Hell yeah, it is. I'm a pianist, as well, and I hate it when I have to play in cold weather. My hands tense up so bad, and my fingers are desperate not to move. 😅
he honestly believed the officer would kill him after his performance. he believed he was caught, that his life was over. this performance was him saying goodbye to life, to everything and everyone he loved. only this piece could do this
Luke Faulkner oh hey its the dude who shamelessly promotes his crappy music in the comments sections of other peoples videos with the same copy pasted paragraphs, over and over again!
The straight face the german officer has through the whole piece is almost as if he was heartbroken and thought to himself "How many like him did we kill?"
Or, knowing his life story (he helped many like Spzilmen before dying in a Soviet POW camp), he was wondering about the people he tried to help and if they were okay.
yeah i also though of this, like how many young people full of talent and different experience did they just turn into nothing, pretty heart breaking and hard pill to swallow to anyone in the right mind
@@andwhat5248 No not true, learn about him, Wilm Hosenfeld. He helped a lot of jews and poles during the entire war, after his death he was even rewarded the Righteous among nations by Israel
I agree, but would also recommend the film Children of Men for an equally powerful scene. I won't spoil it and you should watch the film first, but if you don't care the scene is on RU-vid called "Miracle Cease Fire"
It is not an equally powerful scene......... I guess that particular scene reminded you of this one because it's an abandoned building during war time.
Zelina Castro Watch the movie first before making accusations for why I recommended that scene. And the fact you think I would recommend that scene only because the location is in a building and it's during a war shows that you obviously haven't seen the movie because it has nothing to do with why it's so powerful.
It was Chopin his favorite composition. Its really challenging technically, it has everything in it, especially the coda is a beast. But to me as a pianist the voicing and phrasing is the hardest part of this piece. But as another pianist once said its a journey of a lifetime.
He skips some parts and that actually touched me. He actually skips it because he played it when ww2. Which the parts he skips are the joy parts and he cannot interpret it for that time.
Lol actually he skips some parts cuz I bet they couldn’t fit the whole 9 minute piece into the movie 😭. And three piece from the beginning was Chopin nocturne in c# minor, not this ballade.
@@rhz1089 Sorry, you're right - not quite sure how I managed that mistake (I shall plead tiredness and complacency)! In the original memoire Władysław Szpilman said that he played the Nocturne in C# minor, not the Ballade in G minor, to Wilm Hosenfeld when he was discovered by him, so maybe that has something to do with this brain malfunction! Nevertheless, I do think there is a motif of artistic joy being excised or interrupted in the film - the bombs crash down on the radio station as Szpilman begins to play the 'happier' sounding parts of the Nocturne in C# minor in the opening, this Ballade has been truncated with the more joyful parts ommitted. Until the end of the film (when he plays the grand polonaise), the only music that is either uninterrupted or joyful is played by other people - the Nazi neighbour playing her lullaby during his hiding, Dorota practing Bach's cello suites. Even as a cafe pianist in the ghetto he is constantly being interrupted. I don't think this is all done merely incidentally because of time constraints. There is a theme woven throughout of the horrors of the war and Nazi occupation frustrating art - the Bechstein that must be sold, the violin that must be stuffed full of hidden Zlotys even if it becomes unplayable. And, of course, most obviously there is the piano which he is unable to play during hiding. I read the film as partly a meditation on art as something almost redemptive of the horrors of life and as in some sense ineradicable - that even despite the constant intrusion and dehumanisation of the Nazi atrocities, Szpilman will go on playing even if it is only in his imagination.
Piękna muzyka Chopina w pewien sposób pojednała tych mężczyzn .Nie czują się wrogami.Na chwilę jakby zapomnieli o wojnie.Myślami są na sali koncertowej. Jest to piękna , wzruszająca scena. Będę ją pamiętać do końca życia.
@Dave Ciccantelli Well, beyond the opening of it, to help convince the audience that Brody's playing the rest of it and not, as it was in actuality, an expert pianist as the hand model.
I am a pianist and I knew the second he started playing what piece it was. I was a sobbing mess. No other composer could portray the tragedy like Chopin. Except maybe Beethoven.
Stop bragging, if you were such a real pianist you would have noticed that this scene in the movie was speeded. it is impossible to do that part of the song with this haste, even Vladimir Horowitz is not that quick
@@salimzenini561 Cancerous comment. How do you know if he hadn't or did? He only mentioned that he recognized the piece being played and not at which speed it was being played at. Peanut brain.
Knowing the war was about to end, that officer probably felt regret for having participated in a monstrous machine of death and destruction. Seeing that husk of a man create magic made him realize the consequences of his actions and those of his fatherland. He would later die in a prisoner camp, reflecting on those thoughts until his last breath.
"I am... I was a pianist" sad how spilzman, couldn't say he still was since the nazis took that from him. but he still never forgot how to play, I especially admire the scene where he imagines the notes being played while he airplays the piano
about 3 years ago, i used to be able to play fur elise, but ever since we moved, i havent touched one piano. well except for like about 1 month ago. and then when i tried to play fur elise, it didnt work. but im planning to get back into learning how to play the piano properly. I never actually knew hoe to play the piano. i just tought myself how to play fur elise. but it sounded kind of bland. i didnt put emotion into the music
Truthfully, I feel like any pianist who hadn't played in years and had one last chance to play something would pick the G Minor Ballade. It's just the perfect piece of music.
The scene in 2:42 having Szpilman playing the most emotional part of the musical piece while showing the German officer physically tired, but more mentally exhausted about everything going on in the world at that time. All with a completely detroyed place on the background. This has to be one of the most iconic direction / photography moments in film history.
That's actually false. People ASSOCIATE Chopin's music with nationalism because he incorporated traditional Polish music into his music during a period in which Poland was being invaded by foreign powers like Russia. In fact this so called "Chopin's nationalism" was popularly spread posthumously (after Chopin's death) by Liszt, and various Polish writers and artists in order to revitalize Polish nationalism. Chopin himself believed in "absolute music", that instrumental music needed no programme, stories, or literary inspiration to invigorate itself - that it should be able to speak for itself. Yes, the very idea of nationalism being in his music is antithetical to Chopin's own philosophy.
Milton, Chopin was very deeply patriotic Pole, coming from a patriotic family, supporting Polish cause everywhere he could, hating Russian occupiers etc. Nothing ugly or narrow-minded about it. Nobody had to "invent" this part, read something more about him before writing your noble intuitions. There is no contradiction in his Polish patriotism and universal quality of his art.
I saw this when i was much younger and a less experienced pianist. It touched me so deeply I took the music to my piano teacher despite it being far too advanced. We battled for probably about 8/9 months but I mastered it. It's my go to when I need to think, escape, take a moment to myself - it's become one of the most important pieces of music I've ever had the pleasure of hearing.
@@sarahkraus8247 which one are you talking about? I meant the officer played moonlight sonata when the pianist went back to the attic with his tin can. He didn't really see him playing just listened to the music. That scene is just before this one.
I think the fact that he's a pianist makes the whole movie so much more powerful. Instruments are the embodiment of peace and joy, we use instruments to bring up feelings inside of us, to make others happy or sad, and to kill a musician is to kill all of that. This man did nothing to deserve the treatment he got, and the soldier realises that. I really think music can bring us togheter like few other things
Yeah, the piano is important. In the original screenplay he was an expert on the kazoo, but when they did screen tests, it just didn't have the same feel.
The piano, oddly, is sharp by almost a semitone. Usually when pianos go out of tune it’s because the strings loosen and therefore becomes lower pitched.
The second layer to this scene is that the song was picked by Szpilman picked Chopin on purpose, because Chopin was a Polish pianist. It was him basically saying "If I'm going to die, let me die playing the song of one of my people."
My social studies teacher showed us this in grade 8, through a lot of the movie people weren't paying attention and didn't really care (as many 13 year olds wouldn't) but during this scene everyone was silent.
I also watched in a class. 10th grade, I believe. Same effect. It was sorrowful, his playing and their expressions, and the underlying suspense of not knowing what the German was going to do once he was done playing.
Spilmann just though,I don't care if I'm gonna die now... Once I will play like I couldn't do for so long and I'll put all my pain on it... I'll give him my story...
Be Water repeating that does not make me understand where Marxism comes into play. Also it was 8th grade, it was a mandatory course, what's the big deal? It was basically history class.
After witnessing the deaths of so many people at the hands of others, Hosenfeld listening intently to every note that Spzilman played perfectly allowed him to regain that piece of humanity he had probably lost or forgotten about in the Horrors of War.
Probably realised that they’re both people. During the war I wouldn’t be surprised if the nazis thought of the Jewish, polish, Lithuanian, gypsy and all the victims as not human.
What makes this scene so brilliant and powerful is the way Szpilman and Hosenfeld affect each other. By letting him play the piano again, Hosenfeld gives Szpilman the chance to regain part of himself which he had lost: he could be pianist once again. On the other hand, Hosenfeld is fascinated by his talent, and the way he didn't give up, and this gives him a chance to be human, a hero, and a new hope for Szpilman, who had lost all his hopes. It's amazing how they create a few minutes of peace and humanity during a bloody war.
And since I did not find any mention of this- the brief cut to the German chauffeur by his car shuffling uneasily around outside in the moonlight was an unbelievably underrated moment of genius. In a few seconds of screen time it captured the tension, desolation, uneasiness, loneliness, and discomfiture of the post-apocalyptic war-torn streetscape dramatically awash in the melancholic chiaroscuro-esque beauty of blue tinted moonlight longing for what was and has since ceased to exist. The chauffeur was all of us watching this scene - we are the outsiders, experiencing the moment as it was to him - a distant echo reverberating through the silent ruins of history, with each note of Chopin’s composition transporting us to a fleeting moment of respite.
I stopped playing piano when I was about 17 to focus on school. Years later I watched this movie and it inspired me to play piano again. Today I am learning to play this piece for my ltcl exam.
I'm old, but my eyes are full of water when I see The Pianist, especially this scene. May be because my family didn't make it, thru Warsaw's Ghetto. I never had grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, they all gone. Only my Mother has survived. She's now almost ninety and now I take care of here. I don't even ask her what she thinks about that movie. It's so painful.
+Panzer Raven unfortunate for captain wilm hosenfeld, he was sent to a war camp after ww2 and died in 1952 after seven years of hard labour. :( he deserved to live rather than be punished.
+Panzer Raven It's much, much harder to be a human, when you are expected to be a monster. Hosenfold, Franz Stigler... It's funny, they lost their war, so they are called now bad guys. So why we hear more stories about chivalrous Germans, and much less about, for example Russians?
According to Wikipedia, he saved only 2 Jews, but he has also participated in killing many more Jews. He was a Nazi Captain, and you do not get such a high rank for sitting and doing nothing. He was presented as a hero in the movie, but I think that his presence in the movie, was rather linked to the fact, that most of us are somewhat empathetic, soft and humane, when it comes to dealing with certain things, especially the things that we love. He was a nasty Nazi soldier, but he helped a Jew that was in need, and Szpilman played the music that this soldier loved.
Héctor D P I agree...im half Austrian and half Kiwi...both my Austrian grandparents fathers served in the war...they were forced to...it was either keep their family safe or die...
Many Germans risked their lives to save jews from their own government. Being ruled by evil forces doesn't mean that all people living inside thise regime have lost all their humanity.
Can you imagine what szpilman felt when he played "ballade in G minor"? He thought he was going to die, so he interpreted the composition as if his life depended on it, it is not a simple interpretation of the piece, but an interpretation that was worth his life for sure. He chose this song as if it were the last one he was going to play. He played as if he didn't hear tomorrow, I doubt that any live pianist will be able to arrive at the REAL interpretation of szpilman in this scene. The film tried to approximate the facts, but I'm sure the interpretation was unique in real life. I have to say, as a pianist, I'm very happy.
@@HysteriaVybe Still I think it closes well with this "fanciful" part of the movie hahahah. but I confess to be embarrassed, because a grade 6 piano conservatory student like me should know that ahaha
That german officer was Wilm Hosenfeld, he was an hero and he saved many judes from sure death with the risk of the own proper life. He died few months after red soviet army entered in Poland, he died sadly in a soviet prisoners field as a war criminal. I don't know if God exists but i hope now he can rest in peace and watch many humans watch him like an example of what a human should be.
Soviet army entered Poland on 17th of September 1939 so Hosenfeld couldn't die few months after this, as he actually died in 1952 as far as i remember.
It could be Polanski's interpretation but Hosenfeld said it himself in the movie "it's good to have faith". I believe that he's resting in Paradise now. If he doesn't deserve heaven then no one does.
@@LittleBlacksheep1995 Struggle to commend even his good actions as he was in the Waffen. A truly good man would have refused to serve, and faced the consequences
Unbelievable performance, they really managed to capture the wildness and agony of the piece, especially the coda. Extremely well done. I've heard dozens of interpretations of this piece, Zimmerman, Pollini, but for some reason I always come back to this video and sit amazed just like the German officer does.
In his autobiography, "Death of a City", re-printed and re-published as "The Pianist", Szpilman said to the German officer, as soon as he'd finished playing this ballade "Well, are you going to take me outside and shoot me now?"..fully expecting that to be his fate. Thankfully, Capt. Hosenfeld didn't..
Who is good and who is evil...who is to judge in this moment when there is only music and two human beings...each suffering in his own way...thanks for movies like The Pianist
Juancho Alvarado I know I'm hungarian we were fucked the most and did even less to deserve it but still the actions of the nazis can be viewed as evil and if we decide to be understanding and try to see with their eyes instead of dehumanising them into the cartoon vilains of history we will surely find reasons why they thought they are right but in that case what's the point of even using the words good and evil ever
I have watched this scen many, many times! The intensity of the German soldier, his facial expressions... and his submission to the sheer beauty of the Chopin!
I had seen this scene before, but returning home from week abroad I decided to sit through the plane ride and watch this magnificent work. Hours of awe. This scene struck me in a way I could not, and still cannot describe. That moment will never repeat itself for me, but I only hope it can for every human being on this planet. Emotionally perfection, beauty incarnate.
How about over 2 millions of Soviet civilians who died in Germany as a result of forced labour? Would you go back in history and save them? 13,7 millions of Soviet civilians overall? Or at least the Janowska concentration camp orchestra, which consisted of 40 Jewish musicians from Lviv orchestras, and who were all killed while they played before they could be liberated? The German officer died, oh my. He must have come to Warsaw as a tourist, I suppose.
Churchill was the chief of the good ones, please don't put him together with psychopaths like hitler and stalin. This man had a perfectly clear view over the world's situation, that's worthy even nowadays.
Mr Spilzman's wife came to my school (in France) and I think it's so incredible.. I had been touched so deep in my heart, I can't believe this happened. I feel so lucky to have seen the last person that really knew him
AlmondRed Lol, the actual piece is 10 minutes long and i dont think youd want to watch 10 minutes of this piece, as beautiful as it is, it gets the point across the way it is
Just to reiterate what someone else said, this officer was not a member of the Nazi party, it's an important distinction, because a Nazi would not have saved him, however much he appreciated the music, well, that's if they were capable of appreciating anything beautiful, questionable, eh?
earlier in the movie you can notice that he pretends to play the piano in his mind, people call him crazy but i call it a true love of music...he wants to play the piano with all his heart, but he couldnt risk the piano making noise and attract the soldiers attention and kill him..a true pianist..
A german officer and a polish pianist in one room. No words. No hate. No racism. Just the magic of the music turning the whole War and hatred into complete nonsense. Sadly...we are again in a time of War, hate and racism. And people didn't learn anything from History!...it makes me sad and angry. Wasn't the death of over 60 Million people enough? What is wrong with us Humans? We should be a intelligent species...but i can't find that intelligence anymore.
It has nothing to with intelligence. We have plenty of intelligence, we don't have any love. We are an arrogant, selfish species that shows no compassion. We are godless, self-worshiping, consuming parasite and it will only get worse.
+Onyx Fire Seriously, He could easily send us to Hell right now, and give us what we deserve. But, in His mercy, He gives us the chance to repent of our sins, to return to Him, to trust we have been forgiven by Him, because of the torture and death he took for us, and then trust Him to change our hearts. And when we do that--He will give us peace in our hearts, no matter what trials we face.
I love how there are TINY little mistakes in the performance to show how long its been since he played. Such attention to detail. I hate this movie because of it's vivid realism but keep it close because of its emotional power
That's why he didn't play it. I think, for the purposes of the film, a full 9 minute piece would have killed the dramatic flow of the scene and the film.
Fav part from this scene is the ending where the keys sound off and after finishing the song, his hands fall off the piano like they were straining to keep themselves on the keys. A lot of intense emotion
I'm so glad they found a way to fit the coda in here even though they had to shorten it. This has been my favorite piece for so long and never one time has it failed to give me the chills.
+gazmanmuuh .muhh Me either .A truly masterpiece which states a single truth:Nobody can give you what you never had, and nobody can take what is yours. And don't be upset, maybe someday you won't have any reason to cry.Greetings
The prisoners built houses, if that's of any consolation for you. They built houses to replace the ones their army had previously levelled to the ground. One of my friends lives in such a house built by German prisoners. It's very quiet, I love sleeping there.
This is the niceist movie i ever seе!!! I аdvise еverybody to watch it :) twitter.com/fb99d4e69bafa7667/status/795841699654213632 Chopin Bаllаde in G Minor Scеne TТTТhe Pianist
Then I heard a new sound: a living sound, like the richest, most complex, most beautiful piece of music you've ever heard. Growing in volume as a pure white light descended, it obliterated the monotonous mechanical pounding that, seemingly for eons, had been my only company up until then. The light got closer and closer, spinning around and around and generating those filaments of pure white light that I now saw were tinged, here and there, with hints of gold.
Thomas kretschmann amazed me in this scene, this kind of intelligence in his scene, this kind of caring attitude, with Chopin in the background.. made me adore him forever
All credit to the Director and the Cinematographer on this movie; those minute details can be overlooked, thinking the audience won't appreciate them, but this begs to differ :)
One of the finest movies you'll ever see...very moving performances, wonderful music and great cinematography. Wladyslaw Szpilman was much more than just a gifted pianist.
Human Effigy parts of the song was skipped since when szpilman was actually playing it he played only half then a tank interrupted it After the war he continied the other half
Yeah, I expected more from Polanski. You don't shoosh the most magnificent genius of your own country like that. Completely ruins the film for me -- the disrespect of watering down one of the most important aspects of the story.
The moment he started to play the finale presto my eyes reared up and I got goosebumps all over my body. The way he put everything in that performance while facing - what he thought was - death, is nothing less than absolute spectacular! I don’t think I’ll ever forget this movie and especially this part!
When he plays, I have the impression that he speaks about the war. The quiet period then when everything crowds then calms down him but the horror of the war returns. I have difficulty in putting words on what this play makes me feel... sorry for the bad english ( French people )
This scene is so powerfull, the Jew playing the piano next to a Nazi officer, playing a melancholy song, expressing all his sorrows, his frustrations through the piano and the officer just admiring him in silence.. i will always remember this movie!! i really have no words to describe how i feel about it
A fantastic pianist. I could attend one of his performances in Buenos Aires (2004) Chopin Piano Concerto #2, but I guess that the best version in history belongs to Sviatoslav Richter who never cared about being recorded and chosed to record some works, never coplete editions. A master who was a friend of Sergei Prokofiev's.
the reality of war is the only thing that determines your enemy is the flag they bare, if not for that flag, would you still call them an enemy? or a potential friend? even potential loved one? Sometimes we all just need to take a step back and listen, music bares no flag and the language it speaks can be interpreted by all.
I found it hard to believe the pianist's fingers would move so fluidly after being in the cold for such a long time, especially after months of not playing. Brilliant scene but would have been better if he had started playing a bit rougher then progressing to the perfect climax. Considering he was playing for his life, a rougher start would have added to the tension before the office took his seat.
Hi! You may be right, but I think there was enough tension in this scene, more tension might have been too arty. Anyway it is just a film, otherwise the piano itself would have been untuned in the given circumstances. But all these things are not important, the message comes over, and touches the heart..
Tamás Selmeczy Very true. My ability in suspension of disbelief has taken a battering from the nonsense that gets spewed from Hollywood, I shouldn't let it spoil a genuine masterpiece :)
You do well not to believe. In reality, Władysław Szpilman played the Nocturne in C-sharp minor. No way he'd be able to perform the Ballade in such a bad condition.
Hi! Considering from the playing for his life aspect you may be right. But as you said, it's been a very long time since he last played. He couldn't have started rougher than he did. Imagine you 're back home from a war that lasted for months and you meet your beloved wife after so long. And you use your fingers to remember how her skin feels. How rougher would you have started mate...? ;)
So somber! Europe in ruins, that German Officer playing a part of Hitlers stupid fanatical game, yet he has authority over nothing in this scene. Szpilman becomes the authority in the room, playing the piano flawlessly. The officer sits down behind him, loses himself, forgets about the war raging on outside of the windows. And just watches a master at work. And it just reaffirms what he already knows, that the war is corrupt and evil, without reason. In social standings, Szpilman lives high above him, and he knows that. Szpilman uses his music to let out all of his emotion about how his life has changed, about the war and also his anger inside. He says everything he wants to say about what the Germans have done, using his music. Great cinema.
+Sam W The real officer behind this story to know he was actually a hero that died tortured to death by communists en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilm_Hosenfeld Its not that he was powerless - at least I don't think so... but simply believed in beauty and saving what he could. If he paused it is because for a rare moment in that ugly time he saw something that really was worth saving (then calculating the risk to his own family to do so)
+Sam W In social standings the German Officer lived much higher than the pianist. Military carreer is as demanding and respectful as being any kind of musician can be. Plus this Officer in particular was a hero, killed by communist scums.
i caught that too lol, i was wondering when someone was gonna call that out. i dont have perfect pitch hearing either, but i know the piece enough to know i was a lil too high
9 years later and watching this masterpiece. Im no pianist but advid guitar palyer and enthusiastic musician. This is an amazing piece by Frederic Chopin.
