The Pianist is a 2002 Polish-French-German-British co-produced film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Szpilman.
In addition to the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also awarded seven French Césars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Brody (who became the only American actor to win one).
Plot: A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw. The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however, Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a Germanconcentrationcamps, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943 – May 16, 1943)and the Warsaw Uprising (1 August to 2 October 1944)
Awards
* Academy Award for Best Actor – Adrien Brody
* Academy Award for Best Director – Roman Polanski
* Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay – Ronald Harwood
* Palme d’Or
* BAFTA Award for Best Film
* BAFTA Award for Best Direction – Roman Polanski
* César Award for Best Actor
* César Award for Best Director
* César Award for Best Film
* César Award for Best Music Written for a Film
* César Award for Best Cinematography
* César Award for Best Production Design
* César Award for Best Sound
* Goya Award for Best European Film
Cast
* Adrien Brody – Władysław Szpilman
* Thomas Kretschmann – Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
* Frank Finlay – Father Szpilman
* Maureen Lipman – Mother Szpilman
* Emilia Fox – Dorota
* Ed Stoppard – Henryk
* Julia Rayner – Regina
* Jessica Kate Meyer – Halina
* Michał Żebrowski – Jurek
* Richard Ridings – Mr. Lipa
