*** Featuring***
The Pianist
(France/Germany/UK/Poland 2002, 148 min.)
Directed by Roman Polanski
With Adrien Brody, Emilia Fox, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank
Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer
The Pianist won Oscars in 2003 for ÔBest ActorÕ and ÔBest Director,Õ and ÔBest Writing, Adapted ScreenplayÕ, and was nominated for ÔBest Cinematography,Õ ÔBest Costume Design,Õ ÔBest Editing,Õ and ÔBest Picture. The film won the 2002 Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, and was also awarded The French CŽsar for ÔBest Actor,Õ ÔBest Cinematography,Õ ÔBest Director,Õ ÔBest Film,Õ ÔBest Music Written for Film,Õ ÔBest Production Design,Õ and ÔBest SoundÕ
Wednesday April 22, 2009
*7:00 pm – 10:30 pm
*note special start-time
Engleman Hall A120
Hosted by Krystyna Gorniak, Philosophy
Presented as part of
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE AT SCSU: A WEEK OF REFLECTION, APRIL 20-24, 2009
ÒThe title is an understatement, and so is
the film. Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" tells the story of a Polish Jew, a
classical musician, who survived the Holocaust through stoicism and good luck.
This is not a thriller, and avoids any temptation to crank up suspense or
sentiment; it is the pianist's witness to what he saw and what happened to him.
That he survived was not a victory when all whom he loved died; Polanski, in
talking about his own experiences, has said that the death of his mother in the
gas chambers remains so hurtful that only his own death will bring closure. The
film is based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, who was playing
Chopin on a Warsaw radio station when the first German bombs fell. Éthe movie
tells the long and incredible story of how Szpilman survived the war by hiding
in Warsaw, with help from the Polish resistance.
Polanski himself is a
Holocaust survivor, saved at one point when his father pushed him through the
barbed wire of a camp. He wandered Krakow and Warsaw, a frightened child, cared
for by the kindness of strangers. His own survival (and that of his father) are
in a sense as random as Szpilman's, which is perhaps why he was attracted to
this story. Szpilman remained in Warsaw and worked all of his life as a
pianist. His autobiography was published soon after the war, but was suppressed
by Communist authorities because it did not hew to the party line (some Jews
were flawed and a German was kind). Republished in the 1990s, it caught
Polanski's attention and resulted in this film, which refuses to turn
Szpilman's survival into a triumph and records it primarily as the story of a
witness who was there, saw, and remembers.Ó BY ROGER EBERT / January 3,
2003
Free and Open to Students, Faculty, Staff and the General
Public
Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Vice President for Academic Affairs
and supported by the Office of Faculty
Development
Contact David Pettigrew, Philosophy at 392-6778 for further information.