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Plot:
A mute woman along with her young daughter, and her prized piano, are sent to 1850s New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner, and she's soon lusted after by a local worker on the pl...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:August 22, 2008Good movie, but I prefer the scene before the last one, but it still good. Unforgettable Anna Paquin and Sam Neil NAKED! lol
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MCT:August 21, 2008Remarkable,breathtaking and a perfect chill towards female nobility.Yes,a shaking stir will come from her mouth and Hunter is a poem herself.Campion delivers her magnum opus and I keep my silence until I hear encores once more.
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MCT:August 15, 2008
Beautiful movie. Warning, though: Harvey Keitel goes full frontal (and rear!). Definitely wasn't expecting that. lol
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MCT:August 4, 2008
Wonder what it would be to communicate through the music of a piano. You are silent not because you cannot speak, but because you firmly believe those who talk have nothing interesting to say. What if the piano became your soul? And what if it was taken from you?
The first forty-five minutes of 'The Piano' is perfect, outstanding cinema. Through patience, music and genuinely riveting story-telling director Jane Campion lures the audience into a sensuous tale of passion and intrigue. It may seem difficult to imagine the above by simply reading it, but watching 'The Piano' is like experiencing the pain of Holly Hunter's Ada, who lives her life in such an unorthodox way.
Ada and her young daughter, Flora, move from Scotland to a barely colonised New Zealand as part of an arranged marriage, and when her new husband refuses to transport her beloved piano to their new home, Ada is distraught. But her despair turns to anger when he sells it to a local farmer. "It is mine!" she writes.
In her desperation to be reunited with the piano, Ada begins tutoring the uneducated farmer, an arrangement which forms the foundations of an unexpected love affair. Holly Hunter proves you need not speak a single word to deservedly bag an Oscar; she is stubborn, resolute, and suffering without her piano. United with it she is calm, tranquil and whole.
'The Piano's intoxicating atmosphere is its most impressive asset. The direction is suffused in melancholy and pathos, and the cinematography and mise-en-scene is gloomy, but not dull; by witnessing the landscape almost through a grey lense the music transcends the usual effectiveness, all so we empathise with Ada's unworldy predicament.
As her daughter a young Anna Paquin is extremely talented; Flora is a girl who loves her mother, but also loves to cause mischief - and with some dire consequences. Sam Neill is adequate as Ada's husband, as is Harvey Keitel as her lover; the script doesn't offer them as fully realized characters as Hunter, but they certainly impress with the material they have.
Despite the director's attempts at a Victorian style love affair, she indulges in romantic melodrama far too often, which adds an unnecessary and tiresome arc to the film's middle section. Thankfully the ending is poetic and mutually uplifting, ideas of life and death cleverly intertwined, although not so effectively foreshadowed.
Although often claimed to be, I don't think 'The Piano' is a masterpiece. But it is both a devastating and life-affirming picture, and Hunter's performance is its soul as the piano's is Ada's. It works as a sophisticated piece of art, and a forceful tale of passion, lust and life, in an original method so far from mainstream offerings. -
My husband hates this movie, lol! Probably because of the unfaithful wife undertones, but she was meant to be with Harvey Keitel, not the man she was forced to marry.
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MCT:July 29, 2008
an absolutely outstanding picture and acting by holly hunter that without saying a word, she won the oscar, and the debut by anna paquin was awesome, her acting was worth the oscar. if the shindler's list wouldn't of won the oscar this movie would of. A MASTERPIECE from beginning to end
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MCT:July 25, 2008Watch free full The Piano 1993 film online now..!! http://openguys.org/films/2008/07/16/the-piano-watch-free/
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MCT:July 8, 2008
?Jane Campion's lunatic women? (11)
Many critics have seen Campion's persistent concerns with gender politics and the disempowerment of women within the domestic sphere as evidence of a feminist sensibility. Certainly, while Campion may not regard herself as a feminist director, (12) her films have been enthusiastically taken up by feminist film critics for their depiction of strong female characters rebelling against the roles expected of them by patriarchal society. Campion's heroines are characterised by their refusal to conform to these roles, which often results in a stubbornness that leads them into direct conflict with husbands, fathers, brothers and other women complicit with the patriarchal order. The disturbing nature of Campion's films comes from the physical and emotional violence that is inflicted upon these women ? as with Ada (Holly Hunter) in The Piano and Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) in The Portrait of a Lady, both women assaulted by their husbands. Feminist theorists and historians have examined the ways in which female protest and refusal to conform to the patriarchal order have been labelled as 'madness'. (13) Several of Campion's heroines are labelled as 'mad' or 'crazy' by virtue of their refusal to conform to what their society considers to be the feminine ideal.
An Angel at my Table
For example, Janet Frame (Kerry Fox), in An Angel at my Table, is misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, as a result of her extreme shyness and her inability to socialise. In The Piano, Ada has refused to speak since she was six years old; Campion never tells us why. (14) Her husband Stewart (Sam Neill) wonders if she's not also ?soft in the head?. In Holy Smoke, Ruth (Kate Winslet) rebels against her suburban upbringing and begins a new life as a disciple of an Indian guru. Her family assumes she has been brainwashed and they hire an exit counsellor, PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel) ? a cross between a psychologist and an exorcist ? to bring her back to her senses. While Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady is the only one of Campion's heroines to escape being labelled as mad, her stubborn determination to lead a life of her own making (she rejects Lord Warburton's [Richard E. Grant] financially attractive marriage proposal), positions her as yet another nonconformis -
MCT:July 4, 2008
Anna Paquin's performance allows me to think that she may be a very prominent actress when she reaches her full potential. Keitel is endering
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MCT:June 5, 2008
This was a fascinating movie. Dark romance. Very Moving. I enjoyed the cinematography and New Zealand is so Beautiful. Loved it !!
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MCT:May 16, 2008
This film is in my top ten!!! Keital/Hunter/Paquin/Neill are sensational...saw this film when I was thirteen and I was enraptured I remember the romance, the forbidden love, and the anger and jealousy that rots a human heart that leads to violence...the fact that I was 13 and I remember and loved it then and still love it now says alot considering I can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday...I am thankful for films like this
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MCT:May 7, 2008
Half way through I got the feeling that this will never end well. It's a good movie with some funny moments but most of them are sad. Hunter does a good job especially in the end
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MCT:May 7, 2008
For so long I've found it difficult to watch a film purely for entertainment - I always end up analysing the fine details - the cinematography, the sound etc. The Piano, however, totally drew me in. I was completely absorbed by it - unexpected for a gothic romance period piece, really. Some of the final scenes were so tragic, and if I had the RAM to fempute tears, I definately think I would have cried. Horray for Holly Huter for winning her Oscar for this. She deserved it.
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MCT:April 8, 2008
I inadvertently asked someone out on a date when I went to see this film. I only realized later that I did.
One of my favourite love stories, the whole cast is amazing and the story is actually touching. Plus, great direction from Campion. -
MCT:March 26, 2008
Some people refer to this as a "chick flick", but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
This film covers a gamut of emotions and subject matters, that any thinking, compassionate person should be able to relate to.
To me this is quite possibly one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.
The story is heartbreaking, yet full of passion and hope.
The acting is superb on all counts. Though (11 year old?) Anna Paquin is truly amazing.
The music is sublime.
Cinematography is exquisite.
My only complaint is that the ending (last five minutes) didn't work for me. It was a little to 'happily ever after'.
I feel like it would have been more true to the character of Ada if her passion for her piano (the one thing that was a constant for her) was ultimately more important then they make it in the end. I feel like she would have rather died with her piano then live without it. -
MCT:March 9, 2008
A lovestory revolving around three people and a piano.
The mute Ada is married away with a wealthy man she's never met in New Zealand and so she travels to him with her daughter and her beloved piano, her only way of communicating through sound. But her husband doesn't appreciate the piano like she does and gives it away to George, a man with a will to learn how to play the instrument. The piano lessons soon evolves into a completely different kind of music.
A very good story and even thoug Ada doesn't actually say a single word through the whole movie you know exactly what she feels. Not only by her face but also through the music. So: good music, good acting, good story, some very moving moments. Overall good. -
MCT:February 28, 2008
good as this film is its very disturbing. Jane Champion really hit it out of the park. Sam Niel was chilling, and a young Anna Paquin was charming.
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MCT:February 26, 2008
This movie could have been called "A portrait of a lady" or rather "a portrait of a woman". To me this movie was a perfect illustration to compare women and men, especially in the modern world. The feminine strength which probably can't be matched with the male counterpart was very powerful and sensual. Also, as always, I truly enjoyed Michel Nyman's beautiful yet somewhat haunting compositions.
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MCT:February 26, 2008
one of the best movies of all time Holly Hunter was so awesome in this as was Anna Paquin ...GREAT ACTING!!
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MCT:February 18, 2008
The "Citizen Kane" of feminist cinema. Jane Campion is the greatest living female director. There are not enough words to describe the transcendental qualities and assured brilliance of "The Piano" - the best film of 1993.
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MCT:February 3, 2008
Mi película favorita.. lo tiene todo. Personalidad,musica y una historia inolvidable. Bastante infravalorada,obra maestra de Jane Campion y la mejor del 1993 con la merecida palma de oro en Cannes. No se la pierdan bajo ningun concepto.
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MCT:January 23, 2008The acting was good but it's hard to recommend this movie because it's depressing and Harvey Keitel shows his junk. I don't think Anna Paquin deserved the Oscar for this movie. She's waaay overrated.
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AgentLexi2132posted 158 days ago
