The Pianist 2002 quotes

FATHER

"Re: emblems for Jews in the Warsaw District. I hereby order that all Jews in the Warsaw District will wear visible emblems when out of doors. This decree will come into force on the 1st December 1939 and applies to all Jews over twelve years of age. The emblem will be worn on the right sleeve and will represent a blue Star of David on a white background. The background must be sufficiently large for the Star to measure eight centimetres from point to point. The width of the arms of the Star must be one centimetre. Jews who do not respect this decree will be severely punished. Governor of Warsaw District, Dr. Fischer."

MOTHER

Good, they're here. Yitzchak Heller's been waiting for you, Henryk.

HENRYK

What's this about?

MOTHER

Sit down, have tea, I'll start lunch when the girls get back.

HENRYK

So, what are you doing here?

FATHER

He brought cakes. His father's back in the jewellery business and doing well, isn't that so, Yitzchak? Amazing. Jewellery.

We're recruiting.

HENRYK

Who's recruiting?

Don't be clever with me, Henryk. I've come here as a friend. They're bringing Jews in from all over the country. Soon there'll be half a million people in the ghetto. We need more Jewish police...

HENRYK

Oh? More Jewish police? You mean you want me to wear a cap like yours, beat up Jews with my truncheon and catch the Gestapo spirit. I see!

Someone's got to do it, Henryk.

HENRYK

But why me? I thought you only recruited boys with rich fathers. Look at my father, look at us, I mean...

Yes, I'm looking at you and that's why I'm here. Your whole family can have a better life. You want to go on struggling for survival, selling books on the street?

HENRYK

Yes, please.

I'm doing you people a favour. And what about you, Wladek? You're a great pianist. And we've got an excellent police jazz band. They'd welcome you with open arms. Join us. You've got no work!

Thank you. But I've got work.

MOTHER

Please, tonight, for once, I don't want anything bad talked about. Let's enjoy our meal.

HENRYK

Fine, then I'll tell you something funny. You know who I mean by Dr. Raszeja?

The surgeon?

HENRYK

The surgeon. Well, for some reason, don't ask me why, the Germans allowed him into the ghetto to perform an operation...

On a Jew? They allowed a Pole to come in to operate on a Jew?

HENRYK

Who's complaining? He got a pass, that's all I know. Anyway, he puts the patient to sleep and starts the operation. He'd just made the first incision when the SS burst in, shoot the patient lying on the table, and then shoot Dr. Raszeja and everybody else who was there. Isn't that a laugh? The patient didn't feel a thing, he was anaesthetised.

MOTHER

I said nothing bad, Henryk.

HENRYK

What's the matter with you all? Have you lost your sense of humour?

It's not funny.

HENRYK

Well, you know what's funny? You're funny with that ridiculous tie.

What are you talking about, my tie? What's my tie got to do with anything? I need the tie for my work.

HENRYK

Your work? Yes, yes, work. Playing the piano for all the parasites in the ghetto.

Parasites...

HENRYK

Parasites.

MOTHER

Boys, boys

HENRYK

They don't give a damn about people's suffering.

You blame me for their apathy, right?

HENRYK

I do, because I see it every day. They don't even notice what's going on around them.

FATHER

Five thousand and three.

MOTHER

Is that all?

FATHER

Yes, five thousand and three zlotys, that's all we've got left.

It's three thousand and three zlotys too much,
[Reading from newspaper)
'Re: Further restrictions regarding liquid assets: Jews will be allowed to keep a maximum of two thousand zlotys in their homes.'

MOTHER

What are we supposed to do with the rest?

Deposit it in a bank. Blocked account.

HENRYK

Banks? Who'd be stupid enough to deposit money in a German bank?

We could hide the money. Look here. Can hide the money in flowerpot.

FATHER

No, no, no. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll use tried and tested methods. You know what we did in the last war? We made a hole in the table leg and we hid the money in there.

HENRYK

And suppose they take the table away?

MOTHER

What d'you mean, take the table away?

HENRYK

The Germans go into Jewish homes and they just take what they want, furniture, valuables, anything.

MOTHER

Do they?

FATHER

Idiot! What would they want with a table?

MOTHER

What on earth are you doing?

From what I can deduct from his memoirs at the point where the story takes place, he was just a.. a very outgoing kind of good-hearted young man. Everything was taken from him and everyone else. But what I learned about Szpilman after surviving all this is that he grew to have a very long life with a lovely wife who l've met and he had a family and continued to compose and contribute all kinds of wonderful things. And Roman had a lot of similarities. So I got to envision Szpilman like Roman.

I always wanted to make a film about that period and I had a very hard time finding the proper material. When I read "The Pianist", I knew right away that, that's something I wanted to.. to do. And the reason was that the description of the events was extremely accurate. And that's because it was written immediately after the war. I don't think that somebody who writes a book about the events 20 or 30 years later can have the same type of recollections, the same type of detail which was vividly true to me, a child of the same period.

It's a dreadful of historical event and you can't start glamorizing it. You can't start trying to soften it. You have to tell it as you believe it is. I mean there is no ultimate truth of it because nobody can really we can't explain it in anyway. So the truth is very difficult to get to. But whatever the truth is in you of that subject in one you have to be true to that truth.

The book is written with astonished and called objectivity. There are good Jews and bad Jews in the film. And that's how it was. There are good Germans and bad Germans. There are good Poles and bad Poles. And above all the book is tremendously optimistic. The victim survives. Survives thanks to his passion for the.. for the art and for the music in particular. Thanks to his willpower. It's an optimistic and uplifting book in spite of the horrors that it describes.