August 1 - The Pianist

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – August 1. I hope you enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE PIANIST

Władysław Szpilman is playing Chopin on Radio Poland when the station is knocked off the air by German bombing.  Within a month the Germans occupy Warsaw. They impose increasing restrictions on the Jewish population, including the Szpilman family. Soon the Jews are forced to move into a ghetto. Władysław plays in a café for food as conditions in the ghetto get worse and worse, with many people dying of hunger or disease.  Władysław’s brother Henryk is arrested, but Szpilman uses his influence with a member of the Jewish police, Itzhak Heller, to get him freed.  The family is caught in a round up of Jews who are being sent to the Treblinka extermination camp, but Itzhak Heller frees Władysław. He returns to the virtually empty ghetto and finds work as a mason. He helps smuggle pistols into the ghetto in preparation for an uprising. One day, working on a job Władysław sees  Janina Bogucki a friend from prewar days.  Using his contacts in the Polish underground he makes contact with her. She and her brother hide him in an apartment and bring him food. The Warsaw ghetto uprising starts but is brutally crushed by the Germans. Eventually Andrzej Bogucki s arrested, but Władysław continues to hide in the apartment until he runs out of food. He leaves and calls his emergency contact who turns out to be the husband of Dorota, a girl he knew in the early days of the war. She gets him a new apartment to hide in which is located in a German sector of the city.  His main enemy here is boredom as he can never leave the apartment. Władysław becomes ill but he recovers. On August 1, 1944 [1:43:44 to 1:45:42] the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis begins. When the Germans begin shelling his apartment building he has to leave and hides in an abandoned German army hospital. Soon he has to leave there and starts scrounging in a part of Warsaw devastated in the fighting. Here he is discovered by a German officer, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, who selects the building  Władysław is hiding in as his headquarters. He lets Władysław hide in the attic and brings him food. Eventually the Germans leave and the Soviets capture the city. Władysław is almost shot as a German because he is wearing a coat Hosenfeld gave him. Hosenfeld,  from a POW holding area asks a friend of Władysław whom he sees to ask Władysław to help him. However, by the time Władysław gets there the POWs have been moved.  Władysław starts playing the piano on the radio and in concerts again.

A very interesting and moving film. Władysław endures a lot, but he has an eternally optimistic nature that helps him get through the tough times. Showcases the brave people who, at the risk of their own lives, helped him survive

The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans (The Penguin Press, New York, 2009) at page 622 and the film at 1:43:46 give the uprising’s start date.

Producer - Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde

Director - Roman Polanski

Screenplay - Ronald Harwood

Awards – The movie won the Best Actor(Brody), Best Director and Best Adapted

                 Screenplay Oscars. It was also nominated for the Best Picture, Best Film

                 Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography Oscars at the 75th

                 Academy Awards.

Runtime – 2 hours 30 minutes

Released – May 24, 2002

Starring –

Adrien Brody as Władysław Szpilman

Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Wilm Hosenfeld

Frank Finlay as Father Szpilman

Maureen Lipman as Mother Szpilman

Ronan Vibert as Andrzej Bogucki

Ruth Platt as Janina Bogucki

Emilia Fox as Dorota

Michał Żebrowski as Jurek

Ed Stoppard as Henryk

Jessica Kate Meyer as Halina

Julia Rayner as Regina

Roy Smiles as Itzhak Heller

Richard Ridings as Mr. Lipa

Daniel Caltagirone as Majorek

Valentine Pelka as Dorota's husband