The Piano (DVD, 1998)

I had always wanted to see this movie, but when Anna Pacquin has been in the limelight, it jogged my memory so I decided it is finally time to purchase this movie...It was quite intense. The movie was great, and it makes perfect sense how it ended up. Her arranged "husband" (I guess she was a mail order bride") let her know from the start that how she felt was not important. That was his biggest mistake. That alienated her from the very start. The other man took the time with her and very slowly built up a rapport with her. Very nicely done. Always respectful to her. Very good movie.

Period film about early life in Australia. Excellent acting, tastefully done. Performances by all were exceptionally well done.

Replacing my VHS copy with a dvd. Not a movie for children..but a deep movie that seems to draw women in. I enjoy watching this movie a lot.

I saw this movie long ago and, at the time, was incredibly moved by the story. I recently heard the movie's piano score on the radio and it played within me for days and affected so much that I had to track it down and find out who composed it. When I discovered it was the movie score (by Michael Nyman) and remembered the movie, the purchase was inevitable.

An old movie w/Holly Hunter whose character, while deaf, was an excellent pianoist. She was shipped off to New Zealand w/her daughter to marry a man she had never met. Very deep movie, a must see.

Great Movie.I had been looking for this movie for awhile as it has been well reviewed for its bits of erotic play. I found it to be a great story as well.

WONDERFUL MYSTERIOIUS LOVE STORY OF A MUTE PIANO PLAYER WITH A YOUNG DAUGHTER WHO BECOMES A "MAIL BRIDE" TO A MAN SHES NEVER MET IN A STRANGE COUNTRY . SHE FEELS NO AFFECTION FOR HER NEW HUSBAND AND AS HE PATIENTLY WAITS FOR HER TO RETURN "HIS" AFFECTIONS SHE FALLS IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER MAN ON THE ISLAND WITH HORRENDOUS RESULTS!!

I decided to buy it since my husband owuld never go to the show with me to see it. So I am happy now to have it to view again and again.

Set in the mid 1800s, this movie is about Ada, who decided to stop speaking as a child, and is married off by her father to a man living in the New Zealand forest. She travels there with her daughter and her most beloved possession -- her piano. Her new spouse doesn't understand her need for the piano and heartlessly leaves it on the beach, unwilling to pay porters to carry it to their home, some distance away. The piano is Ada's way of communicating so, without it, she is truly mute.

Supervising the porters who carry the rest of her things to her new home is George, a Scottsman who lives in the forest. Ada seeks him out to take her back to the beach to check on the piano. While she plays out her frustration on the piano, still on the beach but undamaged, her daughter romps and skips and builds shell figures with George. George becomes entranced by the music Ada creates.

George "buys" the piano from Alister, Ada's husband, by trading a parcel of land for it. He also bargains for Ada to give him piano lessons. She is incensed that Alister would trade her piano away but she goes to George's bungalow to play and, ostensibly, to teach George how to play. George is not willing to learn to play but becomes infatuated with Ada and her music. The "lessons" escalate into an affair.

Meanwhile, Alister is becoming more and more disillusioned with his new wife and her obsession with this piano. George sends the piano to Ada's home as a gift. But, by this time, she has fallen in love with him and goes to his house. Alister follows her to George's cottage and discovers their secret. When Ada returns home, he locks her in the house.

Ada removes one of the keys from the piano and trys to send it to George, by way of her daughter, with a message that she loves him. But, the daughter takes it to Alister instead. Alister is enraged by Ada's outright defiance of him. His actions (I won't give away the climax) change her life forever.

Great movie, great acting: Ada -- Holly Hunter, George Banks -- Harvey Keitel, Alister -- Sam Neill, the daughter -- Anna Paxon?

If you have ever seen Holly Hunter in movies before, this is nothing like any previous performance. No Southern accent, no weird voice. She is a 19th Century speechless woman, Ada Mc Grath, who is sent to New Zealand with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her beloved piano to marry a landowner named Stewart (Sam Neill).

The problems begin when Stewart does not arrive on time to pick up Ada at the beach. Then he abandons the piano on the beach because it is too heavy to carry to the house some miles away. He doesn't understand Ada at all in spite of her note making on a tablet that she wears around her neck and the constant pleadings of Flora.

Ada pines away for the piano until Stewart leaves on a business trip. She finally implores their neighbor George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to somehow procure the piano, which he does. Furthermore, Baines arranges a swap for some land with Stewart for the piano. So Baines now has the piano in his house.

Baines has monkey business on his mind and arranges for piano lessons from Ada, which is really his way of seducing her. She fights him off at first, but later succumbs because she responds to the tenderness of his touch; after all, her husband is cold and no love-making is going on at home.

Soon Ada has earned the piano, and it is returned to her house. But now it is she that desires Baines. She visits daily while her husband is away and their love-making is blatant on the screen.

The movie takes a cruel turn when Flora tells Stewart where her mother is when he asks one day. Stewart even spies their love-making through a hole in the outside wall of the house. From there you are on your own.

Holly Hunter won every award available in 1993: Best Actress at Cannes, Best Actress by the Golden Globes, the Academy Award, and the Screen Actors Guild. Anna Paquin won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. The movie was nominated for Best Picture and won the Palm D'Or at Cannes. Jane Campion was nominated for Best Director and won the Best Screenplay Oscar.

The movie is dominated by water. It rains constantly, the ocean is ever-present. The movie is darkly photographed in a pallet of purple and green.
The piano solos throughout the movie were performed by Holly Hunter, which also contributes to her perfection in this picture. And the other piano music backgrounds are also very pleasant.

My only objection is that the New Zealand voices are hard to understand without subtitles, which have been omitted on the DVD. That is the main reason for my Good Rating.

This movie is also not for children. There is full frontal nudity of Hunter and Keitel. There is also an extremely frightening scene near the end of the movie. There is an equally frightening scene right at the end of the movie. So be prepared!