The Pianist (2002)
English/German/Russian
Roman Polanski
Hollywood has always had a constant flow of World War movies coming from it. But not more than a dozen stay in memories of the average film goer. Writing off the Clint Eastwood double bill and a few forgettable ones, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002) may be considered the last successful World War movie. Adrian Brody’s chilling portrayal of the Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman won him the Oscar in 2002, making him the youngest to do so.
In one of the best scenes in the movie, Wlady meets an old friend who promises to provide him a refuge from the Nazi army. As he leaves for the hideout he watches his friend Dorota play the Cello. Upon reaching the house, his friend’s spouse informs him that no one knows he is here and it is a locality frequented by the Nazis. After the person asks Wlady not to make any kind of noise and leaves, Wlady notices a piano and sits in front of it. He takes his hand towards the keys on the piano and we cut to his face. A music piece is being played. It is only after some seconds we notice that the music is actually playing in his mind and his fingers are just hovering over the keys. He is happy for the few minutes he “plays”.
I have uploaded the video in Youtube for your convenience:
Polanski, who has been in the industry big time, is at home directing the film. Though the scene has not a word spoken, it conveys so much about an artist and the influence of political situation on his work. In contrast to Dorota, who is free from any trouble from the Nazis and is playing her music peacefully, Wlady is under a pressure from the ruling government and is unable to produce his music. This is true of any artist who works within the boundaries of political restrictions. Not all of the artist’s true intent is put forth to the world. Right from the medieval (even before that, in fact) painters (featured in the Tarkovsky classic “Andrei Rublev“) to film makers such as Kieslowski, artists have not been given freedom of expression owing to the clash of ideologies of the creator and the ruler. This scene sums it all up with effortless ease.
The Seventh Art 
June 6, 2008 at 9:20 am
[…] Super Scenes #4 […]
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September 7, 2013 at 10:44 pm
In that scene, when the dialogue come “Listen you fuckers..you screwheads” it is repeated twice..It is intentionally done in to show the audience, that travis is broken…Loneliness is a recurring theme in the movie… In this classic scene, Travis tells “Well… I am the only one here..”..In one of the other scenes, travis pulls down the television… that’s the start of his breaking point…Taxi is the symbol of Travis’s mind… Whenever some person enters travis’s taxi, scorsese implicitly tells some ideas have entered his mind… (A man entering his cab with a black prostitute lady…, Senator Palentine,Iris,a passenger suspecting his wife played by scorsese himself.. all implant some sort of bad ideas in his mind..which eventually leads to some devastating consequences )…Travis realizes this and tries to come out of the situation, by getting into touch with Betsy, by discussing the problem with wizard… but both in turn try to move away from travis, since they find him to be a stranger….. Actually scorsese puts the audience in place of Betsy and Wizard… Betsy cannot tolerate travis taking her to porno theaters…She finds him to be abnormal..Wizard can’t even understand the problem travis is talking about..also Travis calls wizard’s suggestion as dumb….Both shy away from Travis… And the audience as well…In one of the scenes, Travis while trying to pacify Betsy via telephone , he shows his back, shying to show his face to the audience. while talking to her…He tries to be a person like everyone but he can’t… He hates the pimps and the prostitutes, but he himself goes to the porno theaters….He praises Palentine for his future plans and wishes him good luck..but later he himself intends to kill him…He keeps illegal contacts with mafia people to buy guns,but remarks Iris is going in wrong direction and tries to save her from the brothel…..Travis believes that one should not devote his life to morbid self attention..but all the time he ends up introspecting himself…He observes that Betsy friends'(albert brooks) energy is going in wrong directions…..Actually it is a self referential statement…a remark about himself under the pretext of criticizing others…. Betsy remarks that Travis is a walking contradiction..partly true and partly fiction…That’s the theme of the movie….
In the climax, Betsy enters the taxi again which implicitly tells the cycle is starting all over again and travis is still the same ….Taxi glasses through which Travis watches the world is always blurred and unclear… It draws the picture of Travis’s mind…..Travis Bickle is very close to famous literary character “Underground Man” in Doestavesky’s “Notes from Underground” and Raskolnikov in “Crime and Punishment” … bit close to Robert Bresson’s “Pick Pocket” character…..Schrader differentiated Travis by depicting hims as “Feeling less” and “less lamenting” creature whereas underground man often laments his and hysterically breaks down…. I personally feel that this is the best scorsese movie compared to Raging bull or Aviator or GoodFellas or The Last Temptation of Christ because of the recurring symbolism…Though the idea for the gyst is based on “Oswald”, Scorsese has analyzed these kind of underground insane characters psychologically..and the impact they could create on the society…how boredom and loneliness can drive insanity…This differentiates Taxi driver from his other masterpieces as most of them were based on true stories….. The theme holds good for all periods which makes Taxi Driver a Classic..(Forget the fact that the movie triggered Hinckley)
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