- Dark Horse Victory: Given he was a first-time nominee going up against Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine (and that he'd been mostly ignored in previous awards), it's no wonder Adrien Brody's Best Actor Oscar win was such a shock.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Adrien Brody lost a significant percentage of body weight for the role, an amount daunting enough to make him look nearly as starved as the Jews in the ghetto.
- Fake Nationality:
- New York native Adrien Brody as the Polish Wladyslaw Szpilman (although Brody does have Jewish Polish ancestry through his father's line).
- Many Polish characters are played by British actors.
- International Coproduction: The film was a co-production between France's Canal+ and StudioCanal (both of which are owned by Vivendi) and Germany's Studio Babelsberg.
- Method Acting: Adrien Brody sold his car, his apartment and much of what he owned and even broke up with his girlfriend in order to truly understand the feelings of loss Szpilman endured. His Oscar win was very much earned.
- Star-Making Role: This was the film that catapulted Adrien Brody to international stardom.
- Write What You Know: Sadly enough. Polański supplemented Szpilman's memoirs with some details from his own experience as a Holocaust survivor. The moment where Szpilman is stumbling away from the Treblinka train and the Jewish policeman says "Don't run!" was something that happened to Polański.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/ThePianist
FollowingTrivia / The Pianist
Go To
