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The Piano

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The Piano

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Summary

Period drama starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill. Sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage with a landowner, Ada, who has been mute since childhood, and her daughter arrive from Scotland along with Ada's piano, which her new husband refuses to transport. Baines, the estate manager, is attracted to Ada and offers to buy the piano in exchange for piano lessons.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

David Parkinson

Inspired by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, this superbly staged tale of passion and obsession won writer/director Jane Campion an Oscar for best screenplay. Like her earlier films Sweetie and An Angel at My Table (a three-hour biopic of writer Janet Frame), this period drama focuses on a woman whom society has dismissed as disabled. However, Holly Hunter's Ada McGrath (who chose to stop speaking at the age of six) can communicate through her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin), and the piano she brings with her to New Zealand when she is sent from Scotland to marry local landowner Sam Neill. The ability to make contact is one of the film's key themes. Ada's new husband can read her hurriedly written notes, but he does not appreciate her music and won't take the trouble to learn either her sign language or the local Maori dialect. The illiterate Baines (Harvey Keitel), on the other hand, has fully embraced the customs of his adopted home and, belying his uncouth outward appearance, proves to be much more tender and passionate than his social superiors. With their tight corsets and unwieldy skirts, the fashions of Victorian times are synonymous in the film with women's repression. Yet while Ada's clothing (expertly designed by Janet Patterson) is an inconvenience in the bush and nearly costs her her life, it saves her from her husband's advances and, eventually, proves the means to her liberation. There's a masterly score by Michael Nyman and splendid photography from Stuart Dryburgh, and Campion coaxes stupendous performances from Hunter and Paquin, who both won Oscars - Neill and Keitel were shamefully overlooked.

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7.5/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameAdaHolly HunterBainesHarvey KeitelStewartSam NeillFloraAnna PaquinAunt MoragKerry WalkerNessieGeneviève LemonHiraTungia BakerReverendIan MuneHead seamanPeter DennettChief NiheTe Whatanui SkipwithManaCliff Curtis

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Crew

rolenameDirectorJane Campion

Details

Theatrical distributor

Studio Canal /ICO

Released on

2018-06-15

Languages

English | Māori

Guidance

Violence, swearing, sex scenes, nudity.

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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