top fives - the pianist.

Scenes
1. Wladyslaw walks through dilapidated ghetto, weeping.
I love the raw emotion displayed in this scene. At this moment, the mans soul is simply bared for all to see. It is beautiful and heartbreaking.

2. People are made to lay down on ground in camp and are shot one by one. Officer runs out of bullets, and must re-load his gun while his last victim lay, waiting.
This scene shows the emotionless way in which the officers treated those they held captive. Their utter disregard for life. It shows the apparent insignificance of each life lost.

3. Wladyslaw silently plays the piano in his apartment, his fingers above the keys.
Wladyslaw is happy in this moment. He, after being through so many painful and disturbing moments in his life, in this moment can truly just enjoy the simple pleasure of something he once loved. Although he cannot play the piano aloud, he still feels the same release.

4. Wladyslaw plays the piano for the German officer who discovers him in hiding.
He just plays so beautifully. Every emotion that has been building up in his being under cover, every not that had gone unplayed on the silent piano is released in this moment. It is just a simple playing of music, but for some reason it is one of the most emotional scenes in the movie. The officers stolid yet affected reaction shows the tiniest bit of compassion - the first seen in so long.

5. "Why the f-ing jacket?"
Just a laugh out loud moment after so many sit-in-silence-and-try-not-to-cry moments. It shows that Wladyslaw is back in a relaxed environment, and after every thing he has been through it is such a relief to be asked a question that requires such a simple answer - "i was cold".

Themes
1. Response to circumstances beyond familiar experience.
-Wladyslaw reacts to the "No jews allowed" sign outside resturaunt with poise, not letting the exclusion get to him. At this point, this is the most radical of the anti-semitism.
-When made to move out of the ghetto, Wladyslaw is spared by a former friend who is now a member of the Jewish police. When walking through the stranded ghetto, he realises he is truly alone, and he reacts with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
-When the jews are liberated, Wladyslaw emerges from his hiding, determined the kiss the first Pol he encounters.

2. Perserverance.
-Wladyslaw formulates a plan to escape from being a worker in the ghetto after the deportation; he never gives up his quest for freedom, even when there seems to be no hope.
-When given the option to join the Jewish police, where he is guaranteed to be spared (at least temporarily), Wladyslaw refuses because he will not turn against his own people. He would rather perservere through the hardships of the rest of the Jews than be the one to put it upon them.
-Wladyslaw escapes from every possible threatening force because of his will to live: escapes the camp where he is put to work, escapes when German neighbor finds him out, escapes when his apartment is raided, escapes from stranded hospital hiding place when Germans arrive and stays under cover in the ghetto until liberation

3.Isolation.
-When found by German officer, Wladyslaw has been isolated for so long that he scarcely knows how to react to any of the officers questions or demands.
-In Wladyslaws second apartment, the man who is supposed to care for him never returns with food or drink, and he becomes ill and helpless.

4.Effects of Adversity on the Human Spirit
-When Wladyslaw is walking home one night in the ghetto, he stumble upon a young boy trying to make his way under the wall from the outside. He is clearly being beaten on the other side of the wall, and Wladyslaw tries his hardest to help the boy under the wall. When he finally does pull the boy onto his side, he lies limp in his arms - he has died. Wladyslaw weeps uncontrollably before being forced to leave the boy dead on the sidewalk.
-When Wladyslaw is liberated at the end of the film, he swears that he will kiss the first pole he sees. He has gone so long without human contact from a friend rather than an opressor that his only want is for some compassion once it is available.

5. The Aid of Passion in the Face of Threatening Forces
-When the opression of Jews first begins, Wladyslaw is at the time spending time with a blonde German woman. While spending time with such woman, he tries to enter a resturaunt to take her out for lunch when he see's a sign that says 'No Jews'. Typically, this would be very upsetting but Wladyslaw brushes it off because he still has the company of a beautiful woman and something so seemingly insignificant was going to stop that.
-Wladyslaw depends heavily on his passion for music throughout the whole movie. In the ghetto, he plays out his pain and frustration in the restaurant where he works. When enslaved after being spared from the cattle cars, he pretends to play all the time. When he is encountered with a piano in his new apartment when he escapes his work in the ghetto, he cannot truly play but again, he simply pretends, letting his fingers flow over the keys, playing music for himself.

Motifs
1. Wladyslaw's free-flowing hands
We see him play piano so easily and almost emotionlessly at the beginning of the movie. As the movie and Wladyslaws pain progresses more severely, his playing, even without a real piano, becomes so much more meaningful and emotional.

2. Delusion of Savior
All throughout the movie, Wladyslaw depends on the apparent impending savior of the Jews. There is denial all through the beginning of the film about the fact that the Germans could truly try to exterminate all Jews. There is always the hope that the English or Americans will stop them.

3. The Importance of Food
When Wladyslaw is staying in an apartment, there is supposed to be a man bringing him food to nourish him and when he does not, Wladyslaw dwindles slowly towards death. When he is nourished again, he is back to health. When hiding in the stranded ghetto he tirelessly tries to open a can of polish pickles.

4. Language Barriers
Alot of the time the German officers try to speak to their captives who cannot understand them and as a result they are shot.

5. Silence
Much of Wladyslaws survival relies on his silence. When staying in his apartment, the moment he goes into the ciupboard to try to find dishes, the first time he ever makes a sound, he is found out. His passion for the piano is smothered by the need for silence.