Visualization of Survival in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist

Roman Polanski’s The Pianist is a cinematic adaptation of a renowned concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoir depicting his struggle for survival in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. The book begins with Szpilman’s description of his wartime occupation as a pianist in Café Nowoczesna and the film begins with German Nazi bombing of a radio station while he is playing one of Chopin’s famous piano pieces. The Pianist is a compelling tale not just of war but of human endurance. Szpilman despite losing all of his family survives in hiding. Polanski very meticulously tries to translate Szpilman’s words depicting his and his family’s wartime struggles on screen. Szpilman’s text and Polanki’s film differ in their artistic brilliance but the fundamental idea of the beauty of life being destroyed by the brutality of war remains intact. The research objective of Sazzid Ahmed, in this project, was to explore Roman Polanski’s The Pianist is a cinematic adaptation of a renowned concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoir depicting his struggle for survival in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. The book begins with Szpilman’s description of his wartime occupation as a pianist in Café Nowoczesna and the film begins with German Nazi bombing of a radio station while he is playing one of Chopin’s famous piano pieces. The Pianist is a compelling tale not just of war but of human endurance. Szpilman despite losing all of his family survives in hiding. Polanski very meticulously tries to translate Szpilman’s words depicting his and his family’s wartime struggles on screen. Szpilman’s text and Polanki’s film differ in their artistic brilliance but the fundamental idea of the beauty of life being destroyed by the brutality of war remains intact using Roman Jakobson's concept of Intersemiotic Translation.

• Supervision