The Piano is a beautiful film in many different respects. In terms of cinematography, I've seen few like it. It is dark and beautiful and compelling. The story seems, on paper, as a torrid love story without much originality. But the sensuous portrayal of Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter and the complex acting of a young Anna Paquin allow this story to ring true. I was skeptical upon viewing a film so lauded by critics and film snobs, but found myself both moved and connected to the film that holds strangely relevant themes for modern times. It is rare that I love both a film's visual beauty and it's script as well. This is that rare occasion.
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namaturner6 February 2001This is one of my all-time favorite films. It combines masterful scripting, cinematography, performances, and musical score into a disturbing, erotic, and ultimately uplifting piece. The movie's heroine, wonderfully portrayed by Holly Hunter, is mute (symbolic of the fact that she has no say in her own life), with her daughter (the astonishing Anna Paquin) and her piano as her personal obsessions. Her conscripted husband, coldly played by Sam Neill, is trying to win her heart and her desire in all the wrong ways, while his crude tribal neighbor, sensually played by Harvey Keitel, understands her needs and ultimately captures her ... physically, intellectually, and romantically. The film's message and its delivery are extraordinarily powerful, the cinematic technique is rich ... the sequence shot with Hunt, Pacquin, Keitel and the piano on the beach is one of the best pieces of work I've ever seen. Lasting impact.
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didi-54 March 2004Jane Campion's Oscar-winning movie follows Ada (played by Holly Hunter), an immigrant to the New Zealand outback and an arranged marriage, who has not spoken for years and lives her life through the sound of her piano. Her husband (played by Sam Neill) is a man without much understanding, who tries to break the connection between his new wife and her piano; in contrast to him is the wild illiterate Baines (played by Harvey Keitel), a tattooed loner, who reaches into Ada's soul and helps her to regain contact with her emotions and ultimately, her voice too. The film is visually compelling, with its muted colours and wide open spaces, and uses the soundtrack by Michael Nyman in such a way so all the elements fit together. Keitel and Hunter give excellent performances within a sensitive and sensual screenplay, while Anna Paquin is impressive as Ada's wise daughter, always watching and always aware. Campion managed to make the story touching, involving, and sexy, and it well deserved the plaudits heaped on it.
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sworden13 September 2005I wonder if an assessment of all the bad reviews of this movie would include almost all men. Although there are certainly men who enjoyed this movie, I can understand why a lot of men would fail to appreciate it, simply because so much of its sensual potency deals with what is inextricably feminine.
I just watched it for the the first time in ten years, and I was as wowed by it as I was the first time. If you told me I would ever find Harvey Keitel sexy, I would have called you crazy...but ooh baby! The man sees her inner passion and is transfixed, then reaches out to her with a graphicness that is somehow also tender, almost reverential. In contrast, Sam Neill is blindly reaching out like he would to a wooden doll, not seeing "her" at all. It's a delicious contrast and heightens the beauty of the very real connection that occurs between the lovers.
Ada (Holly Hunter's) response is to be wooed despite herself. She doesn't "want" to give herself to this man who is so contrary to her image of a lover, but she recognizes his identification with who she is. Willful as she is, once her heart is given, it becomes impossible for her to do other than to seek him out. This is truly an archetypal dance. -
tm-sheehan30 April 2020Isn't it extraordinary how our opinions can change over time ,well mine anyway. After so many positive comments by people who list this film as one of their all time favourites I thought I should watch The Piano written and directed by New Zealander Jane Campion. It must be over 30 years ago that I first saw The Piano and It was like seeing it for the first time today .I don't know why I disliked it back then ,there were a lot of changes going on in my life but today I can only praise this film and I'm so glad I was curious enough to revisit it. There has been so much critical praise heaped on "The Piano "I won't add much except to praise the genius of Jane Campion ,the entire cast and technical personnel ,especially the camera people and film editors not only is it the greatest film to be produced in New Zealand but it holds its own with any film anywhere on earth. The year it was made 1994 The Piano was up against very stiff Hollywood competition with Stephen Spielberg 'S brilliant film "Schindler's List" if not for that I suspect I'm not the only one to think "The Piano " also would have one Best Picture and Best Director it thoroughly deserved it's 7 nominations and 3 wins.
It's a beautiful film to watch of course the breathtakingly beautiful misty forests and sea scapes of New Zealand . The emotional impact of Holly Hunter's Academy Award winning performance as Ada ( who doesn't have a line of dialogue except subconscious narrative ) and of course Anna Paquin as her precocious adult child daughter Flora are superb . Anna was only one year older than Tatum O'Neil the youngest Oscar winner and has had a much more impressive film career than Tatum since her win. The actors Sam Neil as Alisdair ,Ada's patient but ineffectual husband and Harvey Keitel as George Barnes the lonely overseer with a vivid fantasy emotional life are also very impressive in these roles . I did wonder if the few sexual scenes could be filmed as convincingly in today's ME Too World ? the actors would have to follow much stricter guidelines I suspect.
Finally I guess I'm writing this to encourage anyone who feels very strongly about or dislike a much praised movie to keep an open mind and give it another chance as I did the reward was worth it. Ps the music of course by Michael Nyman adds to the enjoyment but it's Director and writer Jane Campion who has produced a film where even the title "The Piano." An inanimate object becomes almost a living character that determines all the main characters fate and destiny. -
Deathstryke28 November 2021There's no doubt The Piano is beautiful. The opening scene of the sailors carrying Ada and her beloved instrument onto the beach amidst the crashing waves is stunning; there are many shots like this, that show the awesomeness of the natural world, often as a reflection of the protagonist's emotional state.
I found the story to be less compelling however. It's slow, sparse on dialogue and doesn't give much information about the mute protagonist, like what her wants or fears are. I didn't find her particularly likeable.
There is also the matter of those awful Scottish accents; Why are American actors so bad at accents?
Even less convincing is the love story between Ada (Hunter) and George (Keitel). I felt there was zero chemistry between them; Keitel is such a lump of a man, I don't know why they couldn't have found someone more dashing for the role. His character, George, is so plain and boring, there's nothing about his personality that entices. It seemed silly to me that Ada would allow herself to be persuaded into bed with him, especially when his initial attempts at seduction were so blunt and rape-y. The love scenes left me cold.
It was the visuals and the haunting atmosphere that sustained me to the end. I can see why it gets praise from critics, but I can also see why it wasn't hugely successful with the general public. It just doesn't have the emotional power to match the cinematography. -
Hitchcoc9 March 2006If one wants to see true acting, just watch Hollie Hunter in this film. She does more with her facial expressions than twenty actors can with a thousand words. Her stature, her presence, her determination are so intense. One could feel sorry for her in places. She has been ripped from her world for reasons we cannot fathom. She has been deemed expendable. When she arrives she expects to be treated properly. Anna Paquin as her daughter settles into the new environment and begins to prosper. But it is not without sacrifice. The piano is the symbol of what was left behind. Her affair with the Maori is partly passion, partly payment. We never know how much of each. The performances are stunning across the board and, this time, worthy of Academy Awards.
There are some very sensual scenes and scenes of great danger. There is pain inflicted and selfishness and power. Hollie Hunter rises above it all and makes her way through this quagmire (the rainy muddy jungle in this case), and arises, victorious in her own fashion. -
There are very few female directors in the film industry that have been given proper acknowledgment or had their works introduced to mainstream filmgoers. Jane Campion is one of these precious few, a director who carefully paces and sculpts her works so that they magnificently flow like a musical interlude. "The Piano" is her ultimate masterpiece, a film of such simplicity, described with calm and tense complexity. Holly Hunter received an Oscar for her fascinating performance as Ada, a mute woman who is forced into an arranged marriage with a New Zealand landowner, played convincingly by Sam Neill, a native Australian actor himself. Ada journeys to New Zealand with her young daughter (Anna Paquin, also an Oscar-winner that year), few other possessions, and her treasured piano, a part of her that amplifies her voice that she cannot express through vocal communication.
I believe it would be wrong to assume that any of the characters are martyrs in this tragic story, nor would it be right to think Sam Neill's character a villain. You may think this is crazy, but I think the piano itself serves as both a good and bad omen for all that are involved. I would relate it to a "Pandora's box" of sorts, a treasure that exposes all the evil and sin in the world, but which also provides hope as well. The piano is Ada's sounding box, a tool that allows her to escape from a world that does not understand her, but that also threatens her moral compass, removing her from marital conventions and forces her to lose herself.
The performances in "The Piano" are particularly good, especially Holly Hunter's. It is interesting to note that all of Hunter's piano playing in the film is actually Hunter herself performing in front of us. You can visually and aurally feel the mood of Hunter's character through the music she plays. We the audience lose ourselves right along with her, lost upon a sea of music. We see why Keitel becomes enamored by her, and why Neill becomes overcome with jealousy and betrayal. Not many films would allow us to enter the emotions of all three main characters, but this film is truly an exception.
Rarely do we witness real beauty captured on film. "The Piano" is such a visually stunning film, it's almost intoxicating how its atmosphere sweeps across the screen. This landscape is equaled by the performances, bringing understanding and mystery to this wonder. Sometimes symbolism of this nature can be distracting to an audience. "The Piano" dares to follow this symbolic path, and hits a bullseye with full emotional force. Rating: Four stars. -
tomgillespie200210 January 2013Ada (Holly Hunter) arrives at a rainy New Zealand coast to meet her new husband - the gently-spoken frontiersman Stewart (Sam Neill) - along with her precious grand piano and her illegitimate daughter Flora (Anna Paquin). Ada has been a mute since she was 6 years old, and as she explains in her narration, no-one knows why. Stewart's friend Baines (Harvey Keitel) takes an interest in the piano and offers Stewart land in exchange for it, as well as lessons from Ada, to which Stewart agrees. Offering the chance to earn her piano back, Baines wants one visit per black key on the piano from Ada, who he is seemingly infatuated with.
Australian director Jane Campion's erotically-charged Gothic love story was a huge success back in 1993, winning the Best Actress Academy Award for Holly Hunter and Best Supporting Actress for Paquin, who became the second youngest recipient ever. Hunter's shadowy Ada is the backbone of The Piano, and while it may appear that it is her piano that fuels her passion, it is very much her own mind and experiences that dictate her actions. She is quite a fascinating character - not merely the put-upon mute who longs for love and her piano - she is actually rather subtly manipulative and sexually powerful, weighing up the two love interests in her life, and playing a dangerous power game with her increasingly jealous husband.
The contrast between the two men in Ada's life couldn't be any obvious - Stewart playing dutiful, business-minded and quite inept in courtship, while Baines is hulking, living out in the forest, his face spotted with native Maori tattoos - but it is quite clear as to where Campion's preferences life. Ada's scenes with Baines, in which he listens to her play, become the centrepiece for some highly erotic moments, playing out more like animal foreplay than anything human. Ada seems not to bat an eyelid when Baines lies on the floor by her feet, fingering a hole in her stocking, or simply walks around the room completely naked. While these unconventional actions are there to channel Ada's sexual repression/release and Baines' animalistic nature, these scenes often appear forced, filled with lazy or nonsensical metaphors passed of as spiritual film-making.
As with many Australian period films, The Piano looks stunning. The exotic location is not filmed through a sun-tinted lens, and nor does it capture any of the colourful wildlife (something you would expect if Terence Malick had directed it), but is grey, wet and muddy. Like Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Gallipoli (1981), it has that lived-in feel, with Hunter's beautiful, ghostly face evoking a 19th- century photograph, where everyone looks grim and pale, and Campion's occasionally snapshot approach captures the mundane, everyday actions of the period. The performances are a revelation, with Hunter and Paquin deserving their accolades, and Keitel proving a formidable presence (I'll not mention the accent). The Piano is personal film-making, but too often the film seems to be striving for that mystical atmosphere rather than actually capturing it, occasionally getting lost amongst Campion's obvious adoration for her protagonist.
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lib-49 November 1998The Piano is an amazing movie- the cinematography stunning- like the piano on the beach and the sinking piano at the end. There is no praise high enough for Holly Hunter's depiction of Ada. Ana Pacquin and Sam O'Neill also shine. And Harvey Keitel- having gone native- by marking his body in the native style- gives a truly sympathetic and daring performance. This movie stays with the viewer long after it is over. At times I actually felt the dampness of the scenery... most of all it explores the regions of the heart- through the innovative music and the body language of Hunter. A film not to be missed by those who appreciate good story and good filmaking. Thanks Jane Campion for this classic.
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AndreaWeaver112 January 2022There is so much to be said about The Piano, and besides writing a full essay on it, I won't promise that this review will do it justice. Disclaimer: my rating is as it stands simply because the movie was not necessarily my taste, and I don't believe that it aged incredibly well. That being said, I do think this is a film worth seeing, because of the story it tells. I always want to cheer for characters in films, and found it very hard to do so in this situation; the only one I had complete sympathy for was Anna Paquin's character, and even she was a whiny sort of kid. The performances throughout were incredible, but I did find Harvey Keitel to be stiff; perhaps that was intentional.
I also felt that this movie glorified a relationship that blossomed under the pretense of blackmail; it had vague traces of Stockholm Syndrome written in it's DNA. Jane Campion is not a filmmaker that wants you to feel comfortable while watching her work, and one must understand that before taking the plunge.
Overall, as I said before, this is a movie worth watching. Campions use of the soggy New Zealand forests and beautiful, as well as dangerous, oceans are a testament to her immense talent as a storyteller. She weaves an unforgettable tale with witty dialogue and shocking encounters scattered throughout. -
maximovlE30 January 2019A few years too late but I've just watched this. Even to today's standards, it's an amazing movie. Actually, for today's standards even more so. I would have to presume that the plethora of 1/10 ratings come from the type that would rate transformers as an all time epic.
I read one review asking how Holly Hunter won an Oscar when she didn't even talk. Really? So you think someone like Jessie eisenberg should have a collection of Oscars? Because that man talks way too much!
You don't need to talk to act. Being able to communicate without speech is so much harder and Holly played it flawlessly. In my opinion Anna Paquin was just as amazing, especially considering her age. The part where she has to give something to Harvey Keitel was amazing. I have a young daughter, to be able to act that well on cue... well, she had me bawling!
Ignore the negatives. If you have a heart and require more than cgi with no story.... then watch this if you haven't already. -
caspian19786 December 2001The Piano is a different film. Unlike many others. It's not a film that you just watch, you must listen. Listen to not only the words, but the music, the tone of the moods, and the movement from Holly Hunter's character. The entire film feels like it is taking place on stage. The setting is made for our enjoyment. Watch the setting closely as you watch the characters in the film adapt to the surroundings. You must watch very carefully, you may miss the message that the film is trying to make. Watch.......and Listen......closely.
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pinkprincessgirl15 January 2023Sorry i couldnt grasp how a woman being forced to show skin and sleep with a man to enable her to play the piano and then she suddenly falls in love with him, presto. I thought this was utterly ridiculious and unrealistic. And suddenly they were living happily ever after? I literally cant believe this movie got so popular as i felt sorry for this woman that she was being forced to fdo things against her will. Yes its slow moving and moody with some good scenes and good acting from the daughter but i was left feeling in a bizarre state and after watching this seemingly classic of all time movie with excellent reviews.
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Covousier21 September 2006Can someone explain to me why "The Piano" ain't in the IMDb top 250 and, for example, movies like "Sin City" or "Crash" (!!!!!!!!!!) are????????????? This movie,is,by far, one of the most delicate and intelligent ever; it softly touches you, emotionally AND physically, for the filming and the photography are exceptional. Actors in it are troubling, beautiful and so... beautiful(again,i know)! Holly Hunter, who plays a mute piano goddess and manages with her not enough known acting skills to express more with her eyes,her grace and her tiny hands than 100 Gwyneth paltrows put together!!!(no offense,i much enjoyed Shakespeare in love,but,come on...)Harvey Keitel in this broken-hearted warrior/peasant role is more than touching;love embraces him as it embraces us,viewers. Still, Jane Campion avoids the unfortunately fashionable arrogant and tutorial directors touch (oscar for best movie, Crash?????? where the hell are we??????) and lets the viewer flow on his own in this huge ocean of naked and oh so true feelings and respects the pain and/or the anger (Sam Neil,probably the only role in his carrier that shows his great talent) of her clearly beloved characters.Landscapes,seashores,humid forests,mud,rain: nature, as well as human nature, are captured by Campion's eyes and heart in the most sensitive and unartificial way. And, of course, Michael Nyman's score,which, once heard, becomes a part of you. Yes, definitely, the heart asks pleasure first. So treat your hearts and eyes with this unique and sensual Chef d'oeuvre.
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Director-screenwriter Jane Campion started at the movies in the early 1980s at the Australian School of Film and Television... She clearly emerged from her cultural heritage to become one of the world's premiere female directors...
Campion's films typically have a treacherous terrain of searing emotional intensity... We recognize ourselves in the ways her characters think and behave... Her work signifies a break with the tragic, the Gothic and the sentimental...
Her exquisite film which won three Academy Awards including one for Campion's screenplay, is not about sex, but about passion...
Jane challenges the viewer on many levels... Her film (literary inspired from 'Wuthering Heights') explores new territory in the delicious handling of female sexuality and pleasure with the ecstasy of a loving relationship...
In one scene Ada, with tears of anger, hits Baines hard across the face, as if she has spoken words of love... With each new breath, with every moment that their eyes remain locked together, the promise of intimacy is confirmed and reconfirmed and detailed... Only their feelings and emotions guide their instincts...
No woman artist had approached sex in such a direct and liberating manner... Campion's scenes shows Baines' face crumpling with the exquisite pain of his pleasure... Ada moving his head to her chest, and Baines struggling through her dress anxious to touch her skin...
Nominated for eight Academy Awards, the film tells the story of Ada, a strong willful 19th-century Scotswoman who hasn't spoken, since she was six years old... Ada has been set up in an arranged marriage to a British emigrant in New Zealand...
The film opens with Ada who is carried to shore on the shoulders of five seamen to meet her husband Stewart, a landowner who is without much emotion or real love... Her large Victorian skirt spreads across the men's arms and backs... On her head a black bonnet... Around her neck her pad and pen...
Campion manages to chose a cast to suit her purpose and style... Ada is not any easy role and Holly Hunter plays her without vanity... Her face is alight with facial expression, sometimes tender, sometimes sad, sometimes humorous, sometimes soft, while her hands and fingers are quick and neat...
Ada speaks through sign-language translated by her young daughter Flora, and through her beloved piano which happens to be the prime source of her expression... She takes great delight in feeling her fingers on her piano's keys... But in the way she eyes the illiterate, uncultured Baines, there is an insolence and lack of respect... We watch her stopping abruptly, indignantly, as he touches her neck...
Harvey Kietel plays the lonely neighbor George Baines, a depressive man who is everything Stewart is not... He has never seen a graceful woman behave with so much abandon... Ada moves to the piano... She wants to touch it, but she is torn by her feelings, wanting it, but not owning it... Baines views Ada totally absorbed in her piano music... He seems satisfied to watch... He finds himself edging irresistibly closer, magnetically drawn to the spectacle...
Baines enjoys her fingers moving on the keys and the small details of motion on her face... Twice he closes his eyes and breathes deeply... He is experiencing a strange sense of appreciation and lust... He feels powerless... He is desperate and romantic... He no longer admires her absorption with the piano... He is jealous of it... His attention finally focuses on her neck as it bends further or closer to the piano... Ada's long white neck proves irresistible... Baines comes across the room, kisses her, and asks: 'Do you know how to bargain, nod if you do. There's a way you can have your piano back.'
Anna Paquin has been proclaimed one of the best child acting roles ever... She gives a subtle and complex performance as the very cute little girl torn between her mother and stepfather... She looks over at the house suddenly aware that the piano playing has stopped suddenly... She investigates the mystery peeping through the various cracks and holes in the loosely built hut... Her venture is one of challenge and curiosity... Her complex portrayal of Flora won her the Best Supporting Actress...
Sam Neill plays the intense, moralistic and very-Victorian husband Alistair Stewart, who never understands his woman's nature... He surveys Baines' hut suspiciously... There are sounds inside which are worrying him... By wondering around the hut, he finds a hole where he can see the two lovers kissing, and undressing... He reels back angry, but just as we might expect him to burst through, he steps up to look again...
Jane Campion creates an unusual film, poetic and lyrical, complimented by a beautiful cinematography of the haunting woods, which by many critics has been named as a masterpiece... She is the first female director to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes... -
csac6590astrid7 January 2004"The Piano", directed by Jane Campion, is a haunting film about love, passion, betrayal and refusal set in the 19th century. Ada (Holly Hunter), sent to New Zealand on an arranged marriage, arrives with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her precious piano on a stormy gray beach. Her husband Stewart (Sam Neill) leaves her beloved piano on the beach after having decided that it is too heavy to transport it inland. He does not recognize what this means to the mute Ada, who expresses her emotions with the "voice" of her piano. Baines (Harvey Keitel), who has taken on Maori ways, is deeply moved by Ada and her "voice". He gives Stewart a piece of land in exchange for the piano and offers Ada a deal to earn it back.
Repulsed by Baines' crude appearance, Ada reluctantly accepts the deal to play the piano in his hut while he does "things". Submerged erotic desires and passion slowly set free between the unlikely pair during the piano sessions. Both Baines and Stewart become obsessed by Ada's powerful, intensely suggestive form of unuttered communication. Completely bewildered, Stewart asks Baines if had ever heard Ada speak a single word to him, claiming that he could hear her voice in his mind.
The breathtaking, beautiful imagery as well as its stirring music (Michael Nyman) contribute to the romantic, mystifying atmosphere of the film. "The Piano" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Oscars for Best Actress (Holly Hunt), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin), and Campion's screenplay. Holly Hunter's outstanding performance conveys impressively a woman's ability to express herself without words. "The Piano" is one of the best films I have seen so far. -
blanbrn2 April 2009These days I'm use to seeing Holly Hunter on TV as a raw and sexy bad girl bed hopping cop in "Saving Grace" So clearly that's made me a fan of hers. Holly is a fine actress so it was only fitting that I watch the 1993 film "The Piano" that she starred in and won an Oscar for best actress. I must say the performance was good and the type of character she played made it award material. Still I found this film a little slow moving, maybe it was because of her characters disability. Anyway her inspiration and sentimental feel make it a watch.
Set in 1850's New Zeland Hunter is Ada a young woman who's mute and her biggest passion in life is playing the piano. Conflict will arise in Ada's life as her husband(Sam Neill)will cross ways with his intense neighbor(Harvey Keitel). Only Ada's husband will find out that she and her piano playing has turned on their neighbor not only emotionally but sexually also. Tense passions of erotic feel and love erupts. Only in the end the true passion will be seen as the piano was her one true love that will last. Not really a great film in my book it's a watch for Hunter fans, and it's point is proved that a person can have more of a lasting love with an object or instrument more than they can with a person. -
victor775422 January 2006Ada, A woman chosen to be mute, travels with her daughter and baby grand piano across the seas from England to an exotic land in New Zealand during the Victorian Era. This woman has been oppressed in her homeland and denied her womanhood. She has been arranged a marriage with a Landowner who is afraid of fleshly desire. She meets an exotic Caucasian male who seduces her into a world she can be herself in. She is able to release her oppression through their passion.
A film of intrigue. Why make such a story? It has a touch of magical realism. Jane Campion creates a mythical world and fills it with the human condition. Holly Hunter plays Ada with a fierce and graceful flowing note and deservedly won her awards. She plays woman's independence.
The Piano is a strange film and very effecting on it's story. The screen emits the mystery of the forest that surrounds and engulfs Ada's spirit.
Haunting and lyrical. -
k84414031 October 2021When I saw how many Oscars did it win and how many nominations did it obtain, as well as titles like "The best female-director's film", I expected something great. Critic's reviews were highly positive as well. But what did I eventually get? A masterpiece? Definitely no. Speaking of its Oscars, The Piano hardly deserves them. The one for screenplay was won due to weak rivals, among which all of them wouldn't look obvious and were of the same level. I saw only one of them - Philadelphia, and to my mind, it deserves the Oscar for the best original screenplay more than The Piano. The Oscar for Anna Paquin is more or less deserved, though Emma Thompson was great in In the Name of the Father too. Nonetheless, Anna did a great job for a kid. And the last Oscar - the one for the best actress. Though Holly Hunter played well, her performance is a typical role of disabled person, which, along with playing a real person, is one of the cheating ways of winning an Oscar. They just already have someone to repeat after and need less effort to make everything what's needed from them. Playing a usual person, whether it is a book character or the one from original screenplay is tougher, and it's a shame that the Academy doesn't understand it.
Speaking of the film itself, it has two main drawbacks: the story and its color solution. I don't know why did they decide to make the colors so cold and unpleasant, but it didn't do any good. And the story is just shallow and pointless. Everyone tells how deep it is and how it reveals all the passion, but I suspect they just want to seem like critics. Brilliant, modern and tragic love stories are A Star Is Born and Atonement, but not this one. These characters just don't look as they need this affair. Ada looks like a whor, as Harvey Keitel's character described her. His character isn't good either. There's no chemistry and real passion, I just don't believe them. Nothing happens between them except for sx. Thus, I don't recommend to waste your time on this movie. Better watch A Star Is Born or Atonement if you haven't seen them yet. -
moonspinner5531 March 2002Jane Campion is a director of quiet unease. I was not a big admirer of her "Angel At My Table", which had enormous possibilities but was suffocated under the filmmaker's penchant for what I refer to as 'ugly beauty'. Even the beautiful passages in this film are undermined by either something ghastly, something about to become ghastly, or something borne from ghastliness. A New Zealand woman in the 1800s becomes a mail-order bride for an uninterested working man; she's a self-elected mute and communicates through her wizened little daughter (Oscar-winner Anna Pacquin, a bit over-the-top) and through her passion for playing the piano, which becomes a point of contention in her marriage. Engrossing human drama with a torrid undercurrent of sexuality and violence. Many people I've talked to about this film could not get with it, but perhaps that's the fault of watching movies at home. In the theater, this was a slightly-dazed, rapturous and enveloping brew that held me spellbound until the lights went up. Movies like this don't hold the same spell when butchered up by ads for the CBS comedies. Holly Hunter, Sam Neill and, most especially, Harvey Keitel all do terrific work. Hunter deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar. ***1/2 from ****
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DragonAge8 May 2011Set in the mid 1800s, The Piano tells the story of mute woman (Hunter) who is sent to marry a wealthy New Zealand land owner (Neill) along with her young daughter (Paquin) and her beloved Piano.
When Neill refuses to take an interest in his new bride's Piano or her music, he creates a rift with her. By contrast, a local Maori (Keitel) takes a keen interest the Piano and a keener interest in Hunter herself.
There is a lot to enjoy in this film. Holly Hunter gives a strong performance without any dialogue. Anna Paquin, then only 11 years old, provides one of the all-time great child performances as Hunter's inquisitive and earnest daughter. In a thankless but vital role, Sam Neill is strong as Hunter's distant husband.
Director Jane Campeon stages the film with a sensitive light tough - winning an Oscar for best screenplay. And Michael Nyman's haunting score perfectly complements the intimate storyline and performances.
But for all these strengths, The Piano is let down by some frustrating and avoidable weaknesses. Harvey Keitel is badly miscast as Hunter's Maori love interest. And we are introduced to several redundant characters, who serve no purpose to the central storyline.
The film would also have benefited from a clearer explanation of the motivations of the main protagonists. While some things can be left unsaid, the near-total lack of clear characterisation means the viewer is left somewhat indifferent to key emotional and plot developments.
Overall, The Piano is worth seeing, particularly for the two Oscar winning performances by Hunter and Paquin. But the frustrating flaws prevent it from being the classic it could easily have been. -
ElMaruecan8217 March 2017I must have been misinformed about "The Piano". I've always thought it was going to be one of these insufferably long movies that take the words slow and dim-lit as synonyms of deep and profound, these films where you try to convince your mind that it's genius while you have a hard time sitting through five minutes without checking your phone, or maybe I thought it was a sort of pseudo-feminist movie meant to content the elitist tastes and earn a Golden Palm on that biased bass.
But what the hell I know? "The Piano" is a straightaway romance, full of heat and passion like you rarely see in movies, and where all the players, no pun intended, cut straight to your heart. A few movies make you feel for their protagonists like "The Piano" does and I guess it says a lot about the sensitivity of Jane Campion who wrote and directed a magnificent story of souls lost in the middle of nowhere, trying to live in a pretension of civilization among wilderness, only to discover their own wild desires, triumphing over the hypocritical pretension of 'marriage', and with a piano, of all the matchmakers. Who would have thought that a tiny and mute woman from the 19th century would indirectly speak so many huge, loud and modern statements about love and passion.
I was going to praise the modernity of the author who wrote the original novel, expecting a figure à la Jane Austen or Eyre, but then I read that it was an original screenplay. What Campion did was to assemble many familiar topics from these literature classics while infusing them into a personal idea of feminist heroism, and it works because Ada is one hell of a creation by Campion and Holly Hunter. This is a woman who had an illegitimate child, a mini-Ada named Flora (Anna Paquin); only in the edge of the world, a man accepted to marry her, an uptight British landowner (if you can call lands these swampy muddy traps) named Stewart (Sam Neill) who emigrated with his Aunt (Kelly Walker) and her dim-witted servants. He recreated a microcosm of England in the midst of New Zealand's bush, he needs to recreate the illusion of marriage.
But from the opening start where we see Ada and Flora being carried by the sailors on the beach to the way their frail bodies literally sink into the mud, we have the signal that this is a very awkward setting and things won't turn out as we expect with this kind of material. You have indeed that texture that belongs to period pieces or Ivory/Merchant productions but in a territory where man can hardly set the mark of progress or civilization. You can't just conquer the land easily, and it is fascinating how Ada embodies that notion. This is a woman who chose to be silent at the age of six until it confined to muteness. She revolted against the patriarchal system, her muteness is part of her character and she's got it more than any 'normal' woman Stewart would have married, but he takes her muteness the wrong way and commits the worst mistake by abandoning her only valuable item: the piano, on the beach, because the Maori natives can't carry it.
Stewart misunderstood Ada, he thought Flora was the translator of her feelings, but Flora is a free-spirited angel (almost literally) that doesn't need to be everywhere with her mother, but to understand Ada is to listen to her music and understand her love for the piano. Modern visions of love sometimes put 'understanding' far above love and respect, Stewart respected Ada but the one who understood her could win her heart, and the rival was George Baines, played by Harvey Keitel. George is an adventurer with a face marked by Maori tattoos, and when he hears Ada playing piano for the first time, he understands how he can reach her. He sells a land to Stewart in exchange of the piano and courses from Ada. Ada is reluctant until she sees the extent of the bargain, for each course, she'll get a black key symbolically, when the count is down, she takes her piano back.
This is the start of some of the most powerful erotic relationships of recent time, one where you can pinpoint the transfer of power between Baines and Ada. It comes to the moment where he raises the price just to be able to touch her neck, and later, when he gives three keys so she can lift her skirt, she's shocked but then suggest five, they settle at four. Both have the power, the piano is just a decoy, an excuse to let them play with their fantasies. It is the credit to a filmmaker who assumes her feminism to have portrayed a relationship where the man has the upper hand only because the woman gives her blessing. She doesn't see herself as a whore, she simply values Baines' fascinatingly awkward ways to reach her. And like Campion said, sometimes a man's extreme masculinity reveals a woman's extreme femininity. "The Piano" is about characters who repressed their feelings for too long until a piano would open their eyes and the rest.
"The Piano" is served by a terrific bittersweet score from Michael Nyman, stellar performances from Hunter and Paquin, who won Oscars, as well as Campion for her thought-provoking script, while her directing was intelligent and sensitive, especially with this attention to such details like Flora acting like a child and not being unrealistically smart or the way the Maori were portrayed, on an equal foot with the Whites, and even showing how hard it was for women to get the simplest things done, like going to the bathroom.
"The Piano" is melancholic, captivating, haunting but inspirational because it's about people who simply learn to become honest and 'eloquent' about their feelings. -
kristen-6885515 March 2020People are saying this was erotic and sensual and a woman's idea of passion, but I hated the main character and the whole storyline pretty much. To me, this read as a story about a woman who falls in love with someone who blackmailed her into constant sexual assault because her only other option was the man she'd been married to without knowing him. She also constantly shows no care for her young daughter, in fact her new husband seems more like a parent to her kid than she does. The one upside is that the acting and cinematography are pretty good for the most part
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dawnstoker3 December 2005I had no idea what this movie was about until my husband I ran across it on our free Showtime sampler. I play the piano and love period films, and after recently seeing the new release of "Pride and Prejudice" I felt that the short description offered on the satellite header promised more of the same. Other reviews summarize the plot well enough, so I will not do that. It is of more use to say that this film is not feminist so much as it is feminine. It is also extremely masculine at the same time... thank you Sam Neil and Harvey Keitel. Holly Hunter's character, Ada, expresses the concentrate of her human emotion in her music. That is why it is so important to her. It IS her voice. When the piano is taken away by her new husband, it is impossible for her to feel the love for him that he truly wants and needs. Sam Neil's character is actually a lovely man; he makes fatal mistakes about the piano though. Ultimately, it is not about the piano- but understanding. George gives Ada the understanding and the slow progression of emotional and physical intimacy that she should have received from her husband. He listens to her. That is what women want most. I've never seen that so poignantly displayed in any movie. Another reviewer was correct when she said that the movie flowed like a poem. Alisdair is not so jealous of what he sees through the walls of George's house as he is of the piano key inscribed with the pledge of Ada's heart to George. Yet, Ada is not completely indifferent to Alisdair. Not at all. Ada is looking for strength of will in the men around her, and inevitably in herself. I do understand the polarity in the reactions to the movie as it was exemplified in my own living room. As the credits rolled, my husband said,"That was a weird movie." I smiled and said, "That was a beautiful movie." The comment stands.