In Wladyslaw Szpilman memoir, adapted into a film by Roman Polanski, The Pianist, readers get a first person point of view and a third person point of view of the Holocaust in the eyes of Wladyslaw Szpilman. Both have its advantages. In the book, a reader knows everything going on inside Szpilman’s head because it is in the first person, but in the film where Adrien Brody plays Szpilman, we do not. Any book can be as long as possible and have every single detail possible, but a movie can only be so long before it is just too costly of an ordeal.
One scene in both the book and the movie that are different from each other is the part where Szpilman is playing the piano one last time on Warsaw Radio. The book had a bit more before this scene, but the movie started there. The book allows a reader to “be” Szpilman. A reader can get inside the mind of a character in first person because they are getting every single detail like what went through Szpilman’s head right before the explosions and how fast the Szpilman’s heart was beating after. Adrien Brody is a great actor, but an audience can only rely on what is said and how anyone reacts. After the explosion, Brody made it seem like Szpilman was just lost. He saw the two men tell him he needs to stop because the bombings were happening, but he didn’t. In the book, Szpilman is not lost about what is going on because everyone knows that something is bound to happen because of Nazi Germany.
Another scene is when Szpilman escapes going on the trains to the labor camps. In the movie, Brody looked grief stricken at leaving his family. This is exactly how third person can be beneficial. An audience can have the work done for them by having them see the grief on Szpilman’s face versus having to work to imagine how Szpilman looked when he has to basically say goodbye for the last time. While it is great to read about what is racing through Szpilman’s mind before, during, and after leaving his family, it is also effective to see someone embody that grief and show an audience that this is how Szpilman reacted.
I for one love both points of view. I tend to read a book and then watch the movie just to compare what happened in the book versus what happened in the movie, see who was added and who was taken out, and for my viewing pleasure. As far as getting a better understanding, first person is the best, but if I want all the imaginative work done for me, then third person via movie is better.
That is what is wonderful about a good story, we can appreciate it in any form. True, the movie does stray from the book, but only because of it's transference onto a different median. It also goes through the creative mind of another artist before it gets there. So it is subject to any change really. If we can accept the change and appreciate it for what is is, then we can put aside the petty differences and enjoy the film or read the book without worrying which is the better rendition. I feel that their may be others that would disagree with me on this topic. However, in pertaining to The Pianist, to argue with me would be splitting hairs. Both versions are respective forms of what they are that tell the same tale. In one, we delve into the mind and thoughts of Szpilman as we travel with him as him. In the other, we have conveyed to us what his possible feelings are, which are for the most part plainly written on his face.
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