El piano

If 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.

Jane 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 ****

Isn'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.

"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.

Ada (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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