As Buber explains, he responds to the suffering of the other in a way that he says that the Other cannot be objectified. That means that a person cannot be made as means to a propaganda or a goal of another, rather, they should be used as ends or subjects of the objects. The I also cannot impose himself to the Other because the Other exists in the I’s entirety. But Buber explains that this is not always the case because the I can cover up the meeting of the subjects — meaning they can deny it. He calls this as the I-It relationship or the Seeming relation wherein the person denies the Other of his being Other. The Seeming relation also portrays an intent of deception although not completely. Several scenes of The Pianist showed this relation:

• Basically this was evident during almost the entire movie because denial of rights for the Polish Jews (the Other) are being practiced by the Nazi Soldiers (the I).
• The discrimination of the Polish Jews were the suffering that was induced to them by the Nazi Soldiers. The first response to this suffering in the context of the I-It is when the Nazis built a wall brick separating the Jews from the Non-Jews in Poland.
• The soldiers treating the Polish Jews inhumanly. The conditions that the Polish Jews were living under the regime was quite unfair for human standards. This was the response of the Nazis to the suffering of the Polish Jews from discrimination.
• The discrimination of the Polish Jews from the Polish non-Jews are another manifestation of this denial of rights. There was this instance where the Polish Jews were not allowed to walk in the pavement with the pure Polish people. There was this another scene where the Polish Jews were banned from pure Polish establishments.
• The Polish Jews were also deceived to being brought to work by the German soldiers bu. This was the time when one soldier pulled Wlady Szpilman from the group of people who were supposed to be brought to work but were brought to concentration camps to be killed.

Gabriel Marcel’s reponse to suffering of the other is based on experience. He notes two types of experience: (1) the primary reflection, which is like when the I distances from himself from the experience of the Other, and then making his assessment of the Other through what he has seen from the experience of the Other; (2) the secondary reflection which is immersing in the experience and reflecting on the experience and in the process, correcting the kinks, biases and mistakes that have been made. The primary experience is result-driven and the secondary experience is process-driven. Scenes that have been highlighted in The Pianist are:

• I believe that the best example for this is when the German Soldier (whose name I forgot) gave Wlady Szpillman to live. This was when he played the music from the piano and the German soldier was highly inspired. This was a secondary experience and he let Szpilman live.
• To add more to the first bullet for Marcel, the German soldier also gave Wlady some food stuff and his coat to shield him from the cold. Even though he still called him a Jew, the German soldier was in the experience with Wlady who was the Jew and he made the correct decision.
• Another scene was when another German soldier pulled out Wlady Szpilman from the formation of the people who were supposed to be brought to the concentration camp to be killed. Although they were not all brought to safety, at least the soldier was trying to ’save’ Szpilman.
• The discriminaton brought upon by the Nazis against the Polish Jews is what I consider as maybe an example of a primary experience manifested in the movie. I mean, they stand away from the Jews and make their actions and decisions from these experiences that they see, like the bans on Jews.
• Another example was when this girl was asking for Wlady’s identification card and he did not have the card to show, the girl started calling and shouting that Wlady a Jew. The primary experience may have positive effects but it also has a lot of negativity like stereotyping and racial slurs.

Emmanuel Levinas presents us with another case for the response for the suffering of other people, as portrayed in The Pianist. Levinas’ philosophy revolves around a surprise visitation of the Other as this surprise visitation causes the I or self to bow down to the epiphany of the face of the Other.

• The best example of this was when a person (I think that was Wlady’s father) was beaten by Nazi Soldiers because he (the father) would not bow down to them on the pavement. Clearly, the helpless Jew was caught with an element of surprise and he would bow down to the Nazi Soldiers.

The surprise visitation, according to Marcel, also involves an element of guilt, especially when the Other catches the self in a compromising situation or the Self finds himself in a shameful situation when the Other suddenly appears from nowhere. This is the result of using freedom irresponsibly, according to Marcel, which stems from greed, tyranny, megalomania and corruption.

• The German soldiers were portrayed in the movie as irresponsible power-trippers who discriminated Jews and practiced their corrupt and megalomaniac ways against the Polish Jews. They imposed themselves to the Jews during the Holocaust but it turned to a shameful experience when…
• The Russians have taken out the German soldiers in Poland and have been put into concentration camps surrounded by barbed wire. This is the result of their tyranny, greed and irresponsible use of freedom/power and they have been caught in a compromising and shameful situation.

Marcel also brings in the questioning of oneself. This is when, according to him, is when the self is isolated from the world or from the Other. But then he notes that after all of this soul-searching and the questioning of the self, the Self will eventually discover that he is ought to fight for himself and live for his own dreams. He has not changed and will continue to live for his own self, but only the Other can give a view of his own self and he can not give his self-centered assessment.

• During the scene where Szpilman and the benevolent soldier were taling for the final time, Wlady was asked by the soldier on what he plans after the holocaust and eventually, the WW2 was over. Wlady was a bit questioning on what he plans to be but he still answers that he will be a pianist on the radio waves or in the opera — which was truly his own self.
• Szpilman was left alone when his family was taken to the concentration camp and he was greatly unsure of himself. He was crying on the street, alone with all the rubble and the war debris that the soldiers have left but hey, he decides to live his life and fight for his own and he survives.

The Pianist is really a great movie. It really gave me an insight of what happened during the holocaust in which I was ignorant about and it really moved me and the technical side (screenplay, movie shoot setting) of the movie was great.