Favourite Discoveries of 2015 (4)

The next entry in the Euro Crime reviewer's Favourite Discoveries of 2015 is both a book and a DVD, recommended by Amanda Gillies.

Amanda Gillies's Favourite Discovery of 2015

The Pianist. Co-produced and directed by Roman Polanski (2002) and written by Wladyslaw Szpilman (1946 in Polish and 1998 in English)

I both saw the movie and read the Kindle version of the book in the same weekend. The experience completely blew me away, so this has to be my New Discovery recommendation to you for 2015. Not fiction, but most definitely crime, true crime, “The Pianist” tells the story of one man’s battle to survive in war-torn Warsaw in Word War II. Young Jewish man, Wladyslaw Szpilman is a talented pianist who manages to escape from the German deportations of Jews to extermination camps. He survives life in the Warsaw ghetto and goes into hiding when the ghetto is destroyed. Time after time his talent as a musician saves him from certain death and when his hiding place is accidentally discovered he must give the performance of a lifetime to keep his life.



I loved the way the film was shot and the way the sheer horrors that thepeople experienced were portrayed. Over and over I was sure that Szpilman’s luck would run out and was exhausted at the end. I was also delighted to see that the film stuck very closely to the book and missed nothing out. Polanksi produced a masterpiece of a film and it is a shame that Szpilman died before the film was released. This, of course, gives away the fact that he survives the war but this is no secret as he goes on in later life to become a famous and accomplished musician.

Very Highly Recommended – but a box of tissues is necessary!