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The Piano (1993)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 40
Rotten:5
Average Rating: 8/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This controversially erotic film from New Zealand established screenwriter-director Jane Campion as a universally recognized talent. Holly Hunter stars as Ada, a mute 19th-century woman sent to New... This controversially erotic film from New Zealand established screenwriter-director Jane Campion as a universally recognized talent. Holly Hunter stars as Ada, a mute 19th-century woman sent to New Zealand in an arranged marriage with a patriarchal landowner (Sam Neill). She brings along her daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin), and tries to also bring her beloved piano, much to the consternation of her new husband, who abandons the piano on a beach. Artistically and emotionally frustrated, Ada finds herself experiencing an erotic awakening when Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate settler covered with Maori tattoos, rescues her piano, buys it from her husband, then strikes a strange bargain with Ada that gradually leads to her sexual awakening--and to an explosive confrontation. Jaw-droppingly beautfiul with its purple and green palette of untamed New Zealand scenery, THE PIANO is both a ravishing love story and a psychosexual fairy tale on a par with WUTHERING HEIGHTS and JANE EYRE. Featuring a haunting piano score by Michael Nyman and brilliant performances, THE PIANO is a masterpiece, considered one of the best films of the 1990s. [More]
Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin
Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin
Director: Jane Campion
Director: Jane Campion
Composer: Michael Nyman
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Reviews for The Piano
It's often incorrectly reduced to a feminist fable, but the scope of Jane Campion's achievement is broader. If anything The Piano is a masterwork of humanism.
What linger in memory are the fable's surreal imagery and attention to detail, capturing a place and time--New Zealand outpost in 19th century--in which one mute person (the brilliant Holly Hunter) finds the true meaning of womanhood against all odds.
Sweetie and An Angel at My Table have taught us to expect startling as well as beautiful things from Jane Campion, and this assured and provocative third feature (1993) offers yet another lush parable.
Campion never underestimates the power physical obsession exerts over human souls, and, for once, a modern film treats erotic passion honestly.
Campion's pet themes and ideas never came together with more physical clarity and emotional resonance than they did with her 1993 masterpiece.
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