The movie

The movie is based on the famous war diary by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a pianist, composer and a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. Mr. Szpilman was a renown Polish pianist whose whole family perished in the Holocaust. Surviving by sheer luck, perseverance and a good will of Poles and a German, Mr. Szpilman returned to music and died in June 2000 at the age of 89.

Local Seattle interest

Sharp-eyed moviegoers could spot familiar paintings from Tom Podl’s collection in several interior scenes in the movie. Paintings from 1920-30s by Roman Kramsztyk (a friend of Mr. Szpilman in the Warsaw ghetto), Zygmunt Menkes and others could be seen. Tom Podl is based in Seattle, more about his collection at  www.PodlCollection.org

7 Oscar Nominations

“The Pianist” has been nominated in 7 categories: best picture, best director, best actor (Adrien Brody), best adapted screenplay, cinematography, costume design and film editing.

Mr. Polanski was nominated 3 times before: for directing “Tess” (1980) and “Chinatown” (1974) and for screenplay adaptation for “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968).

The Gold Palm

“The Pianist” also received the 2002 Gold Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France.