I have recently seen the movie "The Pianist." I see it as exactly the same as Elie Wiesel's "Night."

Question

But I am told that they are actually very diffrent by my friend. Can you tell me how they are diffrent/similar?

Answer 1

Yo JP: Although they deal with similar period and circumstances (WWII and survival of the Holocaust), the storylines are different as are the protagonists. they both rely heavily on others for their survival, but their ability to relate to others is quite different.

Answer 2

I think you correctly point that the mood of both are similar. This is understandable since the protagonists of both the movie and the novel survive Nazi Germany. But Wiesel survived imprisonment in concentration camps, which I think is what most people mean when they mention "Holocaust survivor."

The writer of "The Pianist," Wladyslaw Szpilman, is the actual pianist who survived. His survival was different than that of Wiesel. He was never imprisoned in a concentration camp. His family was and did not survive.

The director of "The Pianist," Roman Polanski, had a similar experience to Szpilman: He escaped the ghetto and spent the war in hiding.

You may be interested in the graphic novel, "Maus" (and its sequel, "Maus II). It is a fantastically rendered story, both the writing and the drawings. The vast majority of graphic novels are simply dressed-up comic books, but "Maus" is a serious literary achievement.