The Piano (film)

''The Piano'' is a 1993 period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin in her first major acting role, the film focuses on a mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote part of New Zealand with her young daughter after her arranged marriage to a frontiersman.

A co-production between New Zealand, Australia and France, ''The Piano'' was a critical and commercial success, grossing US$140.2 million worldwide against its US$7 million budget. Hunter and Paquin both received high praise for their performances. In 1993, the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Jane Campion the first female director to ever receive this award. It won three Academy Awards out of eight total nominations in March 1994: Best Actress for Hunter, Best Supporting Actress for Paquin, and Best Original Screenplay for Campion. Paquin was 11 years old at the time and remains the second-youngest actor to win an Oscar in a competitive category.

The plot has similarities to Jane Mander's 1920 novel "The Story of a New Zealand River", but also substantial differences. Campion says that ''Wuthering Heights'' and '' The African Queen'' were her inspirations.

Plot

In the mid-1800s, an electively mute Scotswoman named Ada McGrath is sold by her father into marriage to a New Zealand frontiersman named Alisdair Stewart, bringing her young daughter Flora with her. Ada has not spoken a word since she was six and no one, including herself, knows why. She expresses herself through her piano playing and through sign language, for which her daughter, in parent-child role reversal, has served as her interpreter. Flora is the product of a relationship with a piano teacher whom Ada believed she had seduced through mental telepathy, but who "became frightened and stopped listening" and thus left her.

Ada, Flora, and their belongings, including a hand-crafted piano, are deposited on a New Zealand beach by a ship's crew. The following day, Alisdair arrives with a Māori crew and his neighbor, George Baines, a fellow forester and retired sailor who has adopted many of the Māori customs, including tattooing his face. Alisdair at first tells Ada there are not enough bearers for the piano, then refuses to go back for it saying they all must make sacrifices. Ada, in turn, is cold to him and is determined to be reunited with her piano. Unable to persuade Alisdair, Ada and Flora visit George with a note asking to be taken to the piano and although he cannot read he agrees. He is spellbound by Ada's playing and offers Alisdair land he coveted in exchange for the instrument, and lessons from Ada. Alisdair consents, oblivious to George's attraction to her. Ada is enraged but cannot resist being able to play when George says he wants to learn by listening. Very soon, George proposes Ada can earn her piano back at a rate of one piano key per "lesson", provided he can observe her and do "things he likes" while she plays. She agrees, but negotiates for a number of lessons equal to the number of black keys only. Ada continues to rebuff Alisdair's affectionless overtures while beginning to explore her sensuality with George, who bargains for more intimacy in exchange for greater numbers of keys, while Ada holds back a great deal still. Realizing she is not willing to commit to him emotionally, George gives up and simply returns the piano to Ada, saying their arrangement "is making you a whore, and me wretched", and what he really wants is for her to actually care for him.

Despite having her piano back, Ada finds herself missing George. She returns soon after and does not hold back; Alisdair hears them having sex as he walks by George's house and then watches them through a crack in the wall. Outraged, he follows her the next day and confronts her in the forest, where he attempts to force himself on her, despite her intense resistance. He eventually exacts a promise from Ada she will not see George.

Soon afterwards, Ada orders Flora to take a package to George containing a single piano key inscribed with a declaration of love reading, "Dear George, you have my heart. Ada McGrath". Flora argues, then brings the piano key to Alisdair instead. After reading the love note burnt onto the piano key, Alisdair runs home with an axe, with Flora on his heels, and cuts off Ada's index finger in a rage, to deprive Ada’s ability to play the piano. He then sends a sobbing Flora to George with the severed finger wrapped in cloth, saying if the latter ever attempts to see Ada again, he will “chop off another, and another, and another”. Later that night, while touching Ada in her sleep, Alisdair hears what he believes to be Ada's voice inside his head, asking him to let George take her away. Deeply shaken, he goes to the man's house and asks if she has ever spoken words to him. George assures him she has not. They depart from the same beach on which she first landed in New Zealand. While being rowed to the ship with her baggage and Ada's piano tied onto a Māori longboat, Ada asks George to throw the piano overboard. As it sinks, she deliberately tangles her foot in the rope trailing after it. She is pulled overboard but, deep under water, changes her mind and kicks free and is pulled to safety.

In an epilogue, Ada describes her new life with George and Flora in Nelson, New Zealand, where she has started to give piano lessons in their new home, and her severed finger has been replaced with a metal finger made by George. Ada describes taking speech lessons and practicing, and sometimes dreaming of her piano's resting place in the ocean and of herself still tethered to it.

Cast

* Holly Hunter as Ada McGrath
* Harvey Keitel as George Baines
* Sam Neill as Alisdair Stewart
* Anna Paquin as Flora McGrath
* Kerry Walker as Aunt Morag
* Genevieve Lemon as Nessie
* Tungia Baker as Hira
* Ian Mune as Reverend
* Peter Dennett as Head seaman
* Cliff Curtis as Mana
* George Boyle as Ada's father
* Rose McIver as Angel
* Mika Haka as Tahu

Production

Casting the role of Ada was a difficult process. Sigourney Weaver was Campion's first choice, but ultimately turned down the role. Jennifer Jason Leigh was also considered, but had a conflict with her commitment to '' Rush'' (1991). Isabelle Huppert met with Jane Campion and had vintage period-style photographs taken of her as Ada, and later said she regretted not fighting for the role as Hunter did.

The casting for Flora occurred after Hunter had been selected for the part. They did a series of open auditions for girls age 9 to 13, focusing on girls who were small enough to be believable as Ada's daughter (as Holly Hunter is relatively short at 157 cm / 5' 2" tall). Anna Paquin ended up winning the role of Flora over 5,000 other girls.

Alistair Fox has argued that ''The Piano'' was significantly influenced by Jane Mander's ''The Story of a New Zealand River''. Robert Macklin, an associate editor with ''The Canberra Times'' newspaper, has also written about the similarities. The film also serves as a retelling of the fairytale "Bluebeard", itself depicted as a scene in the Christmas pageant.

In July 2013, Campion revealed that she originally intended for the main character to drown in the sea after going overboard after her piano.

Production on the film started in April 1992, filming began on 11 May 1992 and lasted until July 1992, and production officially ended on 22 December 1992.

Reception

Reviews for the film were overwhelmingly positive. Roger Ebert wrote: "''The Piano'' is as peculiar and haunting as any film I've seen" and "It is one of those rare movies that is not just about a story, or some characters, but about a whole universe of feeling". Hal Hinson of ''The Washington Post'' called it an "evocative, powerful, extraordinarily beautiful film".

"The Piano" was named one of the best films of 1993 by 86 film critics, making it the most acclaimed film of 1993.

In his ''2013 Movie Guide'', Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 1/2 stars out of 4, calling the film a "Haunting, unpredictable tale of love and sex told from a woman's point of view" and went on to say "Writer-director Campion has fashioned a highly original fable, showing the tragedy and triumph erotic passion can bring to one's daily life".

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 68 reviews, and an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powered by Holly Hunter's main performance, ''The Piano'' is a truth-seeking romance played in the key of erotic passion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

The film was the highest-grossing New Zealand film of all-time surpassing '' Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale'' (1986) with a gross of $NZ3.8 million.

Accolades

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture), winning three for Best Actress (Holly Hunter), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin) and Best Original Screenplay (Jane Campion). At age 11, Anna Paquin became the second youngest competitive Academy Award winner (after Tatum O'Neal in 1973).

At the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Palme d'Or (sharing with Chen Kaige's ''Farewell My Concubine (film), Farewell My Concubine''), with Campion becoming the first woman to win the honour, as well as the first filmmaker from Cinema of New Zealand, New Zealand to achieve this. Holly Hunter also won Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Best Actress.

In 2019, the BBC polled 368 film experts from 84 countries to name the 100 best films by women directors, and ''The Piano'' was named the top film, with nearly 10% of the critics polled giving it first place on their ballots.

Soundtrack

The Film score, score for the film was written by Michael Nyman, and included the acclaimed piece "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"; additional pieces were "Big My Secret", "The Mood That Passes Through You", "Silver Fingered Fling", "Deep Sleep Playing" and "The Attraction of the Peddling Ankle". This album is rated in the top 100 soundtrack albums of all time and Nyman's work is regarded as a key voice in the film, which has a mute lead character.

Home media

The film was released on DVD in 1997 by LIVE Entertainment and on Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray on 31 January 2012 by Lions Gate Entertainment, Lionsgate, but already released in 2010 in Australia.

On 11 August 2021, the Criterion Collection announced their first 4K Ultra HD releases, a six-film slate, will include ''The Piano''. Criterion indicated each title will be available in a 4K UHD+Blu-ray combo pack, including a 4K UHD disc of the feature film as well as the film and special features on the companion Blu-ray. ''The Piano'' was released on January 25, 2022.

Literature

*Althofer, Beth. "The Piano, or Wuthering Heights revisited, or separation and civilization through the eyes of the (girl) child." ''Psychoanalytic Review'' 81, no. 2 (1994): 339-342.
*Attwood, Feona. "Weird Lullaby Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Feminist Review'' 58, no. 1 (1998): 85-101.
*Bentley, Greg. "Mothers, daughters, and (absent) fathers in Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Literature/Film Quarterly'' 30, no. 1 (2002): 46.
*Bihlmeyer, Jaime. "The (Un) Speakable FEMININITY in Mainstream Movies: Jane Campion's" The Piano"." ''Cinema Journal'' (2005): 68-88.
*Bihlmeyer, Jaime. "Jane Campion’s The Piano: The Female Gaze, the Speculum and the Chora within the H (y) st (e) rical Film." ''Essays in Philosophy'' 4, no. 1 (2003): 3-27.
*Bogdan, Deanne, Hilary E. Davis, and Judith Robertson. "Sweet Surrender and Trespassing Desires in Reading: Jane Campion's The Piano and the struggle for responsible pedagogy." ''Changing English'' 4, no. 1 (1997): 81-103.
*Bussi, Elisa. "Voyages and Border Crossings: Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993)." In ''The Seeing Century'', pp. 161–173. Brill, 2000.
*Campion, Jane. ''Jane Campion's The Piano''. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
*Chumo II, Peter N. "Keys to the Imagination: Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Literature/Film Quarterly'' 25, no. 3 (1997): 173.
*Dalton, Mary M., and Kirsten James Fatzinger. "Choosing silence: defiance and resistance without voice in Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Women and Language'' 26, no. 2 (2003): 34.
*Davis, Michael. "Tied to that Maternal ‘Thing’: Death and Desire in Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Gothic Studies'' 4, no. 1 (2002): 63-78.
*Dayal, Samir. "Inhuman love: Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Postmodern Culture'' 12, no. 2 (2002).
*DuPuis, Reshela. "Romanticizing Colonialism: Power and Pleasure in Jane Campion's" The Piano"." ''The Contemporary Pacific'' (1996): 51-79.
*Carol Jacobs (academic), Jacobs, Carol. “Playing Jane Campion’s Piano: Politically,” in ''Modern Language Notes'', vol. 109, December 1994, pp. 757–785.
*Frankenberg, Ronnie. "Campion's The Piano'." The Body, ''Childhood and Society'' (2016): 125.
*Frus, Phyllis. "Borrowing a melody: Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano’and intertextuality." ''Beyond adaptation: Essays on radical transformations of original works'' (2010).
*Gillett, Sue. "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano." (1995): 277-287.
*Hazel, Valerie. "Disjointed Articulations: The Politics of Voice and Jane Campion's" The Piano"." ''Women's Studies Journal'' 10, no. 2 (1994): 27.
*Hendershot, Cyndy. "(Re) Visioning the Gothic: Jane Campion's" The Piano"." ''Literature/Film Quarterly'' 26, no. 2 (1998): 97-108.
*Izod, John. "The Piano, the animus, and the colonial experience." ''Journal of Analytical Psychology'' 41, no. 1 (1996): 117-136.
*James, Caryn. "A Distinctive Shade of Dark.‖ Jane Campion’s The Piano. Harriet Margolis, ed." (2000): 174-176.
*Jayamanne, Laleen. "Post-colonial gothic: the narcissistic wound of Jane Campion’s The Piano’." ''Toward Cinema and Its Double: Cross-cultural Mimesis:'' 24-48.
*Jolly, Margaret. "LOOKING BACK? Gender, Sexuality and Race in The Piano." ''Australian Feminist Studies'' 24, no. 59 (2009): 99-121.
*Klinger, Barbara. "Contested Endings: Interpreting The Piano’s (1993) Final Scenes." ''Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory'' (2010): 135-39.
*Klinger, Barbara. "The art film, affect and the female viewer: The Piano revisited." ''Screen (journal), Screen'' 47, no. 1 (2006): 19-41.
*Molina, Caroline. "Muteness and mutilation: the aesthetics of disability in Jane Campion’s The Piano." ''The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability'' (1997): 267-282.
*Najita, Susan Yukie. "Family Resemblances: The Construction of Pakeha History in Jane Campion's" The Piano"." ''ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature'' 32, no. 1 (2001).
*Norgrove, Aaron. "But is it music? The crisis of identity in The Piano." ''Race & Class, Race & class'' 40, no. 1 (1998): 47-56.
*Pflueger, Pennie. "The Piano and Female Subjectivity: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) and Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993)." ''Women's Studies'' 44, no. 4 (2015): 468-498.
*Preis-Smith, Agata. "Was Ada McGrath a Cyborg, or, the Post-human Concept of the Female Artist in Jane Campion’s The Piano." ''Acta philologica'' (2009): 21.
*Reid, Mark A. "A few black keys and Maori tattoos: Re‐reading Jane Campion's the piano in PostNegritude time." ''Quarterly Review of Film & Video'' 17, no. 2 (2000): 107-116.
*Riu, Carmen Pérez. "TWO GOTHIC FEMINIST TEXTS: EMILY BRONTË'S" WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND THE FILM," THE PIANO", BY JANE CAMPION." ''Atlantis'' (2000): 163-173.
*Sklarew, Bruce H. "I have not spoken: silence in The Piano." In ''Psychoanalysis and Film'', pp. 115–120. Routledge, 2018.
*Taylor, Lib. "Inscription in The Piano." In ''Writing and Cinema'', pp. 88–101. Routledge, 2014.
*Thornley, Davinia. "Duel or Duet? Gendered Nationalism in" The Piano"." ''Film Criticism (journal), Film Criticism'' 24, no. 3 (2000): 61-76.
*Williams, Donald. "The Piano: The Isolated, Constricted Self." ''Film Commentaries'', CG Jung Page. Internet address (2013).
*Wrye, Harriet Kimble. "Tuning a clinical ear to the ambiguous chords of Jane Campion's The Piano." ''Psychoanalytic Inquiry'' 18, no. 2 (1998): 168-182.
*Zarzosa, Agustin. "Jane Campion's The Piano: melodrama as mode of exchange." ''New Review of Film and Television Studies'' 8, no. 4 (2010): 396-411.

References

External links

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Roger Ebert's review


The Piano
a
Ozmovies

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piano
1993 films
1993 romantic drama films
Adultery in films
Australian romantic drama films
French romantic drama films
New Zealand romantic drama films
Māori-language films
British Sign Language films
Fictional elective mutes
Films directed by Jane Campion
Best Foreign Film César Award winners
1990s feminist films
Films about disability
Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Films set in New Zealand
Films set in the 1850s
Films set in the British Empire
Films about pianos and pianists
Films set on beaches
Films shot in New Zealand
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
1990s historical romance films
New Zealand independent films
BAFTA winners (films)
Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film winners
Best Foreign Film Guldbagge Award winners
Palme d'Or winners
Romantic period films
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Australian historical romance films
New Zealand historical romance films
Australian independent films
French historical romance films
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Films scored by Michael Nyman
Films about Māori people
Films about mother–daughter relationships
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1990s English-language films
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