This week we looked at The Pianist. Both the film and book version. The book is an autobiography by Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman. It is a first person telling of his time during the war. The film, directed by Roman Polanski, is a third person retelling of the story with Adrian Brody starring as Wladyslaw Szpilman. The viewer is thrust into the turmoil immediately in the opening scene of the movie. Szpilman is at the Warsaw radio station giving his final performance while the city is being besieged by the German army. Polanski's portrayal of these first moments, during the siege of Warsaw is very moving and powerful for the viewer. However, Szpilman's vivid description in his autobiography is moving on a personal level, as many of his friends and family died that day. This is an example of how we are effected through different mediums.
The film not being first-person, the viewer is unaware of Szpilman's thoughts and is left to meerly speculate. Polanski's rendering of the book is quite moving on the other hand. A Holocaust survivor himself, Polanski has the firsthand experience to put on display the grotesque artistry of the horrors of the war. He succeeds in evoking emotions in the audience with his depictions of the atrocities Szpilman has witnessed. From the soldiers forcing the people to dance, to the executions, and pulling the broken body of the boy from under the wall, Polanski does not fail to elicit a response from his viewers.
Yet the movie is not completely true to the book. The autobiography is based on Szpilman's experiences, witnessed by his own eyes. While reading, we know of his internal struggles, how he deals with what is happening around him. It is a much more personal telling of the tale. The film version is a representation of what Szpilman saw, shown to us by Roman Polanski. An example of a major change from book to film is the scene with Wladyslaw Szpilman playing for the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld. In the film, we see Adrian Brody play the Chopin Ballade m 1 in G minor on a decently tuned parlor piano without any practice. While in reality, and as we read in the book, Szpilman played c#-minor Nocturne on an aged, unkept, out-of-tune piano without having played or practiced for 2 1/2 years. Not only that, he was also malnourished, exhausted, terrified, in no state to play the rendition that Brody's Szpilman gives for the Nazi. This is a major change between book and film. That pivotal moment when it seemed Szpilman's life is hanging in the balance and he was told to play, he choose c#-minor Nocturne an "autumnal and introspective" piece. Polanski's choosing of Chopin played at that moment could be his own artistic view of his theme for the Pianist/Holocaust.
With the changing of mediums from a book to the big screen, small changes are made and can be significant for the ones who read the book before hand. You mentioned how Szpilman played Chopin c#-minor Nocturne in the book, but in the movie played Chopin Ballade m 1in G minor. For someone who did not read the book or did not catch the switch would not understand the significance of what was played. The fact that you commented on how Szpilman was exhausted and malnourished as he played such a piece in the movie versus what he played in the book is one of those seemingly small changes, but in fact is not for those who read the book thoroughly enough to catch this change.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, both mediums are in different points of view. It’s almost a push and pull kind of situation. For the book, you have to work by imagining everything that is going on, but you are given all the details because you are inside Szpilman’s head. In the movie, you don’t have to work as far as imagining what’s going on, but by deciphering meanings to reactions because you are now outside Szpilman’s head.
The unfortunate thing about adaptations from book to film is that inevitably, moments from the book will be altered and perhaps even portrayed in a different light as well. You point out an excellent yet subtle example of this difference in adaptation with the changing of Chopin’s piece to a different key for the movie. I think it is important to note that both keys are in minor, however, and most minor keys serve to create a more somber mood when the piece is played. At the same time, this may be a subjective opinion, but a friend of mine who I jam with every once in awhile once told me that C# minor is an easier key to play on piano. Perhaps that was why this scene was played in that key; it may have been easier for Brody to play at the beginning of the scene (because it becomes obvious through the increase in cut scenes that Brody does not play for all of the Chopin movement). Then again, I could be completely wrong about this speculation. Haha
ReplyDeleteI also wondered about the choices that were made to change the music that Szpilman played in the scene with the German soldier. I wonder if anyone has ever asked why Polanski decided to make this change. But really the change to a person who is unfamiliar with classical music would be negligible. I also wondered about the perfectly tuned piano within the film, while I Understand not making the audience listen to something horribly out of tune for aural precedence, I cannot help but feel that this would have been a forgivable instance of artistic necessity. I also felt that the change in the motivation in the German soldier to save Szpilman because he was a music lover made him feel less like a savior and more like appreciate of art. The reality of the situation, that he saved him because he was a Jew, would have made the soldier a more likable character and made a greater impact when he could not save him.
ReplyDeleteMILLER-COMMENT ON FISHER'S BLOG REGARDING SZPILMAN
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the differences between the film and the book. As I said in my post, I think one of the most important differences between book and film is perspective. In the book, the reader is allowed to see all of the thoughts and emotions going on in Szpilman’s head. This is especially true in a memoir, as the reader gets the writer’s perspective on everything that is going on. In a film, the viewer is left to his/her own devices to try and decipher what is going on inside the character’s head. Such inferences are usually made based on a variety of factors, including body language, facial expressions, and spoken words. For some people, particularly those who are more visually minded, a film may actually be able to portray the feelings even more, as sometimes, books can be abstract about such things.