Adrian Brody insisted on learning to play the piano himself because he detested the idea of him being in a long shot pretending to play the instrument and then the camera showing someone else's hands on a close up shot actually playing. He said he hated that, not just for him, but on any other film that had such a scene. So he went and took lessons, practicing for hours on end. See more...
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15 biggest Harry Potter mistake pictures
Directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann (add more)
Factual error: An old man appears with children following him. This is supposed to be pedagogue Janusz Korczak. It appeared as if he was just wearing a suit and a Jewish arm band. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Mr. Korczak never wore an arm band and wore his WWI Polish Army Uniform, both as acts of defiance. He was beaten and almost put to death (he had connections) for not wearing an arm band so having one on in the movie is inaccurate.
Factual error: In few scenes, you can see street signs with inscriptions in Polish, for example "Ulica Lubanski" (Lubanski's Street). In fact, because of the Polish language's plural forms, the inscription should be "Ulica Lubanskiego".
Factual error: In the scene where the Germans are bombing the wall, the rebels are hiding behind. You can see that the bricks which came out of the wall because of the bombing are lying on the "non-Jewish" part of the wall and not on the ghetto side as it should be.
Continuity: There is a scene where the Nazis are executing some fighters after destroying their stronghold, and they line them up facing a brick wall. If you look one of them is kneeling down when they get shot, and the bullet line across the wall would not have hit her, especially as she seems to go down before she's even hit.
Continuity: There are various disparities between Szpilman's hair from shot to shot. This is most noticeable when he is told to leave the first apartment; he has a centre parting which changes to being combed back when he starts to smoke the cigarette. There are also continuity problems with his beard and stubble length in some scenes.
Factual error: In the DVD extras, the bio of Thomas Kretschman states that he was an East German swimmer who didn't go to the 1980 Olympics because of the communist boycott. The 1980 Olympics were held in Moscow, therefore no communist boycott. The 1984 games were in Los Angeles, they were boycotted.
Continuity: When Wladek Szpilman is watching the Polish uprising out his window, several rebels attack the German hospital and police station. The pavement starts out icy, but when the Germans run out of the police station, the ice has completely melted.
Factual error: On a real Waffen SS helmet, the SS insignia is always painted on the right side of the helmet while the swastika is always painted on the left side of the helmet. However, in some of the scenes of the film, the SS insignia appeared on the left side of the Waffen SS soldiers' helmet.
Factual error: The German tank's gun would not have had powered elevation, and possibly not powered turret traverse (if it was a 75mm Mk. III, or a Mk. IV J), although its appearance was unusually accurate.
Factual error: The credit of the film describes the German officer who slapped Szpilman's father as "SS officer who slapped the father." The credit also describes the German soldier who gave a speech to Szpilman and other labor camp prisoners as "SS who gave speech." However, in the film both of these German soldiers were wearing Wehrmacht (i.e. regular Army), not SS, uniforms. SS uniforms can be easily distinguished from Wehrmacht uniforms due to different collar insignia.
Continuity: In the scene where Wladyslaw Szpilman is in the parlor speaking with the German officer (just before he's about to play the piano for him), you can see his breath in the cold air every time he speaks, yet when the camera pans to the German officer, his breath isn't visible.
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