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The Piano is a 1993 film about a mute pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier New Zealand backwater. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin. It features a score for the piano by Michael Nyman that became a bestselling soundtrack album. Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film, and also served as teacher for Paquin, earning herself three different screen credits. The film was an international co-production between companies from New Zealand, Australia and France.
SynopsisSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Piano tells the story of Scotswoman Ada McGrath (Hunter), who is sold into marriage by her father to frontiersman Alistair Stewart (Neill). She is shipped off with her young daughter Flora (Paquin) to live with Stewart as his wife in his native New Zealand. She has not spoken a word since she was six years old, expressing herself instead through sign language (for which her daughter serves as the interpreter) and through her piano playing.
When her husband discovers the affair, he initially tries to lock her into their house; then tries to trust her. Ada sends her daughter to deliver a package to Baines, containing a piano key with an inscribed love declaration. Her daughter Flora disapproves of the affair, instead informing Alistair who punishes Ada wife by chopping off one of her fingers and threatening further mutilation if she continues the affair with Baines. Finally, Ada and Alistair divorce, and Ada moves away together with Baines. She attempts to drown herself during the boat journey to their new home by ordering the piano to be thrown overboard and placing her foot in the loops of rope so that she is pulled into the sea with it. However, as she sinks through the water, she chooses to live instead, untangles herself, and swims to the surface, leaving the piano on the ocean floor. In an epilogue she describes how she is living with Baines, and has chosen to speak. She adds that she is still regarded as the town freak - "which satisfies".
Spoilers end here.
Awards
Critical reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. Roger Ebert called it "one of the most enchanting love stories ever made." In an Entertainment Weekly sample of critics at the time of release, The Piano scored a unanimous 'A' rating; a feat that only a handful of other films have been able to manage. One of the few dissenters was feminist critic bell hooks who condemned it as racist in her book Outlaw Culture. InterpretationsSome regard The Piano as a feminist film about a woman trying to maintain control over her own life in an age when women were considered the property of their husbands.[citation needed] Others see this interpretation to be compromised by the heroine's capitulation to, and apparent enjoyment of, Baines's sexual blackmail.[citation needed] SoundtrackThe 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'. The sheet music has sold many hundred thousands of copies. References
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