Polański and the Pianist, guided tour - micro group

We will do a biographical tour of Roman Polański, who directed very moving and personal film: "The Pianist". This movie is a history of Władysław Szpilman, Polish, Jewish pianist who survive holocaust in Warsaw.

Tour takes place in Kraków, but we will compare those two biographies, because Polański used many of his personal stories from Kraków ghetto in that film.

Roman Polański (1933-...) is the only Polish director whose movie end up on the front page of "The time" magazine, This movie: "Knife in the water" was actually his full feature debut. It is also the most successful Polish director in Hollywood. Especially after the movie "Rosmary babe", profit from selling soundtrack of this movie was enough to cover the cost of production this film. Therefore all income from screenings were pure profits! Polański as a jewish boy escaped Kraków ghetto as young boy, and survived WWII. He avoid direct reference to Holocaust for almost 50 years till 2002 when he directed "The Pianist" in Poland.

Władysław Szpilman (1911-2000) is a Polish, Jewish musician and composer. He survived ghetto in Warsaw, and became one of the leading post war Polish pianist and composer working for Polish radio and television. The movie Pianist is based on his WWII biography. According to the most popular Polish cinema website filmweb,pl, it is the best Polish movie ever.