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196 comments in total

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49 out of 71 people found the following comment useful :-
Amazing Film Making, 6 February 2001

Author: namaturner from USA

This 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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29 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
Acting with the face, 9 March 2006

Author: Hitchcoc from United States

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.

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28 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Magnificent, symbolic film masterpiece plays beautifully, like a piano., 27 June 1999
Author: Ian Harrison from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

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.

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24 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
A sensual and surprising film, 4 March 2004

Author: didi-5 from United Kingdom

Jane 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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20 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
The music of the heart, 9 November 1998

Author: anonymous from Florida

The 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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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
I felt the need to just replace the previous ignorant comment, 30 July 2007

Author: alannarmiller from United States

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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19 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
A break with the tragic, the Gothic and the sentimental..., 24 June 2003

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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...

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15 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
What's my motive? (spoilers), 18 November 2001

Author: ivmeer from Chicago, IL

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's one of those cliche lines that actors are reputed to ask their directors all the time. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to be asking it here, and I doubt that the director could have given them a valid answer if they had. Nothing anybody does in this movie makes sense.

The little girl is so faithful to her mother in the beginning, and so against anyone driving them apart. She also didn't seem to be steeped in Christian values enough to even care that she was illegitimate. Why, then, was she so quick to betray her mother for her infidelity to the man she said she'd never even speak to?

Why did her husband refuse to bring the piano along, and then change his mind the minute the hired man wanted it? Sam Neill's character was one of those deliberately adversarial sorts who go against everything the protagonist wants just so they can be the bad guy that we hate.

And Harvey Keitel's character...we're supposed to like him? He forces Ada to prostitute herself to win her piano back, and then she falls in love with him because he's the only one of two men in the film who doesn't cut her finger off. Right.

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18 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Quite vivid, 31 March 2002

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

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 1800's 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 do terrific work. Hunter deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar. ***1/2 from ****

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
A few metaphors found in The Piano, 8 July 2004
Author: kinetos from Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoiler Piano Lessons No Strings Attached

The 'Piano' was a tragedy that crescendos from an entangled web triangle of deceit. The movie is a conglomeration of metaphors. Like pearls on a string, the examples from scene to scene were priceless literary jewels mounted on the cellulose reel. From the beginning we are exposed to the wizardry of cinematography and literature fused in imagery to culminate a plot with a gradually revealed presentiment. The opening credits appear to express the structured pyramidal scheme that was characteristic throughout the movie. All of the title letters were arranged in a condescending order and formed triangles, which resembled stacked building blocks of pyramids. If the intent was there, then they were very subtle. If you look carefully at the following scenes you will know why. The first thing we see is a triangle formed by the fingers of the main character, Ada McGrath as she covers her face. This is followed by the ornate architectural design seen on the bed headrest also containing triangles. Moments later, Ada and her daughter Flora arrived at the coast of New Zealand; the sailing crew formed human pyramids to carry them ashore. It seems to me that the analogous triangle represented the three people that were to form the wrong-angles to a crumbling love affair pyramid.

Another detail that kept reappearing throughout the film was the strings and ropes that were so prevalent until the end. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then it became more obvious, to me anyway, that the pattern of strings, ropes, and even Mangrove roots carried some significance. It began with the skate shoestrings that Flora was wearing and could not remove. Afterwards, we see the mother cutting the laces with scissors. A few scenes later, we see the natives placing a rope on top of the piano and the little girl swiping it off with her hand. More hints of something to come having to do with ropes are shown perhaps symbolizing the entanglement that the main character is going to encounter as the plot develops. She is shown being bound by the laces of the corset. At one point the roots of the mangroves appear to be an entanglement as well. In that scene, the characters appear to be caught in a web, except the roots of the mangroves create the web. During one of the climactic moments of the film, a close-up shot of a spool of sewing string falls and it begins to unwind. This shot was strongly emphasized by the director. It was at this point that I came to realize that there was something significant about the strings. Finally, towards the end of the movie, the rope attached to the piano entangles Ada taking her down into the abysmal waters off the coast of New Zealand.

The meaning behind strings is left to the viewer's speculation. I subscribe to a few possibilities that I deduced. Let us start with the piano. The piano is the complex string instrument that has to be stricken in such a way that the very application of force can designate the instrument to the category of percussion. In which case, the complexity of the character using the piano as her way of choice to express herself, acquiesce her physical punishments for the privilege of projecting her feelings through the instrument. The other possibility is the entanglement of the love triangle between the three adults. There is the bondage that the lady is subjected to through the unwarranted betrothal by her father. Her original husband, the father of the child, is complacent as he encourages the engagement to a strange man, no strings attached. The seductive and passionate neighbor in the forest has a type of relationship with the native women that seem to be another situation of 'no strings attached'. This dark character harbors the piano that eventually becomes the bond between him and his lover. The director deliberately filmed the spool of thread rolling off the table as a metaphor for the unraveling of everything that held the affairs together.

Finally, The main character departs with her lover and her lover wants her to bring the piano. She doesn't want the piano anymore because she realized that she doesn't need it anymore now that she has found love. The piano has to be sacrificed. When the crew untied the piano, a loop of rope wrapped the lady's leg and brought her down to the bottom of the Ocean. She left everything of her past and rose to the top for a rebirth. She was set free and chose to live with no strings attached.

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