What's the best way to turn a book into a film script? Ronald Harwood, who adapted The Pianist, shares the secrets of his success.

Despite winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Polanski's Holocaust movie didn't get half the attention given to Spielberg's or Roberto Benigni's. I think this is due to its restraint and matter-of-fact quality. To Polanski, like Paul Verhoeven, who grew up in occupied Holland, this is not the unimaginable horror it is to other directors, it's childhood reality. The film is based on a memoir but contains Polanski's recollections of what it was like to go from a comfortable home to a high-walled ghetto to a series of hidey-holes. The lead character, admirably played by Adrien Brody, is never presented as a hero. He's a survivor (which in these circumstances required its own kind of heroism).