The Pianist (2002) on Netflix
Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist, is playing live on Warsaw radio when German bombs strike the station in September 1939. Occupation forces him and his family into the Warsaw Ghetto.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb8.5/101,025,028 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
The pianist Władysław Szpilman lives in Warsaw with his family when Germany invades Poland in September 1939. He is playing live on the radio when German bombs hit the station, and when Britain and France declare war he remains in Warsaw with his family. Warsaw comes under Nazi occupation, and Jews face persecution and heavy restrictions on public life, and must wear blue Star of David armbands. To survive, the family sells its possessions, among them Szpilman's grand piano. In late 1940, they are forced from their home into the overcrowded Warsaw Ghetto, where disease and starvation spread.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Pianist (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Joseph Fiennes was Roman Polanski's first choice to play pianist Władysław Szpilman but turned the part down for a stage commitment; over 1,400 actors auditioned in London without satisfying Polanski, who offered Adrien Brody the role at their first meeting in Paris.
- Close-ups of Szpilman's hands at the piano were played by Polish classical pianist Janusz Olejniczak, whose recordings overdubbed Adrien Brody's own playing; Brody practiced for months before and during filming so his keystrokes would convince viewers he was playing.
- Director Roman Polanski escaped the Kraków Ghetto as a child after his mother's death and spent the rest of the war in a Polish farmer's barn; his father nearly died in the camps before the two reunited after World War II.
- The ruined city was built from old Soviet Army barracks that were due to be destroyed anyway, and the Warsaw Ghetto and surrounding city were recreated on the backlot of Babelsberg Studio to look as they had during the war.
- The real pianist Władysław Szpilman lived in Warsaw until his death in 2000, aged 88, while the German officer who spared him, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, died in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in 1952.
