The Pianist

War, Music

Adrien Brody	Wladyslaw Szpilman
Thomas Kretschmann	Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Frank Finlay	Father
Emilia Fox	Dorota
Maureen Lipman	Mother
Wanja Mues	SS Slapping Father
Julia Rayner	Regina
Ed Stoppard	Henryk
Michal Zebrowski	Jurek
Richard Ridings	Mr. Lipa
Jessica Kate Meyer	Halina

Director	Roman Polanski
Producer	Roman Polanski; Robert Benmussa; Timothy Burrill; Alain Sarde
Writer	Wladyslaw Szpilman; Ronald Harwood
Cinematography	Pawel Edelman
Musician	Frédéric Chopin; Wojciech Kilar

Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. Szpilman was a pianist in Warsaw, Poland, whose music was known throughout the area from its exposure on the radio. As a Jew living in Nazi-occupied Poland, his life becomes a pattern of one restriction after another. This continues as he lives through the creation of the Warsaw ghetto and witnesses the infamous uprising. When the ghetto Jews are being liquidated and deported, including Szpilman’s family, he escapes and survives by hiding. He received no assistance, running from decrepit building to decrepit building, and witnesses firsthand the tragic state that Warsaw was left in from bombing and warfare. He spends his time alone, hiding without any family or friends. Szpilman struggles to survive, no matter what the cost.