The Pianist (2002) is a feature film based on the memoirs of critically acclaimed musician Wladyslaw Spzilman who survived the Holocaust but lost his family in the process. Having turned down the opportunity to direct Schindler’s List, Roman Polanski saw in Spziman’s book a similar story to his own struggles as a young boy during the war and in terms of tone, the detached mood that he felt suitable to represent such a difficult subject.
The Pianist had similar critical success to Schindler’s List winning not only Oscars for Best Director, Leading Actor and Adapted Screenplay but also the prestigious Palme D’OR at the Cannes Film Festival. Unlike Schindler’s List however, The Pianist has been widely praised in academic circles for presenting an unsentimental and unflinching account of survival in which the audience are given no place to turn for warmth or consolement.
In her book ‘Indelible Shadows’ Annette Insdorf (2003, p.6) investigates the struggle of films dealing with the Holocaust subject matter, to present a picture that is marketable whilst at the same time morally just. Whilst discussing some of the early and commercially successful Holocaust pictures she draws upon the troubling effects of their accessible nature:
‘…The Diary of Anne Frank and Judgement at Nuremberg.. – depend on a confined theatrical setting, superfluous dialogue, star turns, classical editing and musical scores whose violins swell at dramatic moments. These studio productions essentially fit the bristling new material of the Holocaust into an old narrative form, thus allowing the viewer to leave the theater feeling complacent instead of concerned of disturbed.’
Insdorf here touches upon a significant point which has been echoed by many other academics in that feature films and there narrative form cheapen the subject of the Holocaust into a familiar storytelling device. The film which has undoubtedly fallen the hardest under this criticism is Benigni’s Life is Beautiful which is constructed as a fable and whose positive narrative as Cole (2000, p.18) explains, drives the audience towards an inappropriate happy ending:
‘… any sense of sorrow is tempered by the joy of survival. After witnessing the destruction of Guido’s off-screen death in Life is Beautiful, we experience the redemption of Giosue’s closing words, ‘we won.’ Not only is there closure, but it is a redemptive closure.’
The frequently dismissive reactions to feature film representations of the Holocaust including most recently Stephen Daldry’s The Reader become quite insightful when a commercially successful film like The Pianist finds itself for the most part morally unscathed in academic circles. From the research gathered it would appear that what these academics voice most significantly about the film is that it’s restrained, more subtle presentation of horror manages to abide by the often referenced quote by Theodor Adorno that “to write poetry after Aushwitz is barbaric.”
Roman Polanski and Delbert Mann (Marty, pictured left) belong to an exclusive club as the only two men in history to have been awared the Palme D'or and Academy Award Best Director for the same film. Polanski has stated in interviews that his artistic approach to The Pianist was to avoid sentimentality at all costs making a promise to himself to avoid the use of close-ups and stating that “The camera had to be invisible.” (2005, p.197)
Anne-Marie Baron (2006, p.72) suggests that it is due to Polanski’s complex representation that The Pianist manages to avoid being directed into an accessible Hollywood narrative:
‘However distancing himself from the Hollywood style, Polanski strives to adopt the most objective tone possible to match the cool and detached description of events that is so striking in the novel.’
Anne-Marie Baron (2006, p.72) suggests that it is due to Polanski’s complex representation that The Pianist manages to avoid being directed into an accessible Hollywood narrative:
‘However distancing himself from the Hollywood style, Polanski strives to adopt the most objective tone possible to match the cool and detached description of events that is so striking in the novel.’
An approach to making the camera appear invisible is certainly an unusual decision for a feature film and as Baron (2006, p.72) goes on to explain it gives ‘The Pianist’ the unsettling and distinct quality of making the viewer as helpless as that of the film’s protagonist:
‘The director’s aim is to make the viewer as powerless witness, whom he incites to revolt. What he emphasises is the random nature of the discrimination….’
‘The director’s aim is to make the viewer as powerless witness, whom he incites to revolt. What he emphasises is the random nature of the discrimination….’
It is quite likely for this reason that Polanski chooses not to use the more obvious inclusion of a voiceover which would help us to warm to Spzilman’s character. Rather it is important that he is a detached figure because as Buschell (2003) explains in her review of the film, it is important that Spzilman is seen as a character of circumstance, that his very passive nature heightens the sense of disbelief at the events happening and presents a realistic view of survival:
‘He (Polanski) depicts the brutalities and dehumanising experiences that Spzilman endured without making him a hero. Spzilman is an observer who experiences the atrocities (as we do) through the window of various hideouts.’
The fact that except for one scene only we see the film entirely through Spzilman’s eyes is a narrative device on which Tsiolkas’ (2003) article, emphasises the feeling that Polanski does not attempt to portray the totality of the horror but rather depict the still and sudden moments of shocking violence seen through the eyes of one man:
‘ I have seen documentary footage of the Warsaw Ghetto and part of Polanski's achievement is to not attempt to recreate for us the astonishing and horrific images of death and decay that were caught by documentarians. Instead, we are offered an initially intimate portrait of Szpilman and through his eyes we begin to slowly understand the magnitude of the violence occurring around him.
The alarmingly calm and restrained representation of events in The Pianist has led academics like Stevenson (2006, p.151), to compare the film with Night and Fog as he elaborates that both film and documentary contain a similar detached narrative system which leads the audience to contemplate rather than judge:
‘Instead (Polanski and Spzilman) they want to mark a small, even ironic distance between the events and themselves… avoiding an overwhelming clamour of terror in an attempt to find a way of providing space for a specific kind of thought, a distance, a breathing moment, if only slight on these events….. In Night and Fog…., the oscillation between contemporary colour footage and black and white archival footage coupled with Hanns Eisler’s contemplative score enables much of the same effect as noted above, not to reflect mimetically, but to attempt to produce it as an object of knowledge…’
The ‘object of knowledge’ which Stevenson speaks of appears also to act as a crucial aspect within the film’s representation of different ethnic types. Whereas there has been a tendency in feature film representations of the Holocaust to emphasise and define the role of villains and victims, The Pianist, as Philip French (2003) states in his review, is careful not to overstate the actions of characters in the film, a representation that highlights Polanski’s aim to show rather than judge what happened:
‘… by playing down such acts of kindness and decency as Spzilman experiences it refuses to join in an easy celebration of the human spirit. In this resides a stoic honesty.’
Lawrence Baron (2005, p.147) extends this point to mention how The Pianist shows people for what they were given the circumstance of their own situation and their own struggle to survive. Such a representation manages to provide an open minded insight into human behaviour rather than assorting characters into one dimensional categories:
‘In keeping with Spzilman’s cosmopolitanism, the script avoids stereotyping Germans, Jews or Poles…. Polanski incorporates a spectrum of Jewish characters from black marketers to resisters and of Polish ones from the embezzler of Spzilman’s food money to his loyal rescuers.’
Crucially not only does Polanski avoid stereotyping ethnic types but by portraying ethnic characters through Spzilman’s eyes only, we are given just an ‘object of knowledge’ of the people who Spilman happened to encounter rather than a generalised representation.
‘In keeping with Spzilman’s cosmopolitanism, the script avoids stereotyping Germans, Jews or Poles…. Polanski incorporates a spectrum of Jewish characters from black marketers to resisters and of Polish ones from the embezzler of Spzilman’s food money to his loyal rescuers.’
Crucially not only does Polanski avoid stereotyping ethnic types but by portraying ethnic characters through Spzilman’s eyes only, we are given just an ‘object of knowledge’ of the people who Spilman happened to encounter rather than a generalised representation.
Polanski’s reasons for turning down the chance to direct Schindler’s List remain unknown but Spielberg’s at times fateful representation of events do contrast greatly with Polanski’s aim to capture ‘intellectual honesty.’ The common criticism of representation in Spielberg’s film is that whilst Schindler’s List efficiently portrays the transformation of the Jewish genocide he fails to characterise the Jewish characters along the way. Stevenson (2006, p.151) explains that The Pianist manages to present active and humanised victims and thus breaks away from the overly familiar film conventions of the passive Jew:
‘Polanski develops as sharply as possible the process of knowledge production in relation to who knows about the engulfing events. The family in 18 shots and two minutes, express a range of contrasting attitudes from passivity to bustling action to evade and survive, to go to the country.’
A well rounded Nazi officer -
just one of many conventions
that Polanski breaks during
this titanic drama.'
In this sense the film echoes the painstaking testimonies in Shoah where various Holocaust survivors discuss at some length the contrasting thoughts, beliefs and actions of Jews in relation to their increasingly horrifying situation.
Claude Lanzmann himself would be unlikely to welcome this comparison with his belief firmly set on the fact that the Holocaust should never be recreated on screen. Roger Ebert’s (2003) review of a film however that “is not a thriller and avoids any temptation to crank up suspense or sentiment” reflect the feeling that The Pianist is no ordinary feature film about this subject matter.
That said, whilst Polanski’s aim to make the camera an invisible object might pay off in its detached narrative and unjudgemental content, Mazierska (2005, p.232) brings up an important point about elements of the film’s construction which are clearly commercially orientated:
‘…. it cannot be denied that that Polanski’s film was made largely for an international audience, to which can be attributed the language in which it is shot: English, as well as the largely British and American cast,…. with Polish actors playing only minor parts.’
In light of the authentic approach that Polanski strives to achieve it seems fair to say that these decisions in language and cast are not very authentic and have been chosen simply to reach a wider audience. The audience-orientated model of feature films about the Holocaust has been criticised by some for helping to turn the subject into a business. The fact that a film in the English language makes the Holocaust more accessible and not least eligible for top awards on the biggest, most commercial stage.
However if the film has arguably drawn in larger audiences through these decisions it seems hardly a negative thing when as Struk (2004, p.186) stresses, the picture itself presents such difficult and thought provoking content along with such a fair and measured representation:
‘Spzilman’s story, written shortly after the end of the war, is both a harrowing account of hid life in the ghetto and in hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and a complex story about good Jews, bad Jews, good Poles, bad Poles, and not least a good Nazi, an officer who finally secures Spzilman’s survival.’
The aspect of the film that seems to make the greatest impression and takes The Pianist to another level from most feature films on the same topic is the sheer magnitude, detail and variety of the suffering in ghetto life. Polanski sucks the audience into a world of toughened children, people betraying one another, others going insane, what he encapsulates is not a judgemental look at the cause of these incidents but rather an expression of human behaviour under overwhelming emotional stress. This is best emphasised in the scene where a man struggles with an old woman for some soup and ends up knocking her down violently and then licking the soup of the ground. The camera does not lead us to blame the man for this incident but rather stresses the barbaric nature of an event that has made people resort to such actions.
Feature film is of course a poetic form and as such filmmakers like Lanzmann who took pride in being faithful to Adorno’s words are often the most severe critics of attempted recreations of the Holocaust on screen.
Polanski however placed a great deal of thought into his representation of events asking of his cast and crew ‘not to show off’ and thus adopting a difficult approach to his subject matter.
By avoiding stylised camera work and redemptive notions and sentimentality at all costs, Polanski manages to largely avoid the poetry that Adorno speaks of. As such his content becomes as thought provoking and methodical as the authentic testimonies in Shoah and the emotional restraint of the narrative as powerful as in Night and Fog.
Most importantly it’s contemplative form and detached narrative make the audience aware that like Spzilman they can be invited only into glimpses of the terror with the film highly aware of the fact that the totality of the action is unrepresentable.
Bibliography
Baron, AB, 2006.
The Shoah on Screen: Representing crimes against humanity
Council of Europe
Baron, AB. 2006.
The Shoah on Screen: Representing crimes against humanity
Council of Europe
Baron, LB. 2005.
Projecting the Holocaust into the present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema
Illustrated Edition, Published by Rowman and Littlefield
Buschell, LB. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/12/19/the_pianist_2003_review.shtml
Cole, TC. 2000.
Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler: How history is brought packaged and sold.
Published by Routledge
Cronin, PC. 2005.
Roman Polanski Interviews.
United States: Univ. Press of Mississipi
Ebert, RE. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Available from:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030103/REVIEWS/301030302/1023
French, PF. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Guardian, 26th January.
Insdorf, A.I. 2003.
Films and the Holocaust.
Mazierska, EM. 2005.
Double Memory: The Holocaust in Polish film
In: Haggith, Newman, TH, JN. Holocaust and the Moving Image.
Illustrated Edition: Published by Wallflower Press. P 232.
Stevenson, MS. 2006.
The Pianist and it’s Contexts: Polanski’s Narration of Holocaust Evasion and Survival
IN: Orr, Ostrowska, JO, EO, The cinema of Roman Polanski: dark spaces of the world. P 151.
Struk, J.S. 2004.
Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence
Illustrated Edition, Published by I.B. Tauris
Tsiolkas, CT. 2003.
The Atheist’s Shoah – Roman Polanski’s The Pianist
Available from:
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/26/pianist.html
The Reader, 2008. Film.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.
UK: The Weinstein Company
Life is Beautiful, 1998. Film.
Directed by Robert Benigni
ITA: Melampo Cinemaografica
Claude Lanzmann himself would be unlikely to welcome this comparison with his belief firmly set on the fact that the Holocaust should never be recreated on screen. Roger Ebert’s (2003) review of a film however that “is not a thriller and avoids any temptation to crank up suspense or sentiment” reflect the feeling that The Pianist is no ordinary feature film about this subject matter.
That said, whilst Polanski’s aim to make the camera an invisible object might pay off in its detached narrative and unjudgemental content, Mazierska (2005, p.232) brings up an important point about elements of the film’s construction which are clearly commercially orientated:
‘…. it cannot be denied that that Polanski’s film was made largely for an international audience, to which can be attributed the language in which it is shot: English, as well as the largely British and American cast,…. with Polish actors playing only minor parts.’
In light of the authentic approach that Polanski strives to achieve it seems fair to say that these decisions in language and cast are not very authentic and have been chosen simply to reach a wider audience. The audience-orientated model of feature films about the Holocaust has been criticised by some for helping to turn the subject into a business. The fact that a film in the English language makes the Holocaust more accessible and not least eligible for top awards on the biggest, most commercial stage.
However if the film has arguably drawn in larger audiences through these decisions it seems hardly a negative thing when as Struk (2004, p.186) stresses, the picture itself presents such difficult and thought provoking content along with such a fair and measured representation:
‘Spzilman’s story, written shortly after the end of the war, is both a harrowing account of hid life in the ghetto and in hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and a complex story about good Jews, bad Jews, good Poles, bad Poles, and not least a good Nazi, an officer who finally secures Spzilman’s survival.’
The aspect of the film that seems to make the greatest impression and takes The Pianist to another level from most feature films on the same topic is the sheer magnitude, detail and variety of the suffering in ghetto life. Polanski sucks the audience into a world of toughened children, people betraying one another, others going insane, what he encapsulates is not a judgemental look at the cause of these incidents but rather an expression of human behaviour under overwhelming emotional stress. This is best emphasised in the scene where a man struggles with an old woman for some soup and ends up knocking her down violently and then licking the soup of the ground. The camera does not lead us to blame the man for this incident but rather stresses the barbaric nature of an event that has made people resort to such actions.
Feature film is of course a poetic form and as such filmmakers like Lanzmann who took pride in being faithful to Adorno’s words are often the most severe critics of attempted recreations of the Holocaust on screen.
Polanski however placed a great deal of thought into his representation of events asking of his cast and crew ‘not to show off’ and thus adopting a difficult approach to his subject matter.
By avoiding stylised camera work and redemptive notions and sentimentality at all costs, Polanski manages to largely avoid the poetry that Adorno speaks of. As such his content becomes as thought provoking and methodical as the authentic testimonies in Shoah and the emotional restraint of the narrative as powerful as in Night and Fog.
Most importantly it’s contemplative form and detached narrative make the audience aware that like Spzilman they can be invited only into glimpses of the terror with the film highly aware of the fact that the totality of the action is unrepresentable.
Bibliography
Baron, AB, 2006.
The Shoah on Screen: Representing crimes against humanity
Council of Europe
Baron, AB. 2006.
The Shoah on Screen: Representing crimes against humanity
Council of Europe
Baron, LB. 2005.
Projecting the Holocaust into the present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema
Illustrated Edition, Published by Rowman and Littlefield
Buschell, LB. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/12/19/the_pianist_2003_review.shtml
Cole, TC. 2000.
Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler: How history is brought packaged and sold.
Published by Routledge
Cronin, PC. 2005.
Roman Polanski Interviews.
United States: Univ. Press of Mississipi
Ebert, RE. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Available from:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030103/REVIEWS/301030302/1023
French, PF. 2003. The Pianist Film Review.
Guardian, 26th January.
Insdorf, A.I. 2003.
Films and the Holocaust.
Mazierska, EM. 2005.
Double Memory: The Holocaust in Polish film
In: Haggith, Newman, TH, JN. Holocaust and the Moving Image.
Illustrated Edition: Published by Wallflower Press. P 232.
Stevenson, MS. 2006.
The Pianist and it’s Contexts: Polanski’s Narration of Holocaust Evasion and Survival
IN: Orr, Ostrowska, JO, EO, The cinema of Roman Polanski: dark spaces of the world. P 151.
Struk, J.S. 2004.
Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence
Illustrated Edition, Published by I.B. Tauris
Tsiolkas, CT. 2003.
The Atheist’s Shoah – Roman Polanski’s The Pianist
Available from:
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/26/pianist.html
The Reader, 2008. Film.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.
UK: The Weinstein Company
Life is Beautiful, 1998. Film.
Directed by Robert Benigni
ITA: Melampo Cinemaografica
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