Word: pianos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...piano stands alone on an empty swath of New Zealand beach while behind it a towering wall of sea waves threaten to obliterate it. That singularly haunting image is at the core of Jane Campion's new film "The Piano." The hoary proverb which states that a picture is worth a thousand words could not be more appropriate. The value of silence, of nonverbal communication, is essential to the theme of Campion's film, which depicts a world in which images and music count as much as words...
...Piano" begins, Ada McGrath (Oscar winner Holly Hunter) has become the mail-order bride of Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill), a farmer in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand whom she has never met. Together with her nine-year-old daughter Flora (Academy Award winner Anna Paquin) and her piano, Ada makes the long voyage by sea from Scotland to New Zealand. When Stuart arrives to meet her, he refuses to transport her piano to their house, leaving it on the beach...
...been mute since the age of six and for whom the piano is her only voice, is devastated by its loss. She turns to George Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate neighbor of theirs who has "gone native." Baines eventually makes a deal with Stewart, trading the piano for a piece of land. As part of the deal, Ada is forced to give Baines lessons. He's not interested in learning to play, and so he offers to give Ada back her piano if she allows him to do certain things while she plays, one key for every lesson...
...pleasures of this movie are too many to recount. The film works on so many levels at the same time that at moments you don't know what has hit you. Photographed by Stuart Dryburgh, "The Piano" is visually stunning, but its beauty is not of the empty picture-postcard kind. The visual texture of the movie is integral to Campion's vision. Michael Nyman has issued a haunting score that captures the essence of each character...
...these things would be useless if the film did not contain performances to match. Campion's direction is perhaps her greatest achievement in "The Piano." A nearly unrecognizable Holly Hunter is simply amazing as Ada. Despite the fact that she does not utter a word during the movie, Hunter manages to provide a full-bodied portrait of Ada, so that the audience knows what she is thinking and feeling without her having to articulate it. Ada marks Hunter's best work on screen thus far. Keeping up with Hunter is Anna Paquin as Ada's daughter Flora. Paquin brings...