The movie is set during the Second World War and is about a Polish Jewish musician (named Szpliman) and his struggle to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto by the Nazis. He goes into hiding for months if not years. He even hides in an apartment with a piano unable to play it for fear of being discovered.
Playing the piano was his love, his livelihood, and it would seem even his very soul. The war took that away from him, at least until this scene (see video) when is discovered in an old abandoned house by a Nazi officer. Then the officer eventually asks him his profession to which he responds, "I am... I was a pianist." The officer seems not to believe him, so he tells him to play on the grand piano in the next room.
He begins to play slowly at first, but then he begins to play with all of the passion and emotion that has been bottled up within him since he first went into hiding. All the death, the sadness, and the hunger he has seen and experienced spills out of him like a flood through his music.
While just watching this one part of a scene doesn't do the moment its full justice, I hope it catches at least a part of it. It is one of the most powerful moments I have ever seen in a film. Purely stunning. The beauty of music juxtaposed with the harshness of war creates a moment of clarity.
Here is a short and a long version of that scene, in that order.
Short Version: Chopin Ballade No. 1
Long Version: Chopin Ballade No. 1
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