Our Top Five Scenes from The Pianist

Recently in English class we studied Roman Polanski's film, The Pianist to accompany our study of Night by Elie Wiesel. These are our favourite and most powerful scenes.

The Pianist:
1) One of the first nights in the Ghetto, the German officers visit the Jewish families and one man is in a wheelchair and cannot stand to meet them. They take him outside and throw him over the balcony along with his wheelchair.

This scene is so memorable because it is so beyond terrible and absolutely unheard of in our society. It is the first scene in the film of terror and Jewish oppression.

2) At one point the German officers force the Jews to line up and randomly select a few people to lay down, face first, on the street. One officer then proceeds to shoot each one in the head. Upon reaching the last man, he runs out of bullets and the man is forced to wait as the officer reloads his gun.

This scene is very powerful because the when the last man realizes the officer has run out of bullets, visible hope dawns on his face, but it is quickly shut down as the officer slowly reloads his gun to finish the job.

3) When Szpilman moves into the second apartment after he escapes deportation, there is an old piano, sitting unused in the main room. Dorota's husband, who gave him the apartment, tells him he must be silent in order to be safe, as no one knows he lives there. He sits at the piano and gently moves his fingers over the keys, making no sound but hearing the music in his mind.
This scene is very powerful because it shows the strength, comfort, and joy that music brings Szpilman. He is a musician and has made his life around music, and it feeds his soul during his isolation.

4) After Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) has lived outside the walls of the Ghetto for some time, he must go back inside in order to survive. He jumps the fence and takes a long look at the buildings in the Ghetto where he once lived. They are totally destroyed, barely the framework is left.

This scene is very touching because Wladyslaw now knows total isolation. Everything he had and everyone he knew are gone. The only things left are him and the skeletons of buildings.

5) While Wladylsaw is living in the abandoned and destroyed ghetto, he finds a can of pickles, the only source of food he finds. He takes it with him everywhere he goes as he has not been successful in opening the can.

This scene is memorable because it shows the audience just how little he really has and how resourceful he has to be. It also makes the audience think about their own posessions and how much they really have compared to how much they need.