The Pianist
Aristotle's Review
Thought (Theme or Message)
This noteworthy movie provides an insight into the life of a Jewish person during the Holocaust. It demonstrates the brutal treatment that millions of people had to experience and the shame that was brought onto them.
Character
The main character in the movie is named Wladyslaw Szpilman. This movie was created from an autobiography that he wrote. Szpilman was a famous pianist. In the opening scene he was playing Chopin on a Warsaw radio station. While he was playing the first German bombs were dropped in Warsaw. The movie continues to follow him and his family through their journey through a ghetto.
Plot (Action)
The plot begins with Szpilman seeing World War II beginning to affect his country directly. Viewer then see him and his family scramble as they plan for what is ahead of them. They are forced into the Warsaw ghetto and later separated. The movie continues to follow Szpilman in hiding until the war ends.
Diction (Language of the Playwright)
Throughout the movie you can clearly tell where a character is from by their accent and tell what kind of life they had by their vocabulary. As the imprisoned characters become more and more uniform the only factor to set them apart is their words. A viewer is able to tell the social class of a character by paying attention to their education level. Szpilman sounds educated for the entire duration of the movie.
Spectacle (Sets, Costumes, and Props)
The Pianist was filmed in 19 different locations. It is consistent with where the war happened and many of the film locations are close to the actual locations where Szpilman's experience took place. The movie was filmed in Warsaw, Poland as well as other locations in Poland, and Germany. As the movie progresses the movie crew did a fantastic job of making the characters and their clothes look more and more worn.
Sound (Music, Melody, Rhythm)
The movie mainly stuck to the piano as its source of sound. It played the songs Nocturne and Ballad multiple times among other miscellaneous songs.