For this week we dealt with two different views of the same mans life, Wladyslaw Szpilman, a holocaust surviver of the Warsaw Ghetto. The first thing that stood out to me in the difference between the film version and the book was the beginning of his life within the Ghetto. In the film though the majority of events are played out they seemed rushed and of little importance. In the film the characters that helped Szpilman survive within the Ghetto are little more than background extras who's roles are easily overlooked, especially since few of them are addressed directly or their relations spelled out in any way. While in the book the life within the Ghetto consumed more than half of the book and was the most detailed and riveting section establishing the amount of ordeal that was required to live that type of life. My only thought as to why Roman Polanski left this portion of the film so vague and shortly expressed was that, perhaps even though he was himself a surviver, he did not have to endure life within the Ghetto so did not recognize the importance. Since Polanski's family hid outside of the Ghetto he seemed to identify more with the later part of Szpilman's life that was also lived in hiding, which made the second half of the film much more powerful. The one scene that stood out to me the most in the book was while the family was waiting for the train during the Umschlagplatz chapter and the mother who had suffocated her child continually asked, "Why did I do It? Why id I do it?" In this scene the husband is described as, " . . . trying to comfort her and convince her of something, speaking softly, but it did not seem to penetrate her mind." As a new father who is right now listening to his little girl coo and babble happily this scene and the situation the father and mother were in reached out to me and made me sadder than any other part of the book. But while this scene is replicated, in the movie it is shown as the father just touching the mother on the head looking numb as she wails for her lost child, then Szpilman's sister says that she is annoying her and wonders what she is talking about. The film made this moment seem like a nuisance and something to be ignored or looked down upon rather than a family that was destroyed by such a terrible loss. The personal view of Szpilman though brief on this subject within the book was touching and helped add to the realness of life within the Ghetto, his writing made it plain that the mother crying was not an annoyance but something tragic but necessary to be dealt with by one surviver to another. The last thing I would like to say about this film was the excellent job that was done by Adrian Brody in portraying Szpilman, he really seemed to embody the quite desperation that was spelled out within the pages of the book.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Coulter-Pianist
For this week we dealt with two different views of the same mans life, Wladyslaw Szpilman, a holocaust surviver of the Warsaw Ghetto. The first thing that stood out to me in the difference between the film version and the book was the beginning of his life within the Ghetto. In the film though the majority of events are played out they seemed rushed and of little importance. In the film the characters that helped Szpilman survive within the Ghetto are little more than background extras who's roles are easily overlooked, especially since few of them are addressed directly or their relations spelled out in any way. While in the book the life within the Ghetto consumed more than half of the book and was the most detailed and riveting section establishing the amount of ordeal that was required to live that type of life. My only thought as to why Roman Polanski left this portion of the film so vague and shortly expressed was that, perhaps even though he was himself a surviver, he did not have to endure life within the Ghetto so did not recognize the importance. Since Polanski's family hid outside of the Ghetto he seemed to identify more with the later part of Szpilman's life that was also lived in hiding, which made the second half of the film much more powerful. The one scene that stood out to me the most in the book was while the family was waiting for the train during the Umschlagplatz chapter and the mother who had suffocated her child continually asked, "Why did I do It? Why id I do it?" In this scene the husband is described as, " . . . trying to comfort her and convince her of something, speaking softly, but it did not seem to penetrate her mind." As a new father who is right now listening to his little girl coo and babble happily this scene and the situation the father and mother were in reached out to me and made me sadder than any other part of the book. But while this scene is replicated, in the movie it is shown as the father just touching the mother on the head looking numb as she wails for her lost child, then Szpilman's sister says that she is annoying her and wonders what she is talking about. The film made this moment seem like a nuisance and something to be ignored or looked down upon rather than a family that was destroyed by such a terrible loss. The personal view of Szpilman though brief on this subject within the book was touching and helped add to the realness of life within the Ghetto, his writing made it plain that the mother crying was not an annoyance but something tragic but necessary to be dealt with by one surviver to another. The last thing I would like to say about this film was the excellent job that was done by Adrian Brody in portraying Szpilman, he really seemed to embody the quite desperation that was spelled out within the pages of the book.
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I feel as though I should have put more thought into comparing the book description of the scene you mentioned (the wife repeatedly saying “Why did I do it”) with the film adaptation of that particular moment. I do agree with you that the film portrayal by Polanski may seem like more of a nuisance than a key moment in depicting the suffering that Jews in the ghetto had to face, and more so the suffering a mother has to face in involuntarily murdering her child. At the same time, I do think that the brief portrayal of this moment in the film was both simple and powerful. From what I recall, the mother repeatedly says “Why did I do it?” first. Szpilman’s sister chimes in saying that the wife is annoying her (to be honest, with everything that Szpilman’s family was going through at the time, I probably would have said the same thing); however, her comment comes before she realizes the woman’s reason for doing this. As she finds out that the mother is actually lamenting over the suffocating of her child, Szpilman’s sister is silenced. She seems to no longer view the repetitive mantra as an annoyance; she realizes that it is one more crucial description of the turmoil the Jewish people had to endure in this time. Then again, this is only my speculation.
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