Hellen
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
VividSimon
Simply Perfect
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
srgymrat33
I love movies. I love foreign film, dark film, artistic film, different film. This TRIED to have all of those elements but failed in every aspect. It was boring, you felt little or no empathy for any of the characters, Ada was a weak person. Her daughter was a total brat. Both men were filthy, she fell in love with a man that physically assaulted her? That makes no sense- maybe if she had actually taught him piano I could see how that could happen, There is not one redeeming lesson or moral, she does not choose anything for herself, and after all that she gets rid of the piano? I can go on and on. This is 2 hours long, and I HARDLY EVER check my phone during a movie, or get up without pausing it. I was looking for reasons to get up and check my phone. There are SO MANY GREAT FILMS- do not waste time on this one.
proud_luddite
In the mid-nineteenth century, in a community in a New Zealand forest, a mute pianist from Scotland (Holly Hunter) and her young daughter (Anna Paquin) live with a settler (Sam Neill) as per an arranged marriage. A nearby neighbour (Harvey Keitel) has his sights on the pianist.Director Jane Campion (also the screenwriter) has created a movie experience that is sensual from beginning to end. She gets to the heart of nature in every scene even making the viewer experience rare feelings. The opening scene of an arrival at a beach is beautiful and provocative; the sight of the giant waves is stunning but also a dangerous and uncontrollable part of nature that acts as a preview of what's to happen with the characters of the story. The sex scenes are also very unique in that they express a passion and warmth that is rare in films of its era as well as those that have followed; particularly in moments where a facial expression shows genuine pleasure from the sense of being touched.Campion gets great work from her actors. Keitel and Neill show a sensuous side that might only be encouraged by a director with a feminine perspective. Paquin gives one of the best child performances in cinema. And Hunter's performance is truly amazing. Her facial and body language say so much. In a shocking, climactic scene, her quiet breakdown rips the heart out. Her character is someone who might seem demanding and annoying at first but it is clear later on that Ada is one of those souls who seems more attuned to the spirit world than to the mundane details of the physical world.The story may have flaws (as others have pointed out) but it is how it is expressed that makes it stand out. Here, Campion is greatly aided by cinematorgrapher Stuart Dryburgh and the music by Michael Nyman. A treasure for the senses.OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Directing by Jane Campion
aquauver
We have to watch this movie with a earphone.The music sounding through the movie,a great musician made,is amazing.How to play music,and how she move fingers is also good.It looks like a beautiful bird fly.I can see it forever,along with music.The concept of this music is maybe to release from a burden or freedom from the wall confronting us unconsciously.
Christopher Culver
Jane Campion's third feature film, THE PIANO is a historical drama that tells of a Scottish woman, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), who is married off to a colonist in New Zealand that she has never met. Ada is mute, a development that mysteriously came upon her in childhood, but she is a virtuoso pianist and her cherished instrument is one way she communicates her feelings to the world. As Ada and her illegitimate daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) land on the shores of New Zealand's South Island sometime in the mid-19th century, her new husband Stewart (Sam Neill) ignores her sign-language entreaties to carry her piano inland along with their other belongings. Feeling no love for this man she has been forced to marry, Ada is drawn into sexual bargaining with another colonist, Baines (Harvey Keitel) who offers to get her the piano back if she does what he wants.The first half of this film is an interesting study in sexual power and the tragedy of a woman's lot during this historical era. Neither Stewart or Baines are admirable men; Stewart is uncaring of Ada's true passion for the piano, but Baines exploits her distress and powerlessness to get what he wants and he doesn't respect consent. Unfortunately, as the film develops, Campion decides to ultimately turn this into a straight-up romance novel, where the heroine willingly gives in to the roguish bad-boy. I realize that Campion might go for the common desire of a woman to feel desired, but that shouldn't come at the expense of glorifying a creep as she does here.To better serve as a foil for Baines, Stewart's squareness is played up, and the two characters are reduced to crude cutouts of a "good guy" and "bad guy". This extends to a critique of 19th-century colonialism and racism: naturally, as the man who audiences are supposed to feel is disgusting and unattractive, Stewart is keen on stealing land from the indigenous Maori people. Baines, on the other hand, as the cool heartthrob, hangs out with the Maori and respects their culture even to the point of learning their language and tattooing his face.Well, even if the actual plot is a ridiculous pulp fantasy, the production values are fine. New Zealand's wild shore and rainforests are memorably captured by cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh. The film has a distinctive blue cast that unites the thick cover of the forest and the depths of the sea. While some controversy remains about the depiction of the Maori people here, they are still given a great deal of screen time and the ability to speak their own language on film. The piano-heavy soundtrack by English composer Michael Nyman is deservedly celebrated: deliberately anachronistic, its saccharine, minimalist feel of the 20th century represents Ada's innermost thoughts.There is good acting as well. Anna Paquin, of course, won an Oscar for her depiction of Flora, and one wouldn't expect such mature composure and convincing emotions from a child of this age. Holly Hunter has to convey everything through gestures and facial expressions and she does this marvelously. One of the delights of Campion's feature debut SWEETIE was Genevieve Lemon, and here in a supporting role she turns in here a mildly comedic performance that adds some levity to the severe sexual drama.Seeing it again some two decades after it came out, THE PIANO feels like a rather slighter film than I remembered it, and it is difficult to understand what drew critics to the time to rave about it. I would really only recommend this to people with a specific interest in New Zealand or Michael Nyman's soundtrack, but I don't see this as an all-time classic.
