning corpses, perhaps reminding us of the Jewish bodies cremated at the concentration camps.

Szpilman remains in the hospital as we see the injured march past the crack in the window. His location has changed but he is still holed up as the events transpire outside. He pretends to play music as we hear the piano sounds accompany the leaves blowing in the wind, adding melody to their movement. His sleep is broken by the soldiers napalming the buildings as they burn out any resistance fighters. He gets out of the hospital just before it is burned down. We then get one of the few panoramic shots in the film, with Szpilman hauntingly the only human in it, appearing like a lost soul in a type of hell. The city has been destroyed by the Nazis, and all that is left is a vast wasteland of concrete ruins. Szpilman slows his walking as he is astonished by the devastation of his once vibrant city that we saw at the beginning of the film.

He looks for some food in the abandoned buildings. He hears “Moonlight Sonata” being played on a piano. At this point, we don’t know if the music is real or imagined. He is surprised by a ranking German soldier who asks why he is there and asks what was his occupation. When Szpilman tells him he was a pianist, he leads him to a room where there is a piano and tells him to play something. It’s been a while, and he hesitates, but then begins. The delicate, melancholy sound moves the soldier as he sits down as if at a concert. The tempo then quickens, as if transfusing Szpilman’s soul, bringing him back to life. The soldier asks if he is a Jew, if he has been hiding there, and where he has been hiding. He says in the attic and they go there. The soldier leaves him there, and Szpilman sobs in relief for not having been taken.

The German officer, who we later learn is Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann) goes back to his command office where he signs papers. On his desk there is a family picture which includes children, showing he does have a softer side than other German soldiers depicted. He visits Szpilman and tosses him food. He asks Hosenfeld about the shelling. The captain says it is the Russians and says Szpilman only needs to wait a couple of weeks, which means Germany will soon surrender. Hosenfeld comes again and says his soldiers must pull out. He brings him more food and gives him his coat. The captain asks his name, which he says is appropriate, because Szpilman means “minstrel.” He offers Szpilman hope as he says he will listen to his music after the war when he will again play on the radio.

A truck playing Russian anthem music (music again implying salvation) passes by his window and people and soldiers follow. Szpilman is overjoyed and approaches a couple. But the coat the captain gave him makes the others think he’s German, and the soldiers open fire. He has to convince them that he is Polish. The implication is that preconceived assumptions do not show who an individual really is, so one should not be judged just based on prejudicial generalizations.

Later, Polish Jews who were recently liberated walk past German soldiers who are now prisoners themselves, held behind barbed wire. The Polish men curse the soldiers, with one Pole saying they took his violin, “his soul.” Hosenfeld is there with an injured arm, and asks the violinist if he knows a pianist named Szpilman who played on the radio, because he says he helped him. The brighter color of the film is restored as Szpilman is back at the station playing music as the violinist enters the sound booth and they smile at each other which then turns to sadness as they feel the horror of what has happened. The violinist takes Szpilman to the field where he saw the German officer, which is now empty.

As a full orchestra plays with Szpilman as the featured piano soloist, a postscript says that the pianist lived until the year 2000 after turning 88. The German officer who helped him died in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp in 1952. The transcendent nature of music elevated and joined these two who were separated by ignorant bigotry. In the end, music and his persistence saved Szpilman’s life. Music, representing art, which is the soul of civilization, lives on.

The next film is Saving Mr. Banks.