The aim of this paper is to provide a brief analysis of the film The Pianist (2002), by Roman Polanski. This film adaptation of a survivor’s story—Wladislaw Szpilman—appears to us to reveal an unconscious process of concealment, which may well have gone unnoticed. The rhetoric employed in the film is typical of that which could potentially be used by abusers. We will establish two essential distinctions: first, between the different motivations underlying the creation of the literary work, The Pianist, and its film adaptation by Polanski, and second, between Polanski, the man, and his body of work, to determine whether Polanski’s accusations of sexual misconduct should bear on the appraisal of his art. We will then discuss implications in regard to cancel culture and historical revisionism.