The Pianist—some spiritual insights

BY Kathe Geist

The founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, "Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love—be it song, sermon, or Science—blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table ..." (Science and Health, p. 234). Roman Polanski's acclaimed new film The Pianist has enough crumbs for a whole meal. Viewed from the perspective of its contribution to a discussion of spirituality, the film gave me a keener insight into how our love for God's goodness works in our lives to heal and protect us. The film tells the true story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jew who survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw during World War II. Forced with his family and other Warsaw Jews into the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman escapes just before the uprising, and is hidden by Polish friends allied to the Resistance. Bombed out of his hiding place, he spends the last days of the war living in an attic above the makeshift headquarters for the German Army.

The director shows us Szpilman's great love for his art and for sharing it with others, through the pride he takes in his work for the populist Polish National Radio. Playing while the Nazis bombard Warsaw, Szpilman refuses to leave his post until he is literally blown off his piano stool. His gentle, humble temperament seems an extension of the music he plays, as though he is aware that the art he serves will always be greater than he can ever fully comprehend.

His approach to life contrasts sharply with that of his angry, fiery brother, whose indignation can do nothing to change the onslaught of Nazi atrocities. In contrast, the deeply spiritual nature of Szpilman's talent and love of music is highlighted in a scene in which he sits at a piano that happens to be in one of his hiding places. He plays without touching the keys, satisfied with hearing the music only in his mind. An intense, purely human passion might have tempted death by wanting actually to hear the music again after the deprivations of the Ghetto, but Szpilman is determined to survive the war and continue his vocation. When he suggests to his Polish benefactor that he should have remained in the Ghetto to take part in the uprising he had helped his friends prepare for, she rebukes him: They were heroic, but he is meant for music, not martyrdom.

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