The Pianist (2002)

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Synopsis
Filmmaker Roman Polanski, who as a boy growing up in Poland watched while the Nazis devastated his country during World War II, directed this downbeat drama based on the true story of a privileged musician who spent five years struggling against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted classical pianist born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. The Szpilmans have a large and comfortable flat in Warsaw which Wladyslaw shares with his mother and father (Maureen Lipman and Frank Finlay), his sisters Halina and Regina (Jessica Kate Meyer and Julia Rayner), and his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard). While Wladyslaw and his family are aware of the looming presence of German forces and Hitler's designs on Poland, they're convinced that the Nazis are a menace which will pass, and that England and France will step forward to aid Poland in the event of a real crisis. Wladyslaw's naïveté is shattered when a German bomb rips through a radio studio while he performs a recital for broadcast. During the early stages of the Nazi occupation, as a respected artist, he still imagines himself above the danger, using his pull to obtain employment papers for his father and landing a supposedly safe job playing piano in a restaurant. But as the German grip tightens upon Poland, Wladyslaw and his family are selected for deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to face a certain death, Wladyslaw goes into hiding in a comfortable apartment provided by a friend. However, when his benefactor goes missing, Wladyslaw is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops. The Pianist was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman; the book was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Production Crew

Rainer Schaper	Associate Producer
Rainer Schlaper	Associate Producer
Wladyslaw Szpilman	Book Author
Celestia Fox	Casting
Heta Mantscheff	Casting
Pawel Edelman	Cinematographer
Gene Gutowski	Co-producer
Wojciech Kilar	Composer (Music Score)
Anna Sheppard	Costume Designer
Das Werk	Digital Effects
Roman Polanski	Director
Hervé de Luze	Editor
Henning Molfenter	Executive Producer
Lew Rywin	Executive Producer
Timothy Burrill	Executive Producer
Fryderyc Chopin	Featured Music
Ralph Remstedt	First Assistant Director
Hervé de Luze	Montage
Janusz Olejniczak	Musical Performer
Alain Sarde	Producer
Robert Benmussa	Producer
Roman Polanski	Producer
Allan Starski	Production Designer
Ronald Harwood	Screenwriter
Wladyslaw Szpilman	Screenwriter
Allan Starski	Set Decorator
Jean-Marie Blondel	Sound/Sound Designer
Christian Kunstler	Special Effects Supervisor

Genre
Drama

Awards
2002 - Best Cinematography - Academy
2002 - Best Costume Design - Academy
2002 - Best Editing - Academy
2002 - Best Film - Golden Globe
2002 - Best French Film - French Academy of Cinema
2002 - Best Picture - Academy
2002 - Best Picture - Broadcast Film Critics Association
2002 - Best Picture - National Board of Review
2002 - Best Picture - National Society of Film Critics
2002 - Palme d'Or - Cannes International Film Festival
2002 - Best Cinematography - Academy
2002 - Best Costume Design - Academy
2002 - Best Editing - Academy
2002 - Best Picture - Academy
2002 - Palme d'Or - Cannes Film Festival
2002 - Best Picture - Academy
2002 - Best Picture - Academy
2002 - Best Picture - Broadcast Film Critics Association
2002 - Best Picture - Golden Globe
2002 - Best Picture - National Society of Film Critics
2002 - Best French Film - French Academy of Cinema
2002 - Best Cinematography - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Best Costume Design - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Best Editing - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Best Picture - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Palme d'Or - Cannes Film Festival
2002 - Best Picture - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Best Picture - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie
2002 - Best Picture - Hollywood Foreign Press Association
2003 - Best Picture - Broadcast Film Critics Association
2003 - Best Picture - Broadcast Film Critics Association

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Adrien Brody	Wladyslaw Szpilman
Frank Finlay	The father
Thomas Kretschmann	Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Maureen Lipman	The mother
Emilia Fox	Dorota
Michal Zebrowski	Jurek
Ed Stoppard	Henryk
Julia Rayner	Regina
Jessica Kate Meyer	Halina
Ruth Platt	Janina

The Pianist (2002)

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Cast

Production Crew