Spilzman's In The Pianist

In The Pianist, Spilzman is the main character as well as a fantastic piano player. Spilzman plays at radio stations and cafes while the start of the German takeover is happening. There are multiple times in the memoir when an emotional response is expected but it cannot be seen. The memoir gives enough detail to explain what the scene is, but not what is going on. The emotional impact of the sound of the piano was more evident in the visual and auditory experience of the movie than the memoir. Towards the end of the novel, Spilzman plays the piano for Hosenfeld who “had been standing with his arms crossed over his chest; he {then}unfolded them and sat down in the armchair by the piano, as if this discovery called for a lengthy reflection”

The only sound at the time was the piano and the only expression was Spilzman’s. There was a sense of happiness and sadness at the time on Spilzman’s face. Being able to hear the piano makes the emotional impact much more dramatic than in the memoir where “about two weeks later one of {Spilzman’s} Polish Radio colleagues, the violinist Zygmunt Lednicki, who had taken part in the rebellion, came back to Warsaw after his wanderings” (Spilzman 188). Zygmunt had only explained what happened with Hosenfeld but never watched Spilzman 's play the piano like in the

In the novel “shells were exploding close to the broadcasting centre all the time {he} played, and buildings were burning very close to {them}” (Spilzman 38). Spilzman 's emotions were not announced in the novel therefore how he feels is a mystery. After Spilzman finished the song he had to wait two hours for safety reasons before he was aloud to go home. In the movie, Spilzman traveled home right after he finished playing the last song on the radio and told his family “they bombed us, we’re off the air” (Polanski). This radio station scene in the movie is Spilzman hearing all the bombs and shells going off around him yet he still plays. Spilzman watches as the walls around him falling and the fear is very dramatic. Spilzman 's emotions are more noticeable in the production rather than in the memoir.

The emotional impact of the sound of the piano was more evident in the visual and auditory experience of the movie than the memoir. The movie tended to portray an exact emotion for each important piano scene. The memoir never described Spilzman 's emotions like the movie. The emotional impact of the piano was much more noticeable in the movie because of the synchronization of the piano and Spilzman 's emotion while playing. On the other hand, the memoir talked about each scene with the piano but never described any of the important feelings and