The Pianist- Diamond in the Rough

1. I'm going to start off with my favourite- it's the scene where Szpilman is residing at Dorota's home when it is suddenly the target for German tanks which proceed to blast a hole in the wall and temporarily leave Szpilman deaf with a high frequency left ringing in his ears. Besides this technique, I also love how the room, by the blast, becomes just as bleak and devoid of colour as the rest the locations in the movie had looked. And amidst it all, there's a red chair in the middle of one room, and it is the only thing that stands out aside from the trepid Wladyslaw. I think Roman Polanski intentionally refers to Steven Spielberg's Shindler's List here- because if you can recall, the entire movie is filmed in black and white, except for one brief scene where a girl is shown walking across a street in a red dress. Red notions alertness, danger, and both directors put the colour on ordinary things- whether the girl, or the chair. It's a juxtaposed image that symbolizes innocence in the face of danger, which is Szpilman's case throughout most of the film.

2. For some reason, I really liked the scene when the family is discussing where to hide the money near the beginning of the film. They theorize on how to outsmart the Germans and keep their belongings. It is a beginning to the reoccuring theme of trying to hold onto what is going to be taken away regardless, so all efforts are in vain. (This also happens when the rest of their belongings in their cases are dumped, or when Szpilman and his brother go to great lengths to hold onto forbidden firearms but without a good opportunity to use them.)

3. I think the most straightforwardly striking imagery is after Szpilman's marathon against impending death. He temporarily escapes the raging destruction behind him only to return to the past as he hallowingly walks through the empty streets of rubble and white dust. Dilapidated buildings frame the bleak sky above him, and it is indeed an intimidating sight for him to see so much at once, yet so little. The imagery reflects Szpilman's spiritual state- all he has is the skeletal structure making up his frail body, but without the passion and love for anything other than a primal instinct for survival- it had left long ago, like the rest of the souls from the ghetto. This is why I find the next scene so redeeming, when...

4. Szpilman is caught by a German officer, but instead of being shot, he plays an extraordinary and lengthy piano concerto spanning a landscape of beautiful and complicated notes pulling together as a perfect string of cathartic melodies. Although his face is rarely shown, it is surprisingly natural to determine that his life force is being drawn right back into him after years of suppression and the torment of being separated from his instrument of passion. It is also in this scene that we discover a side of humanness to the opposite side of the spectrum which generally only resembles evil. It is an undeniable turning point, when the symbol for absolute decadence suddenly reveals what had been hidden away from his blind spot by the radiance of beauty, in this case being music.
Music as a catharsis is a primary theme in The Pianist- epitomized here, but scattered throughout the film at various times such as when Szpilman imaginarily plunks the piano keys when not a sound emits from the instrument, or at the end when he is performing alongside the rest of the orchestra with a perfectly content look on his face.

5. My final pick is another scene near the end. It is when Spzilman hears about the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld's imprisonment in a Russian war camp and immediately sets out to clear his name, only to find nothing there because it had moved on to another location, similar to what had happened to the Jews. Theme: relocation, being forced to adapt to new settings and circumstances for the sake of survival.
I believe Roman Polanski had a rather individulistic interpretation of the memoir, because even though Szpilman is unable to free the man that saved his life, he does not dwell on it for long and put himself into more turmoil. He accepts the reality of a world infused with karma, punishment being dealt to wrongdoers and rewards eventually finding their way to the kind at heart. The karma that had Germans persecuting the Jews one decade, and serving time for the Russians in the next.
I love how a sunset is shown right after Szpilman visits the missing camp, because it symbolizes resolution, the end of the day, and as all remaining light sheds its skin across the land and only leaves darkness, there is nothing more to see, nothing to question. There is only silence, and the dreams that punctuate our hopes and desires for the next day.

Into The Wild- work in progress

5 LITERARY DEVICES

1. It's a pleasure to shake your pancake hand. Let's be learning to tango on Satan's bus por favor?
2. Do you know how to hotwire a peanut?!?
3. Steve Irwin gave birth to a donkey whilst shaking a cookie out of my fridge.