Comfort: The Pianist and Taking Sides

In the chapter on comfort, I look at two European art-house productions, The Pianist and Taking Sides, from a comparative perspective. I examine in detail how the use of music from the nineteenth century in the two soundtracks has a comforting function at various levels. Again, my argument is based on a detailed analysis of the interaction between narrative, image, and sound. Of equal importance for the interpretation of this comforting effect, however, is the media reception history of the musical works used in the soundtracks, as well as the image of their composers. At the same time, the association of a comforting effect with the music is also traceable in academic and journalistic discourses around the films, which discuss both films as “answers” to Adorno’s frequently quoted (and frequently misunderstood) provocative postulate that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” In spite of the fact that the films are significantly different with regard to their plots, I focus my comparative analysis on their notable similarities at an auditive level, especially when it comes to the particular kinds of music used in the soundtracks and the way in which they structure the plot. The soundtracks of both films draw heavily on works of nineteenth century Romantic music, which are mostly located within the diegesis. For my analysis, the culture-historical background of these works, and especially the history of their media reception before, during, and shortly after World War II, as well as the fact that they are diegetically performed or listened to, is of particular significance.