What's the movie about?
Ada (Holly Hunter) is married by her father and arrives on the shores of New Zealand with her young daughter. They only have a few things on them, but the most valuable is the big piano. Her husband (Sam Neal), a frowny and extremely practical landowner, does not understand a belmes in music and therefore throws a piano on the shore. Baines (Harvey Keitel), her husband's assistant, takes the piano to him and asks Ada to teach him how to play. Soon a passionate romance ensues between them.
Why watch?
Sharing the Palme d’Or with Cheng Kaige’s Farewell, My Concubine, Jane Campion’s fourth directorial project came to the court of the mass audience with a large fat stigma of “chick movie” and “arthouse”, with a strange historical setting (New Zealand at the very beginning of European colonization), bold casting (Hunter as a silent bride by mail, Keitel with tattoos on his face) and a bizarre plot design (a woman loves a piano, a woman loses certain piano services through the provision of a piano). The mass viewer of the 90s did not get too impressed. So is the American Film Academy. This is not a sentimental war epic about the afflictions of the Jews, shot in cb (I note that Schindler’s List is a great film, but, to my taste, too calculating). But "Pianino" is a bold and daring film. This is an unusual, exciting and transcendental parable of betrayal and passion with the stunning play of Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin (at least both ladies received a deserved statuette).
Warning: This review contains minor spoilers for the plot.
I watched this movie twice in an attempt to change my first impression. The second time left even more depressing feeling and desire to quickly take a shower.
This film I wanted to see after “Power of the Dog”, the latter made a strong impression with the theme of loneliness, plus a lot of praise from both friends and well-known critics about this work of Jane Campion.
It is worth saying immediately, unlike the Power of the Dog, the script for the Piano Campion wrote herself. The film was shot in the late 90s, when the theme of the suffering female share in the rough male world was on everyone’s lips: Chocolate, Scarlet Letter, Pieces, Bitter Moon (genres are different, the message is generally one).
So here we are given a heroine, a young widow with a child. Her father decides to marry her to a rich man whom the heroine has never seen, sending her from Glasgow straight to the Aborigines in New Zealand. The color palette of New Zealand here is no different from the foggy albion, which in general immediately suggests that “as suffered there, so we will suffer here.” Heroine has a peculiarity – she has not spoken since the age of 6, but plays the piano. The piano goes with her to the other end of the world and turns out to be a piano (translation error, but beautiful). In fact, this piano is more important to the heroine than her own child, which she is not particularly interested in. That’s probably one of the things that made the movie upset me. I was expecting to see a drama about a strong temperamental woman, and got an infantile immature as a character personality in the body of an adult Heroine, she does not care about everyone but herself (albeit herself too) and as a character she grows only towards the end (and that for me personally is controversial such a character growth).
Cons.
There is a lot of romanticized abuse in the film, and not only in relation to her (because all women in the male world must suffer, otherwise nothing), but the heroine herself is quite capable of abusive, albeit on a more subtle level, without violence as such, as well as her husband and lover. In general, no character is sympathetic here, except for the character of Anna Paquin, who grows up in an unhealthy environment and whose mother cares so much that she allows the girl to walk on her own while playing the piano in the cabin, or simply leave one in the white light, drowning.
Color palette: The colors in the film have an oppressive atmosphere, they are muted and dark, like the characters themselves. This is a film without explicit accents, as in Perfume, apparently to highlight the relationship between the characters.
Self-admiration for suffering. First, the heroine is married to a man who is “not thin enough in soul” to understand how important the piano is to her, and oh my God, he also wants her attention as a wife, think about it! Then there is a blackmailer who invites Heroine to undress for playing the piano, and then go to bed with him naked. All the locals are uneducated, do not understand the value of instruments and music. We see the film through the lens of Heroine, so we are shown that she has no choice but to submit to this situation. She doesn't have a voice literally, so she will silently proudly (?) suffer. Or does she like that suffering?
It is worth considering what the message carries this film. Unquestionably symbolic footage of the drowning attempt at the end shows her choosing a new life. From the symbolism side, everything is fine, but how does that fit into the character's motivation? What is the reason for such an act, except to obtain a beautiful sensual picture? And there are even more such questions when revisiting.
Sex scenes raise questions - why? Of course, you do not need to show an erotically licked picture, but you expect something more from the film at the level of whipping up emotions, heating up passions, maybe there is intentional primitivism here?
Love? Unless it's a perverted self-love. Do not believe in the feelings between the Heroine and the Blackmailer, do not believe in the love of her husband (which is understandable), do not believe in the love of the child (there is no one here).
Pros. Music saved the movie for me. All piano losses are improvisations by composer Michael Nyman, and they relate more to modern music than to the era of the heroes’ lives.
There are unconditional beautiful shots - a hand on a bare back in diffuse light; waves enveloping the legs of the piano; playing keyboards under a closed lid on the beach. All these visual findings will be refined and revealed much deeper in The Power of the Dog.
My bottom line: this film is not about a strong woman, as in the Scarlet Letter or Chocolate, but about an infantile woman, a bad mother, and the romanticization of unhealthy relationships. Whether there is a happy ending is a big question.
"Piano" - a subtle erotic drama with rich soil for psychoanalytic research.
A woman who masterfully owns the piano, marries by correspondence and goes to the ends of the world to her new husband. She hasn't spoken since she was 6, and the only way she can communicate intimately is through music. Alas, her newly-made betrothed is not able to feel the depth of feelings bubbling deep inside this incomprehensible woman, but it was managed by a neighbor-landowner who takes possession of a musical instrument and concludes with the main character an unusual deal.
The events of the film take place in the XIX century, characterized by its stiffness, blinkeredness and fictitious piety, as a reaction to the liberties of the gallant age. In terms of morality, the bourgeois age is most characteristic of its hypocrisy, when the craving for sexual delights and adventures remained, but the possibility of its realization was almost completely eliminated. Man had to keep everything within himself, squeezing deep within himself the spring of passion, which must inevitably decompress in order to pour out the accumulated suppressed sexual energy. The mechanism of this deterrence is very cleverly and accurately represented in the personality of the main character - Ada. Loss of speech exactly in the genital period (according to Freud), when the Electra complex begins to manifest, suggests the idea of the inability to express one’s passion, probably due to a reaction to the external severity of prevailing morals. Only the playing of the piano (which is, by the way, in the symbolism of the unconscious, masturbation; and this act has always been intended to play the role of the exit valve in the mechanism of sexual suppression) is able to open this hidden valve in order to pour out all ineffables.
Her future lover Bates was the only one who realized this. An aging hermit, himself in forced celibacy, practically merged with the local aborigines, finds in himself natural keys to all those castles that social society so diligently hangs on the individual. It is significant that the formed love triangle “Husband-Wiver-Lover” is inscribed in the entourage of free morals of the local population, expressed both in the manner of dressing, and in the peculiarities of speech and behavior. This person who senses the energy rhythms of nature is able to capture the sexual energy that comes from Ada, who uses the piano as a means of communication.
Of course, the stiff age dictates its laws, and the young woman is at first very reluctant to respond to the erotic stimulation of the awakened male, but this awakening cannot remain unanswered for long. The process is started, and now the passion becomes mutual. But the higher the degree of social suppression of sexuality, the more pronounced the exit into sexopathology becomes. The obsessed Bates finds solace in acts of fetishism, and the deceived husband secretly revels in voyeurism (a cult theme in world cinema!).
Damage is obvious in everyone, but how aestheticized and refined are these timid gestures of Bates, who dares not take everything at once, afraid even to touch the object of his desire! Thanks to this sublime delicacy, every gesture, every word and action acquires a super-valuable character, which would turn into nothing if it were a common pornographic work. The sensuality and eroticism of this film are subtle and invaluable in their plot and artistic significance, which is a sign of very high-quality directing.
It should be noted that Sam Neil is very suited to the role of prosperous bourgeois, becoming at some point obsessed with evil power or painful desires (immediately recalls the film "Obsessed" Andrzej Zulawski, also, incidentally, not deprived of a share of pathological eroticism). His act of cutting off the finger of his wife not only interrupts the only possible way of her communication with her lover and with the world in general, but also carries out a symbolic act of castration. This evil fate overtakes Ada from the depths of her own unconscious, because it is at the age of 6 years that a coveted attempt to identify with her father occurs, but for lack of the necessary organ, the girl blames her mother for the imaginary castration, while losing the opportunity to express her sexuality, and frankly, voluntarily and to spite others deprives herself of this opportunity (it is not accidental that at this age Ada loses the ability to speak). This unauthorized Electra complex is firing just in this act of self-harm by the spouse. It is significant that later Bates will provide her with a phallic symbol - a mechanical prosthetic finger. Thus, Ada will finally symbolically acquire the “lost” male organ and – oh miracle! – begin to learn to speak.
Unfortunately, the film gave the impression of a kind of roller coaster: barely beginning to admire the director's decision in one scene, in the next inevitably follows a completely reverse reaction. To the highest degree, this is expressed in the finale of the film, clearly not claiming the ability of the director to put an end in time. There is a feeling that the author is trying to fight the predictability of his work ... but it can hardly be said that she succeeded in this.
P.S. If this film was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man would hack the piano with an axe!
If Hitchcock had made the film, his husband would have kept watching.
If Gaspar Noe was filming, the object of the “deal” would not be the main character, but her daughter.
And if Pierre Paolo Pasolini was filming, then Harvey Keitel would do it not only with the main character, but also with her daughter, maid and Sam Neil.
But instead, the film was directed by Jane Campion, so we won’t see anything like it here.
Mid-nineteenth century. Silent Ada, along with her young daughter and beloved piano, leaves her native Scotland and moves to the other end of the world, to New Zealand, where her future husband Stewart is waiting for her.
At the beginning of the film, Ada (who hasn't spoken since she was 6) speaks through her thoughts, in her inner voice: ' I don't consider myself mute because of the piano...' Unbeknownst to her, she was found a new husband and sent to the most remote continent. Arriving with local Maori assistants on the shore, turns into an abandoned piano on the ocean shore. When a freshly baked husband refuses to drag a bulky instrument into the house, the piano passes into the hands of nearby George Baines. He offers Ada access to her musical instrument in exchange for music lessons and some additional services.
The Piano is a 1993 melodramatic film directed and written by Jane Campion. Winner of the “Golden Palm” for best film and the prize for best actress (Holly Hunter) of the Cannes Film Festival; three Oscars for best actress (Holly Hunter), best supporting actress (Anna Paquin), best original screenplay.
On the one hand, we have the most famous author's film of the most titled female director from New Zealand, but on the other - a story ' stormy passion' ' forbidden love' (in the spirit of Jane Austen or Emily Bronte) that feels and you understand it. ' Deal' became ' self-deception' for all of this ' Triangle' Acting work is a separate topic here: Anna Paquin (who took ' Oscar' at 11 years old) beats Holly Hunter or vice versa - the viewer decides, although ' male duet' Sam Neill and Harvey Keitel are also beautiful, although naturally inferior to the beautiful and strong performance of actresses. Separately, it is worth noting the music of Michael Nyman and the work of production artists: the life of English immigrants who try to preserve the old traditions & #39; (local theater) - and which the Maori do not quite accept. The finale leads to understandable consequences, and even no piano thrown overboard - in the end, can not stop the power of love & #39; for which, too, it seems, no words are needed - as for music.
“There was silence where there was not a single sound. There is silence where there can be no sound. There is silence where there can be no sound, in a cold grave, at the bottom of a deep, deep sea.
A film related to the psychological. Ada McGrath, a young girl, has been mute since she was 6. In the middle of the 19th century, grown-up Ada with her daughter Flora goes to New Zealand from Scotland, to her future husband Stuart. And sitting on the beach with her daughter, she is waiting for her chosen one. Time helps pass the old piano, brought from distant lands, with which the main character could not part, with which Ada expresses her feelings. Life for a girl in a new house is unbearable. Baines' neighbor offers Stuart a deal, he lands him, and Baines takes the piano, with the condition of training. Ada is very angry with her husband's attitude to her thing. But Ada’s connection to the piano is so strong that she has nowhere to go.
Not always an educated, rich, status person can understand another. While a person without education, not even able to read, can have a broad soul. The piano is a means of communication for Ada. She gave everything to him. I especially liked the piano moment at the end of the film.
A film about love with a capital letter! On female sensuality and the disclosure of the inner female potential. I recommend it to fans of psychological movies.
Awesome acting. Holly Hunter (Ada), Harvey Keitel (Banes), Sam Neal (Stuart), Anna Paquin (Flora). Both girls were awarded the 1994 Academy Award. Also, a statuette was received for the best script.
I knew I was going to see it, I knew it was on Xavier Dolan’s favorite movie list. I tried to watch it 4 years ago, but, apparently, I have not yet grown to its genius. Now, I finally saw him. I felt it. I put it under my skin.
And I have to admit, it took my breath away. I almost drowned in this storm of passion. It’s so great that by the end of the movie I had no words. There were tears in my eyes and a smile. A smile that does not come off your face even after 2 hours of viewing.
Blue in all shades, from dark blue, almost black, to transparent blue, envelops the entire narrative. Perhaps with the help of this color, the director, Jane Campion wanted us to convey the muteness of the main character, Ada.
But she's not as dumb as she might seem at the first shot. She has an assistant. Friend. And I'm not talking about her baby. It's about this tool. The piano. With his help, he communicates with this world. Ada conveys all her feelings that crawl under your skin, whether you like it or not. And you may not be comfortable with this gift, but she could not do otherwise. If she is happy, her fingers knock in one way, if she is sad in another, and finally, if she is overcome by such a storm, such a heat of passion, the piano will sound completely different, as if floating along the waves that carry him into the quagmire, which is inevitable.
But to understand it, to talk to it, to listen to it, you have to be able to hear. And the husband of the main character, no matter how tried, he does not succeed. He was only wishful thinking and did not give Ada the freedom to act as she wished. Only Baines was able to understand it, first with the piano, but then, when he learned to understand it all, by the slightest movement, he no longer needed an intermediary. And Ada herself began to realize that the piano did not always play a positive role for her. Sometimes it drowned out its sound, and did not let others see it.
And she's free. It's so inspiring. A beautiful way of liberation from the shackles of mute chose Hell.
There was hope for me, hope for the best. Despite the cold blue, it warmed me to the end of the film. I got so much emotion, I had never seen so much passion on the screen with almost no words, such attraction, that even my hands sweated as I watched. I was pitching forward to the screen, I was drawn to eroticism and passion, without any shadow of vulgarity, I must say. Subtle, exquisite and authentic.
Epigraph: "Be with Deal caresses, and she is yours forever"
Strange movie. It seems that he periodically tries to show us that he is not what he seems, in order to bring us back to the beginning at the very end and prompt us to ask questions that the film will not give answers to.
For me personally, the best part of this film is the theme of the position of women as such. The father gives his daughter to marry without asking her opinion. The husband even shows signs of a sincere desire to like her. But in his head, obviously, there is a drawn scheme of what communication with a woman should be, and everything that is pushed beyond her limits is not perceived by his brain. And all his attempts to make contact are doomed to failure, since he does not do the main thing - he does not try to listen to what she wants. Moreover, he fixes the presence of some unexpected desires in her, but he does not consider it necessary to meet them, because she is a secondary creature, even a third-rate one, because she can not even speak. And possible resentment on this occasion, he "cures" one way he knows - time. Waiting for it to rub and forget. In the same way I treat my cat: I feed her and iron her, and she purrs me. But waking up and running to feed her at 5 a.m. because she wants to? Sorry, kitty, you'll be patient, and in half a day you'll forget. In that context, there is really nothing strange about Ada leaning toward George, who sees her as a person who has desires, who can make choices and make decisions.
Other aspects are like fog covered. Why did silent Ada stop talking? Is it because she chose the piano as her interlocutor, and this fastidious interlocutor wanted so much and demanded so much attention that there was no time left for everyone else? And are there so many people in the world who really need to say something and hear something reasonable in response? And the piano, which is almost her only interlocutor, is also her prison.
Why does a daughter betray her mother? She just got used to owning it undivided, and then had to "share"? Or does she just feel that something “wrong” is happening and wants to stop it?
Who's George? He chooses this tactic because he simply does not know how else to get reciprocity from a mute woman, and even someone else’s wife, and even focused exclusively on her daughter and her piano. Or is he just an ordinary scoundrel who took advantage of her position?
At what point did Ada realize she liked what was happening? Maybe when they took it from her, when she realized she didn't like playing the piano that much anymore, when she didn't feel the passionate look on her back? And at what point did her situational craving become the love of her life? Have you had enough of just a little ordinary understanding and caress, things that an ordinary person usually has in abundance, but not a mute woman, fenced off from the world? Or maybe it is Stockholm syndrome, which the film industry repeatedly gives us for love?
And finally, why do we only hear Ada’s inner voice at the beginning of the film and at the end? Is it so as not to make it easier for viewers to understand what is happening, and to make them perceive the mute heroine through the eyes of other people, rather than her own? But what new colors could fill this film her inner feelings and experiences, voiced by the voiceover text. After all, the beautiful “face play” performed by Holly Hunter usually shows us when Ada is angry, sad or shy, but we will not catch the moment when passion should appear on him.
In short, I do not get in this review analysis of pros and cons. There are only questions, questions and a few more questions. And it's not that it's bad. The fact is that the answers to each of these questions directly affect the perception of the tape, and the absence of these answers drives into a state of confusion.
Nevertheless, the film attracts with its atmosphere, music, nature and uniquely takes the originality of both the script and its implementation (which immediately betrays the non-American origin of the film), so at least it is worth watching. I will leave my thoughts to myself.
Complete confusion ... as if I had tasted a strange fruit, eat, feel rejection, it is as if sour and bitter ... But suddenly there comes an aftertaste - such a sweet, unusual, previously unheard of.
You feel something like that while watching! Here you are in dismay, on the one hand, the whole film does not leave the taste of betrayal - husband wife, wife herself, mother as a child. But the child, out of resentment and jealousy for inattention on the part of the mother so cruelly betrays her, forgets their joint games and laughter, downright surrendering to the "dad" - a person whom she once swore not to even call so. The subject of betrayal is revealed in a completely new perspective. .
It does not leave the feeling that the feelings, emotions of the main characters give falsehood, their behavior is extremely implausible.
But here comes the end of the film - a scene in Baines' cabin, a scene in a boat, so gracefully presented in color, sound and finale, Ada's thoughts ...
A sudden denouement of the impending tragedy, coloring the action in unexpected colors ...
8 out of 10
The drama film The Piano ("The Piano, 1992) is a stylized picture of New Zealand director and screenwriter Jane Campion, which takes place in New Zealand around the middle of the 19th century. The film “Pianino” will be awarded a large number of awards, including the performer of the main female role Holly Hunter will receive an Oscar, as well as her on-screen daughter Anna Paquin, who at that time was only 10 years old. Also, the picture received an Oscar in the nomination “Best Screenplay”, which was independently written by the same Jane Campion. Could have received a picture and other awards, including for the best work of the operator (Stuart Dreiberg), for the best costumes and editing, but in these nominations, “Piano” gave way, which, as you perfectly understand, does not make the tape worse.
So, the action takes place in a distant and mysterious New Zealand, where Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) arrived from Scotland with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin). On the island state among the indigenous people of New Zealand, Adu is waiting for a new husband - Elisdair Stewart (Sam Neal). They live together on the principle of “grow together, love”. Meanwhile, Ada wants to take the piano that she brought with her from her homeland, but due to the bulkiness of the instrument, it has been on the ocean for a long time. And only the mysterious Mr. George Baines (Harvey Keitel), an assimilated Briton in New Zealand, brings the piano to his home. Because of this, Baines begins some kind of free-trading game with poor Ada, clearly inducing her to something more than playing together after an instrument. To Baines may appear hatred, and deserved, but soon you look at this man in a completely different way and begin to understand why he pursued his incomprehensible and even disgusting goals.
Jane Campion staged her film so that the viewer felt at the turn of the era, when in New Zealand the culture of savagery among the Maori disappeared and their missionaries attracted to the innovations of the Old World. It was quite wild to look at the Aborigines, whose faces are decorated with frightening tattoos, and they are dressed in the latest English fashion. And it's really wild for us, as it is for Ada McGrath, but she doesn't say anything. But Mr. George Baines condescendingly looks at how everything around is changing and what an unimaginable contrast began to make innovations brought by immigrants with local flavor. Even the virginity of the forests of New Zealand, near which McGrath’s mother and daughter now live, stands in stark contrast to the piano, which is widely considered a luxury and object of entourage of secular people to spend evenings with people like them. What kind of music can you talk about in the bowels of a tribe far from civilization? And Jane Campion played very well in this contrast.
Indeed, the film’s cameraman Stuart Dreiberg did his job perfectly, giving the viewer the opportunity to admire the exotic nature of a distant country, and the moments of especially intimate, which did not slide to the level of “black”. The nomination is well deserved beyond any doubt. I cannot say anything for the installation - this part of the creation of the picture almost always eludes the viewer's attention, but the fact that the places of field shooting, together with costumes and makeup, were selected with all their splendor - this can be argued. Holly Hunter, who never spoke a word, deservedly received a whole heap of prestigious awards for her difficult role, because she had to play only with gestures and facial expressions, and the emotionality of her heroine she showed above all praise. It is a pity that at the moment the ex-wife of Janusz Kaminsky, a permanent operator of Steven Spielberg, somewhat lost. Young Anna Paquin still received her award in advance, but she played very convincingly. It beckons and at the same time scares away the ambiguous hero of Keitel, but one day you realize that he is not so terrible as the restrained and calm-looking character of Sam Neal.
"Pianino" is an aesthetic film, staged for movie gourmets who like to savor any of its components: from acting to makeup and hairstyles. The alluring mystery of distant New Zealand in an era of its complex transition from savage customs to European civilization was a winning moment that Jane Campion was able to confidently convey, and her acting ensemble adds depth to this drama. Action lovers have nothing to look for, but those who love thoughtful cinema need to aim at watching the film “Piano”.
9 out of 10
There are films where musical instruments become almost the main characters, so much the musician gives them his soul. It seems that there is no such a romantic and sublime instrument as the piano. Pianists in movies are complex, but because of doubly interesting people with a bizarre fate that you want to tell. In this sense, the main character of the film “Pianino”, Ada, was unlucky: as a result of shock, she lost her voice. But the daughter understands her so well, as if she can read minds, and most importantly - Ada has a piano that can say everything for her mistress-virtuoso.
The piano is a heavy thing, so the husband of the main character, not understanding the depth of the whole situation, leaves the piano on the shore. So he leaves his new wife silent: it seems that he is even better, not in vain he did not dispute the phrase that Ada should be treated as a pet - at first he is silent and resists, but eventually gets used to any owner.
However, our pianist, being defenseless and gentle in appearance, with the help of expression of eyes and gestures, insists on her own. She is somewhat reminiscent of the heroine of silent films, who, despite the lack of sound, were able to convey the full volume of their feelings. In short, such old-fashionedness in the positive sense of the word made the girl a local celebrity, the main subject of evil gossip. And Ada herself? She says she thinks people talk too much. It is quite another matter - her piano, which conveys only the highest feelings - and nothing superfluous.
Who would have thought that the magic of her music would appeal most to a rude George, with whom you can not put the word “art” in one row. However, this is not a comedy, so the film will reveal the saddest sides of both listeners and the brilliant performer.
This film, made in cold shades, in addition to the plot, attracts and its picture. A fascinating contrast between nature, which is almost unchanged by man, and a graceful girl who seems to have come down from paintings of the nineteenth century. It is a world in blue that cannot be solved. Just listen to the music!
The beginning is encouraging on something sublime, but something went wrong.
The film didn't live up to expectations. It’s probably not worth judging by the reviews on one site, but I thought that the accumulation of 80% of positive, even enthusiastic comments on one site means something. And a lot more awards and the beginning of the film.
Yes, it began beautifully - piano, mute girl, life from scratch in a rather exotic place, wonderful music - all this is surrounded by a halo of romance. So you expect tenderness, sensuality. For some it was, but for me it was rude. The way in which the characters’ relationships originated is like someone’s fantasy. George's admission into Ada's personal space is neither pleasant nor romantic. (She didn’t like it at first.) But then, for some reason, love happened... Then, throughout the film, they try to show us the behavior of the characters, the words of Baines, that this is really true. But I could not believe it, because from the very beginning, the relationship between the pianist and the native was like passion, attraction, but without love. I just can't figure out how it happened, is the attraction a shower, or just George had some kind of sexual charisma that with him, despite his unpleasant actions, Ada became close. Probably, the author of the film had something in mind, but to show it beautifully did not work, but only went, ordinary, without sublimity.
But still the review is neutral, since the picture did not cause much indignation + landscapes, beautiful music, female roles. The plot is clear, it was interesting to watch the events, and the whole catch is that everything is simple, there is nothing special in the enthusiasm of each other’s heroes, and at first glance you expect something to freeze your heart, and the atmosphere of the film shows that this is how the viewer should feel.
A fascinating film. After that, it was as if I was transported to another dimension, frankness and intimacy, as if I was watching the characters in a keyhole. You immediately feel that the director is a woman; only a woman, perhaps, could fill the picture with so many emotions, where almost no scene can be viewed calmly.
And, again, only a woman will give meaning to some moments that are suddenly so realistic that they cause rejection and even pain: James’ dirty nails, an old shoe tapping on the pedal, the story of the finger, attempts to be intimacy with the unloved. And of course, the symbols and signs abound in the film: the connecting tracks from the footprints on the shore after George led Ada to the abandoned musical instrument; the gift-key, the rope that tied the piano and the main character in one of the final scenes ... It is incredible how a film can combine beautiful symbolism and crude realism. Hence, I conclude that most likely only women will be able to evaluate all the nuances of the film, although it is a pity to call such a picture a women's movie.
Very beautiful is the aura of the plot - a mute woman expressing her feelings through playing a musical instrument. And with the help of this symbolism, a whole parable turned out - that one man found among the dirt and everyday life, who decided to help a woman express his feelings, and what another did not get, who did not consider it necessary and significant to understand what is truly valuable for a woman.
I think everyone in the film will find their own morality, in this film there is a lot of ambiguity, the same scene can be evaluated in different ways. And thanks to this, immediately after the final credits, I wanted to review the film again, catch all the shades and inefficiencies, for which he:
10 out of 10
Sometimes for a person with a creative direction of personal development, art can become a second voice that can convey the feelings and thoughts of this person sometimes even better than if he spoke in his own words. A good "transmitter" is music, which can contain a message, recognition or just pure thoughts and ideas. Sometimes music can even help to find true love, which the main character of the psychological drama “Pianino” found.
Synopsis Mid-nineteenth century. Ada's father pretends his daughter to be an industrialist, Stuart, who lives in New Zealand, where Ada is forced to go with her daughter from her first marriage, Flora. Arriving in a new house, Ada receives a refusal from her unloved husband to take the piano, which was stopped by the sea. The piano is taken by Stuart's mysterious neighbor, George Baines, who asks Ada to give lessons. However, with each lesson between Ada and Baines flash passionate feelings that lead to fatal consequences.
Game of actors In my opinion, the film is distinguished by simply stunning and unforgettable performance of actors who created unique images of heroes whose judges inadvertently intertwine in a tangled web from which they can barely find a way out. First of all, I want to mention the magnificently played role of Ada, performed by Holly Hunter, who embodied the image of an unhappy woman for whom music is more than just a hobby. I also liked the game of Sam Neal, who played Stuart, Ada’s unloved husband, who has been trying to reach her heart since they met, but still does not get an answer. Perhaps the most touching role was the role of a very young Anna Paquin, who played the role of Flora, the daughter of Ada, the only person who truly understood his mother.
Directorship The film was made by a woman, in a good sense of the word. The focus is not on the problem of man and music or the problem of forbidden love, but on the fate of women in the XIX century, when she had no voice and the right to make important decisions. Jane Campion shows us the dramatic fate of the main character, who had to go through a lot in her life, but she finally gets the chance to do what she likes, and now she falls in love with a semi-wild, at first glance, man. I really liked that Campion even erotic scenes managed to show in such a way that they looked in no way went, namely beautiful, filled with feelings.
Scenario Honestly, I liked the plot of the film, its idea and its embedded meaning. The plot is not an adaptation of any novel or novel, but screenwriter Jane Campion with her talent managed to embody the atmosphere of love novels of the XIX century, reflecting their essence. The narration is conducted on behalf of Ada herself, who speaks in a childish voice behind the scenes, since this is the voice she remembers when she became numb at the age of 6. Although it is worth noting that Campion left under the question mark the cause of Ada's muteness, since a little later in the film it is reported that this ailment was the result of a strong shock caused against the background of the terrible death of Ada's first husband. Nevertheless, despite all these details, it is the love and fate of a woman of the XIX century that remains in the center.
Soundtrack Picture with this name is simply obliged to impress the viewer with its musical accompaniment, which, by the way, was simply unforgettable. From the very beginning, the music was permeated with notes of tragedy and emotional experiences. especially striking was the main musical theme, which sounded in the most beautiful scene of the film, when Ada played the piano on the beach, and her daughter danced to this music.
Result In my opinion, "Pianino" is a strong work, with a beautiful plot, matchless music and masterfully performed acting that will amaze the viewer from the very beginning. I don’t know what else to add, I’ll just put it.
10 out of 10
You're a beast. Persecuted, shackled in the shell of civility, speechless - or, perhaps, abandoned it on his own whim. You have nothing to talk about with this long-deaf world. But things will change. In place of the musty dungeon of Victorian Scotland will come New Zealand natural riot. Wild waves, wild wind, wild greens of impenetrable thickets will awaken in you what was once forcibly put to sleep. The demon of primordial will penetrate into your being, devour your prejudices and expose your instincts. A husband who wanted only a submissive pet will be afraid of the beast that has arisen before him and will try to put you in a cage in order to suppress the will. But the spirit of freedom blows wherever it pleases, and your jailer himself will not rest until he cuts off the umbilical cord of Puritan morality, which strangles you for many years, and releases the beast into its natural habitat.
You're human. Unable and unwilling to live in absolute isolation, in dire need of the opportunity to express himself - not with words, but with the sounds of his precious piano. You need someone to hear the voice of your soul, and you desperately cling to that connection with society, cherishing the hope that someone is listening to you. But even your own daughter is only willing to see you as a person when you show dog loyalty to this deaf crowd. Therefore, in order to contain – or to protect from an incomprehensible environment? – the original insanity that lies dormant within you, you close yourself in a black case of clothing that prevents you from knowing the true nature of the world order, and the world from knowing the true you. However, it will begin with a small hole in the stocking and end with a pair of naked bodies in bed, when you, having got rid of the imaginary shackles, sweetly surrender yourself to the torment of this tattooed barbarian full of unexpected humanity.
You're a woman. Strong, passionate, spiritual, but impossible without a man. Without the man you'll find in this wilderness. In which you will pour yourself note by note until it becomes the perfect vessel for you. You will beckon him to spirituality, he will beckon you to naturalness, and somewhere in the middle of the journey you will meet and become one. At that moment you realize that you have nothing more to talk about with the rest of the world, because now someone who is supposed to hear you hears you. And you, the old one, will die. For everyone but him. Because he was the only one who could see a man in a gloomy black case, and in this man, a hunted beast, whom touch after touch taught not to be afraid to breathe fully. For him, there will be no “old” or “present” you – you will always be just “you”. His woman.
I came across 'Pianino' on television, quite by accident, knowing nothing about this film, every twist of the plot was a surprise to me.
I don’t remember a movie that has fascinated me, touched me, intrigued me lately. I have not experienced such vivid impressions from the work of cinema since I was a teenager.
What's the movie about? How wonderful and beautiful life is, even where there seems to be no place for beauty. Of heart deafness and sensitiveness, of desperate sacrifice and calculated greed, of prescribed duty and free will. A film that makes you feel and think.
Here everything is ambiguous, there is no black and white, impeccably good and bad. The main characters have complex characters, they do not seem fictional characters, but appear before the viewer as living people with their own advantages and disadvantages. If I were a stubborn moralist, then this film probably caused a storm of indignation in me, because cheating on a legitimate spouse is disgusting, and seducing a married woman is despicable. But in this case, a thinking and feeling person will understand that ' an insidious cheater' Ada is above all a victim of circumstances, sent against his will to a foreign land (my father married me to a man I have never seen), found alone and misunderstood in the wilderness, in the midst of impenetrable mud, surrounded by blank walls of indifference, reduced to the level of a pet (' the Lord loves dumb creatures', to ' pets you are attached'). And only wild and rude in its simplicity ' vile seducer' Baines is able to save Ada from the sad fate of spending her whole life among people who do not care about her, who are no more interested in her than a piece of furniture.
Of course, a ray of light in the dark tower of silence is Ada's daughter, nine-year-old Flora. There is a deep heartfelt connection between the daughter and mother, but even here everything is far from simple.
The actors are amazing. The film is not overloaded with dialogue - Ada is mute, and other characters are not too talkative, their words are simple, they do not have a drop of pathos and high-flownness... It creates the illusion that you are watching the lives of real people with bated breath. And all this against the backdrop of the beautiful and harsh nature of New Zealand. Everything is shown seemingly without embellishment, but at the same time the gloom and pallor fascinate, literally attract attention, not allowing for a moment to be distracted ... There is no smell of colorful commercial lubrication, this is a genuine Work of Art!
And yet, in this case, it is better to see once than to honor 100 times.
Thank you to Jane Campion and the entire crew for an amazing film!
Enjoy your visit; )
There are melodramas that are sinful to pass by. They excite the heart after watching a few hours, excite many years later when revised. The picture, which tells about the woman Ada who stopped talking and her piano, is from such a number of melodramas.
Plot
Ada, along with her young daughter and her favorite musical instrument, which is a kind of voice, leaves her home and goes to New Zealand, where a man is waiting for her, whom she is going to marry. The new chosen heroine's name is Stewart and he is a typical landlord. His relationship with Ada doesn’t work out from the beginning, and the reason for it is the piano, which is not easy to drag through the woods, hills and dirt. The instrument is left on the seaside, where the piano, which has traveled a long way from Scotland to New Zealand, waits for dampness. In the case comes a somewhat feral English gentleman George Baines, who lives with the Aborigines for a long time. George falls in love with Ada and makes a pact with her that the piano he has will again belong to the former owner if she gives him music lessons. . .
History of the film
Director and screenwriter Jane Campion wanted to make a tape about several piano owners, changing hands. However, while working on the script, I decided to leave one story behind. The result was a romantic, but tough and strong masterpiece.
Characters
Ada stopped talking since she was 12. The reason for this behavior is due to the deafness of society - why talk when you can't hear? She tries to live in harmony with herself and plays the piano. For her, music is a link to the world, a psychologist, a best friend, a symbol that destroys general and standard cultural norms. Without a piano, Hell cannot be what it is - free.
Flora, the daughter of Ada, accustomed not to share her mother with anyone, first jealous of the parent to the feudal stepfather, and then cautiously looks at the new student of music. She feels that her mother has fallen in love and may distance herself from her, and takes the side of her stepfather. This kind of betrayal, which appeared on the basis of not only childhood jealousy, but also ignorance of the true relationship between a man and a woman leads to a small tragedy.
George, no longer interested in women, sees in the silent, alienated Ada his soul mate. The passion and love that come in adulthood, even if the events were sudden, are stronger than the love that is inherent in youth and which is frequent like a cold.
Stewart, contrary to the ideas of prudence, earthly logic, is still an interesting character, cherishing dreams of a happy family future, cruel and at the same time generous.
The actors perfectly embodied their heroes, revealing their characters as accurately as possible. Holly Hunter, who played the main role, and Anna Paquin (Flora) deservedly received their awards in the field of cinema.
Summary
Beautiful, ' live ' a tape about love not only between a man and a woman, but also a person's love for harmony, dissolving all the negativity, carrying up, giving rise to new views and destroying existing complexes and fears. The film is full of erotic and intimate atmosphere, although there are very few candid scenes.
9 out of 10
Jane Campion takes us into a strange and unfamiliar world. It gives us a chance to listen to our own thoughts; to the sound of waves crashing against the shore; to the sounds of a piano touched by the gentle hands of a mute heroine. In the film you will not find empty dialogue and useless chatter. It's simple and perfect. Harmony in the landscape. The sea, the mountains and the sounds of an old piano. You enter the world of a girl who really felt. She smiled when she heard native sounds, when she could speak to the outside world, but in her own way.
The movie will make you nervous. Makes her smile with Ada as her hands slide down the snow-white keys. It will make you love and feel a terrible injection in the heart.
Isn't that passion? Passion without a word, without confession, without vows, without promises. ' I'm tempted. I can't sleep, I can't eat. So if you don't have any feelings for me, go away.'
'Silence has its advantages.' There's time to think. To really feel something with every vein. Is that what you wanted? Then s-s-s. Relive this 121 minutes with the heroine and you will feel everything.
Watching the movie, you want to close your eyes and forget about everything. I want to endlessly catch the charming melody. This film gave me inspiration. I'm scared if he leaves you indifferent.
A young woman Ada, dumb since the age of six, marries a man whom she knows only by correspondence. Mr. Stewart lives in New Zealand, where Ada goes with her ten-year-old daughter. With numerous suitcases, the Scotsman takes with her pianos, which play a huge role in her life. The musical instrument is essentially Ada's voice. Upon arrival in New Zealand, the new husband refuses to take the piano home. It stays on the ocean. This upsets Ada very much, she expresses her dissatisfaction with gestures and emotions in every possible way. But Ada asks her neighbor, a long-time Englishman named Baines, to take her to shore where she can play. After some time, the woman learns that her husband gave the piano to Baines in exchange for a piece of land. Ada asks for the instrument back, but George Baines agrees to give it to her only if she gives him piano lessons. But Baines isn't interested. He only wants to see Ada every day because he is in love with her.
"Piano" is the best film I have ever seen!Jane Campion, the director and screenwriter of the picture, perfectly conveyed her idea."Pianino" captured me from the first minutes: a beautiful view of the raging ocean, the wilds of New Zealand and music. The music that makes a lump in your throat. Soul-stirring music. Music, after listening to which you want to fly! I’ve never heard such beautiful compositions before. And for that, thanks to Michael Nymon!
Holly Hunter perfectly coped with the task - to play a mute woman. She did it so flawlessly, so precisely, so genuinely!I'm delighted!Bravo!
"Piano" collected, unsurprisingly, a large number of film awards, including: three Academy Awards, Golden Globe, three British Academy Awards, Cesar and two golden palm trees of the Cannes Film Festival!
After seeing this picture, I felt euphoric. My state of mind was melancholy, but at the same time, so indescribable, so easy!
"Piano" will not leave you indifferent. The plot of the picture will touch all the hidden sides of your soul and make you feel a participant in this amazing story!
10 out of 10
A touching, heartfelt story of the life of a simple woman from Scotland named Ada McGrath, who lost her voice as a child. As a result of a marriage of convenience, she and her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) sail to the other side of the Earth, to New Zealand.
The only consolation in a woman’s life is her piano. However, her new husband Alysdair ("Sam Neal") trades him from a neighbor named George Baines ("Harvey Keitel") for a small plot of land.
I remember the mood that arises when watching this picture. The main character has nothing of her own in life: no home, no understanding from her husband, no right to choose and even the ability to say what you think. So, like her, you throw away all the husks of the world and start thinking about things that are really important.
Ada's happiness in the film symbolizes playing the piano. Only by going through the keys with her fingers can she be transferred for a moment from this sometimes unjust world to a place where there is no sadness, anxiety and worries. And now try to imagine your own happiness and what you are willing to overcome and endure to find it.
The film is unusually capacious and accurately convey the emotions of the main characters, for which it is worth thanking the actors themselves. Separately, I want to highlight the sparkling game of Anna Paquin, who was still very young at that time, and the widest range of emotions transmitted by Holly Hunter almost without a single word said. The result was a well-deserved Oscars, received by both actresses in 1994. Bravo!
I want everyone to see this picture. After all, the search for the meaning of life and our own happiness is not alien to any of us.
8 out of 10
“Pianino” is a gentle and delightful melodrama, which turned out to be very refined and soulful. Directed by Jane Campion in 1992, this is my favorite movie of the year. The film turned out wonderful and shot peculiar, and its story is saturated with a pleasant atmosphere and something romantic and sublime, which makes this movie so intriguing and spectacular. When I started watching this melodrama, I didn’t think it impressed me so much. I watched this movie twenty years later, as it was created, and it did not lose its relevance, and brought me pleasure from watching.
We see a mute woman and her little daughter. She lost her husband and had to get married again, and she could not love her new husband, but met a mysterious man whom she had to learn music to get her piano back. We see their love story and the emotional state of the protagonist, who did not say a word in the film, and all her thoughts and emotions were written on her face.
The film is inspiring and amazing, and I really liked its story: it was original and unlike anything else, and the main character just conquered me in this melodrama. Holly Hunter healthy and incredibly talented and sensual played the main role in the film and deservedly received the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her role was emotionally challenging, and she played it brilliantly, and I remember this talented actress as she won an Oscar for a role in which she didn’t say a word, and it never happened again. Holly Hunter is an interesting and strong actress, and after this film I fell in love with her and began to get acquainted with her work. Harvey Keitel is an extraordinary and interesting actor who has played in many worthwhile and good films, and in this melodrama I was pleased to see him. The director of the film likes this actor, and she likes to shoot him in his films.
This film was a deep and touching melodrama with a taste of drama, and not to see this film, I think, means really lose a lot. “The Piano” is a movie that plunges into the silent and unusual world of the main character, and we see an incredible and beautiful story in which there is drama, love, and temptation, and an interesting plot, and good, strong actors who made this film such a beautiful and clean gift for all fans of this genre.
9 out of 10
A dumb Englishwoman Ada marries a New Zealand farmer and moves to a forgotten island with her nine-year-old daughter Flora and a luxurious antique piano, a decorative shard of civilization and culture left in the past.
Jane Campion's predisposition to spectacular visual metaphors is particularly evident in the scene of forced separation from her beloved musical instrument, left on the sandy shore of a raging ocean. The director finds an original and unoccupied movie image, which in the context of the film acquires key importance. Starting from this scene, Campion takes the viewer beyond stencil associations, harmoniously combining the signs of intellectual and emotional cinema.
The piano becomes the link between Ada and his new owner, wild farmer Baines, who agreed to take the instrument out in exchange for music lessons that Ada would teach him. Sexual attraction, long sublimated in music, begins to wake up in the process of “redemption” of the piano, according to which Ada has to reconcile with Baines’ demand – the permission to exchange touches. While she extracts magical sounds from the instrument, he, touching her body, extracts the music of awakening female sensuality.
As the conflict develops, there is a clash of characters, elements, personalities, cultures and not so much habits as customs. And if in Hell the puritanic culture of the Old World is personified, then in the image of a wild neighbor in love with it, the natural and impulsive principle prevails. As the vines enveloping the frame space and clinging to Ada by the dress, as the mud in which her legs are drowned on her knees, so the awakened power of sensuality and the carnal principle enslave her, rising above moral prejudices. Realizing the power of sexual experiences, Ada seems to rediscover the meaning of life. Now her relationship with the world moves to a new level of depth, giving discoveries and demanding self-sacrifice.
The film is designed in the tradition of “big style cinema”, combining high emotions, strong passions, philosophical and metaphorical generalizations with expressive plastic solutions. The multilayered nature of creation allows different interpretations of what is happening: someone will see here a story about the confrontation of spiritual and sexual principles, or an allegory about the clash of civilization with the virgin exotic nature, and someone will see a fascinating story about love and jealousy.
Jane Campion became the first woman in the history of cinema, whose film was awarded the main prize of the Cannes festival. Significantly, she worked on the picture while pregnant and soon after the end of production safely gave birth to a child. In a film in which art and life are inseparable, this is a symbolic development.
Do you feel confused after seeing a picture? That’s what happened to me after Jane Campion’s Piano. It was very difficult to understand your own thoughts and emotions. Evaluating the tape was even more difficult. That’s because the film is ambiguous, the viewer then plunges into the atmosphere, then slips out of the charm of the film thanks to numerous, sometimes too naturalistic and unaesthetic love scenes. However, it is definitely worth watching the picture: thanks to its originality and even strangeness, the tape is remembered for a long time, and I, like many film lovers, love to walk under the impression.
A synopsis will acquaint you with the plot, I want to focus on the atmosphericity and symbolism of some scenes of the picture. Ada is an image of a closed, strange, strict, immersed woman. His favorite piano replaces his most important instrument, his voice. With the help of music, she expresses all her feelings, be it sadness, spiritual upliftment or even anger.
Scenes of animal passion contrast with the cold, sluggish terrain of New Zealand, where our heroine moves from her native Scotland. The voice that Ada speaks to the audience inside of her is childish (because she stopped speaking at the age of six), which sounds wild, but very organically weaves into the style of the picture, adding to her charm. Scenes of retribution overtake the viewer at the peak of tension, and the farewell of the heroine to what she cherished more than anything in the world, symbolize the rebirth of Ada, farewell to old grievances, torments and memories, concluded under the lid of the alder-brown piano. Beautiful and very symbolic scene.
Acting work of Holly Hunter was marked by various awards, the justice of which, there is no doubt. Lacking one of the actor’s most important instruments, the voice, Hunter used her eyes, which are known to be the “mirror of the soul.” The music that accompanies the picture creates the right mood, simultaneously becoming a delight for hearing and a reflection of the mood of the heroine.
Beautiful, wise, sensual, unusual film will be a decoration of a quiet evening and food for thought and feeling.
An extraordinary picture with an extraordinary plot. Love, music, nature and passion are organically intertwined in this film.
The main character, dumb Ada, is married to Stuart, who lives in New Zealand. Ada is forced to leave her native Scotland with her young daughter (her father is unknown). Since the age of six, Ada has stopped speaking, so the music she plays on an antique piano is the only way to express herself. Her play is extraordinary. As one of the characters in the film said: Her music seems to pass through you and seep right through. I don’t like it, I like it when everything is to the notes and everything is simple.
Of course, most people don’t like it very much because they don’t understand Ada. They also don’t understand why the piano is so important. And when her new husband, Stuart, refused to drag the piano home across the woods, leaving the precious object by the sea, Ada became very angry. She didn’t act like a wife from the beginning. All her thoughts were about one thing: to see and play her piano again.
I won’t tell you the rest to keep the intrigue going. But there's still a lot going on.
The film was as subtle and pervasive as the music. The soundtracks written by Michael Nyman for this film still ring in my ears. These are amazing, takeaway melodies, listening to which, you forget about everything.
I can't help but celebrate Holly Hunter. She, without uttering a word during the whole film, played so wonderful that it is simply impossible not to believe her! Her eyes say so much that she does not need words to understand.
He also played the role of Harvey Keitel. I liked his character. Even if it seemed strange at first.
Sam Neal played Ada's (Stuart's) deceived husband. There are no complaints about his game, he perfectly showed the feelings and emotions of the character.
There is a rather unexpected twist (closer to the end). The ending itself can be interpreted in two ways, there is no unequivocal answer.
What else can I say? Oh, yeah. The action takes place against the background of nature. This creates a unique atmosphere.
The mood of the film reminded me of some of Kim Ki-duk’s paintings, which also have few words but a lot of meaning. I really liked it! And so
I have seen this picture more than once, and I will see more than once. I admired everything - music (it is absolutely perfect), nature (God, how beautiful New Zealand and Australia), actors (they all played their roles flawlessly), every little thing, every minute of this film - beautiful.
I bow to the vitality, the reality of the picture, I bow to the love of Baines, to his truly male perseverance, he won his beloved, he loved her, mute, as much as a woman can desire.
Ada is a special person, strong, brave, patient, talented. Look at the photos and appreciate its beauty - either say that it is ugly at all, or that it is ordinary. Watch the movie and it will be beautiful.
The love scenes in this film are so real, so unadorned, but so incredibly beautiful - it's hard to find words, you have to see, you have to feel. One touch of a centimeter of skin can make a man happy when he really loves a woman madly.
It is also important to say that it takes a certain age to understand and live this film. Because the same scenes of love – they are stunningly beautiful only for someone who already understands that it is so staged, so perfect as in many Hollywood films in life does not happen – and this is fine (!!), but it is necessary to understand; the same decisions and feelings of the characters, their actions – they are not always logical, they are often not right, but in life everything is just that. Life is often illogical, often emotions push people in the wrong direction. And I think the value of this film is that it's real, it's real, it's just like it happens to people outside of the set.
I am eternally grateful to the creators of the film for such a masterpiece.
Bravo.
Cinema, like music, is the same text that each of us reads differently. But if this reading is easy and at the same time, it makes you think, then you have art before you.
There is such a concept in pianists “breathing hands”: free floating brushes, strong, but unstressed fingers, passing through a thought and only after that pressing the keys. So, the film should also have its own special light, but heartfelt breath:
- in camera work, where strong in the sense of shooting details and panoramas are filled with internal dynamics, freedom and beauty (back of the palm, piano on the coast, rain in the jungle)
- in the semantic component, where different themes are harmoniously intertwined (childhood jealousy and cruelty, male nobility, the connection of love of spiritual and physical desire, the victory of the craving of life over despair)
- in the game of actors, manifested not only in sounding words, but also in silent facial expressions, in the expressiveness of bodies.
All this is endowed with the authorship of Jane Campion.
And most importantly, in this picture, despite the clear predominance of music, not words, there is no understatement: every cinematic phrase is finished, the story does not require continuation, acting does not require explanation.
Just repeating the words from the movie “most often people talk nonsense that is not worth listening to”, you will understand that there are many other ways to get to know yourself and the world around you. The Piano is one of them.
P.S. Perhaps the best camera work by Stuart Dreiberg to date and the best acting work by Holly Hunter.
10 out of 10
About this film - only in excellent degrees: deep, subtle, sensual, not the slightest hint of the banality of the plot, an excellent selection of actors, field shooting, amazing music and no extra detail - each somehow characterizes the character or situation, not a single long episode ... Seeing the negative reviews, I want to exclaim the words of the general: “What bastard shot?” ?
Now it is impossible to imagine that the heroine was called in any other way than Ada or that she was, for example, blonde. That her beloved was not played by Harvey Keitel - in the conventional plan, too, is not a standard of beauty, not fashionable today brutal, bright, juicy macho with a lack of intelligence on an impeccable face, but very attractive in a masculine way: both externally and in character. He is gracious and generous in his actions.
Sam Neal as a husband is very good. He tries his best to win the love of such a difficult woman, but his trouble is that he does not understand her well and is too dependent on provincial society.
And finally, Ada herself. Jane Campion gave me a new Holly Hunter. Before that, I had seen her in the mediocre, tearful film Always - a very different image, a different perception. Metamorphosis hit me! Ada is a very independent, unusual, closed woman. Not everyone can be around that. It is not for everyone to expose their heart and body. It is symbolic that the heroine is mute. She was not born dumb, silent at her whim. That is why she needs her piano so much – it replaces her voice, serves as a tool for the release of feelings and emotions. It is only when she plays that we see the real Hell.
It seems to me that every time you watch it, you feel that the director is a woman. Women do not know how to make impartial, neutral films, write dry books. The artist’s attitude towards his characters is always in context. For example, when Margaret Mitchell created Gone with the Wind, she was somewhat annoyed by her own heroine. She somehow even takes revenge on the plot - it feels like it. Campion loves his heroine, admires her, leads her to happiness - stubbornly, persistently, to the very end of the earth - to New Zealand.
Yes, and be sure to pay attention to little Anna Paquin. She also has a very important role in this film - the role of the daughter of the main character. In behavior, she seems older than she really is. In general, they are a very strange and isolated couple - Ada and Flora. Since the daughter is the link between the mother and the world of speakers, it sometimes seems as if she understands more about this life than Ada. The story of her birth is covered with legends, and the bright imagination of the girl colors it with new colors. But Flora is just a child. She is used to being a single whole with her mother and when love and passion come into her life, childhood jealousy and cruelty wake up in her, which almost leads to tragedy.
The scene is symbolic of the sinking of the piano. It is a kind of anchor connecting Ada with her past. With her fears, her desire to build barriers between herself and other people, or rather, her unwillingness to destroy these barriers, her unwillingness to let anyone into her inner world. You could say she chose love and a new life, sacrificing her passion for music. What a joy that Baines didn't need this sacrifice. He loved her and accepted her like this: closed, wild. With her daughter and music.
A meaningless masterpiece or why did she call him Dad?
The film "Piano" is a mood, it's an impression. It is useless to look for meaning in the twists and turns of the plot and in the actions of the heroes, since what is found against the same meaning turns around. Images of all the main characters of the story are characterized by slurred, blurred, their actions are psychologically weakly motivated, and sometimes simply ridiculous.
The exception, with many reservations, is only the image of Ada (Holly Hunter), and even then, adjusted for the fact that she is a woman.
The brilliant Keitel, played anyone, but not in love with a woman savage Baines. Rather, it is some tired of ordinary erotic impressions aesthete, who wanted "strawberry". He moves around the screen with this expression, as if he knew what others could not do because of their limitations and the rudeness of their mental organization. The impression is that in the New Zealand jungle next to the Aborigines, he was by misunderstanding, moving into them straight from the Paris salon of Gertrude Stein of the twenties of the last century. So you expect that now Elliot and Hemingway will fall into his hut and the hero of Keitel, breaking away from his erotic problems, will begin to use Calvados with them and wash the bones of Matisse.
Even more clumsy is the image of Ada's husband, Stewart. His conduct in the circumstances proposed by the director is the subject of a dozen qualified psychiatrists. First, he tries to find some common ground with Ada and her daughter. Partly finds, since the conformist-minded daughter of Ada is not at all reasoned from the point of view of the drama of the film began to call him the Pope. He then witnesses his wife’s closeness to Baines, which he observes with some masochic curiosity. After that, humbly (at least outwardly) accepting his wife’s love affair with his lover, he, like a resident not of the Victorian era with its strict requirements for morality, but an advanced modern intellectual without religious prejudices and complexes on sexual grounds, continues for some time to behave as if nothing had happened. Then he becomes jealous of his wife and cuts off her fingers in a fit of anger. The rest is beyond the human psyche. He with a guilty face comes to Ada, lying in bed in a state of prostration, begins with a pityful voice to tell her some nonsense about the fact that they will be together, and then, following only one perverse motive he understands, timidly tries to deal with her... And only seeing Ada’s detached gaze (one might think he could have done otherwise!?) does he realize the futility of his intention.
What about Baines' lover hero? Having learned from Ada’s daughter that her husband has injured her beloved, he justly flares up and logically intends to deal with this nasty husband (“I will break his head”). However, his righteous anger for some incomprehensible reason subsides very quickly and he, instead of protecting his beloved woman from a tyrant, rejecting the well-known Thaleon principle, which is absolutely not logical for the behavior of a child of the jungle, with composure worthy of another use, leaving a dear one alone with a monster, goes to his shack... to sleep. Here is one of two: either he does not like Ada at all ("wants" - this is for sure, since Campion convinced us of this), or he is sure that in a few minutes of screen time he will receive his Ada free of charge from his husband, in connection with which there is nothing to steam.
Further, in this very shack Baines finds the husband-murderer, who for some reason showed up to the seducer with... a gun (made the decision to give Hell, why the gun?) and they have a conversation, during which Baines, continuing to demonstrate the miracles of endurance and composure completely inappropriate in these circumstances, declares to the husband of the beloved: “You punished her severely!” It's all my fault! That is, his beloved, according to Baines, is actually to blame, but cutting fingers is radical (knocking a tooth would be enough). Stewart carries Baines some surreal crap about some "voices" that encouraged him to let his wife go to Baines. The latter sits with such a look as if he perceives a gift in the form of Ada as a punishment for all real and imaginary sins. The feeling is that the dialogue takes place not in the New Zealand jungle, but between Freud and Jung in the furnished apartments of Vienna of the same 19th century.
Falling out of the fabric of the film, the scene of an attempt to intimacy Ada with her husband further aggravates the unreliable psychological vinaigrette in the minds of the characters and the dramatic absurdity of the script. If Ada tried to get close to her husband in this way, and at the same time to test herself for the possibility of obtaining the same sensory sensations as with Baines, then why does the husband, who dreamed of an adequate relationship with her, behave like a last fool, rejecting this intimacy?
With barely noticeable strokes, Campion shows that Ada is fighting for life and her feelings, but this is so little convincing that it seems that if it were not for her husband who let her go on all four sides, she would continue to run to her beloved in the cabin, and after a date, as if nothing had happened, she would come home to her husband as before. In everyday life, this is understandable and reliable, but it does not look like “fighting”, and subtil Baines is not her assistant in this.
As for Ada’s daughter, the girl (Paquin) played wonderfully, for which she deservedly won a prize, but during the film it is difficult to get rid of the idea that this is not Ada’s daughter, with whom she snorted poverty and other troubles, but a young capricious model. Where did this come from?
All further events of the film, associated with the drowning of the heroine and her resurrection “according to my desire”, are subject to interpretation exactly as much as everyone has enough imagination and imagery of thinking.
Meanwhile, "The Piano" as a cinematic product is an impeccable film. Magnificent acting, cinematography, brilliant music by M. Naiman, who, after minimalist tracks for Greenway’s films, unexpectedly showed himself from the other side. Without Naiman’s music, it would be a different movie. The music in this film speaks for its characters, because the characters often have nothing to say (there are no memorable monologues and dialogues in the film).
Campion, creating a masterpiece in terms of form without five minutes, confirmed with her film the thesis that the aesthetic component of a work of art has the right to prevail over the content. In the era of “black” – such films are rare, for which the creator, no matter what, thank you.
Already finishing writing, for some reason (neither to the village nor to the city?) I remembered the film “Beware of the car”. There the hero O. Efremov asks: “Why did he steal your car?” So, after watching the “Piano” the understatement remained, one of many: “Why did the girl call him Dad?”
However, I recommend watching all lovers of good movies.
This film has long attracted me with just one title – I don’t know why, but I have a very reverent attitude to the topic of human interaction with an instrument, with sound, melody. “The Pianist”, “The Legend of the Pianist” – I love these films very much, so the turn came to “The Piano”.
I saw it. It’s hard to tell, you have to see and hear it. And feel it. Rare beauty and depth of cinema. The beauty is not visual, not spectacular, but somehow through the idea itself, and I realized it almost after the fact, when everything came to an end. The film is both frank and completely chamber, a private story, but very symbolic and generalizing. The heroine is not an ordinary average woman, she is special. Mute. But not from birth or because of some tragic circumstances, but simply because even in childhood she involuntarily lost the need to verbally communicate with the outside world, mastered the piano and found in it both self-expression and self-immersion. Her voice, mood, desires are all piano. And the connection with him is such that it is almost a part of her flesh, without which she can not do physically. Ada arrives with her daughter in a foreign country to get married, she is met by complete strangers, equally strangers, who cause neither sympathy nor trust. One of them (the new husband) throws a piano on the beach, and the other (neighbor) helps her to return to it. She doesn’t understand it yet, but everything is already decided for her at this point. Stuart (husband) is intelligent, polite, patient, quite disposed of person, Baines (neighbor) is uneducated, assertive, straightforward, rude, almost savage. It's hard to understand Baines' relationship with Ada. Only gradually you realize that he does not mock, does not indulge in perverse fantasies, that we are not driven by banal instincts, but really loves her. And most importantly, she loves him. Because for all his seemingly ignorantness, he managed to feel her soul, touch her, tune her like a piano. And that's what she played for. No, they don’t have a platonic love, but a clear, sensual body language besides music. There is a lot of eroticism in the film, it seemed excessive to me at first, but it seems that it largely forms a special level of perception of this film. At some point, you just realize that all spoken words are much paler, more mundane and meaningless than gestures and sounds of music. This applies to any scene in general, this is the whole picture. It has a lot of subtle interweavings, meanings, symbols. There is an element of... toughness, cruelty. This is from customs, from time to time, from everything that surrounds - New Zealand in the middle of the 19th century, forest lands, irreconcilable, militant natives, the owners of the territory developed by foreigners. Therefore, their European and American neighbors are strong people with harsh characters, living in constant struggle and breaking any confrontation, even if we are not talking about enemies, but about a fragile woman. However, it is difficult to break Hell, its moral strength, firmness of decisions and clarity of thoughts can be envied. Think about the nature of love. Which keys should I press? Why is this person yours when there is someone who seems to be more suitable? There is hardly an explanation for these things.
In general, this film is a whole kaleidoscope of human vices and virtues. There's so much stuff in just two hours of screen time. And there's nothing superfluous. Another non-verbal element of the film is nature. I don’t know much about New Zealand, I’m used to imagining it as a colorful, serene, just a paradise. And here she is completely unfriendly, even frightening. Always rain, mud, forest... But there is almost no civilization destroying the pristine, there is nothing imposed, artificial, and it works very well for the general atmosphere. Besides the forests, there was the ocean. One of the most impressive shots of the film is an ancient piano on a sandy beach near the endless water surface. Beautifully flawless, goosebumps. The piano was buried in the ocean. For some reason I am generally afraid of such images: sunken ships, submarines or just some objects. It's really like a cemetery to me because it's cold, lonely and irrevocable. Here it was the same, the piano, along with the entire past life of Ada, with all the weight of her inner experiences, went under the water, into the very depths. She sent him there and wanted to follow him. I was sure she would stay there. It would be logical for me, because she seemed so contradictory and unhappy to me, as if harmony in this life was not invented for her. Especially without her tool. And since she's burying him, she's burying herself. And suddenly, on the contrary, she came alive. She returned to the world, to society, found happiness next to her loved one and began to learn to talk. The more unexpected was such a final, the more pleasant, because otherwise the film would have left a very heavy aftertaste, and so - the desire to believe in love as some kind of bright given and supreme craft.
The cast is good, but Holly Hunter (Ada) is just a diamond, not for nothing this role is considered one of the best in the world of cinema. It is no coincidence that this film is mentioned by many actresses. Firstly, it is an absolutely female story in its construction and psychology, and secondly, it is really the highest level of acting talent and skill. The rest of the actors also liked, and both male roles, and the girl (who, like Hunter, was awarded the Oscar), they all have very good interaction in the frame, without voids. And yet above everyone is the music of Michael Nyman. Together with the picture on the screen - every time just to the heart. Without this music, the film would have lost half its power. At least for me.
In general, it is one of the favorite films, which has found its place in the soul forever.
10 out of 10
Unusual in every way drama. Dumb since childhood, Ada goes with her daughter to distant New Zealand, where her new husband lives. He immediately refuses to bring home her piano, not realizing its importance. Ada can not speak and gestures and looks express his anger. But when their neighbor Baines offers to return the piano in exchange for lessons, Ada agrees. She does not know that these lessons - sensual, passionate, soulful - will change her life.
The work of the actors cannot be expressed in words as magnificent. Holly Hunter - the central and most important character of the drama. She does not speak with her voice, she speaks with eyes, gestures, music. Incredibly plausible ... Harvey Keitel as Baines. He is an Englishman, but has been living in Zealand for so long that there is nothing human about him. But the truly divine music of Ada changes him, penetrates the soul, disturbs the heart. Sam Neil, Ada Stewart’s husband, unwittingly evokes antipathy from the first minutes of his appearance on the screen: he does not understand his wife, her habits, her hobbies, her music. He tries to change, but people like him rarely change for the better. And finally, Anna Paquin – Flora, Ada’s little daughter, is the only one who can communicate with her. It’s hard to believe that this was Anna’s first film role. Some actors don't play now since she was 11 years old: a little girl who loves her mother doesn't understand what's going on between her mother and her new father, doesn't know what to do, and is often wrong. No wonder 11-year-old girl was awarded the Oscar: she really deserved it.
This is not to say that everyone should see this film. But for true fans of the drama, I think it is worth watching: it is not for nothing that they awarded 3 Oscars. Or at least for the incredible beauty of the scene where Ada plays the piano on the seaside: sunset, waves and music.
“This contract makes you a prostitute and a scoundrel out of me.”
The film takes place in New Zealand, almost at the edge of the universe. Landing on the shore and getting to the house is a great adventure in itself. But for Scotswoman Ada McGrath and her young daughter is also a path to the unknown. How will the husband behave, previously known only by correspondence? Who is he, their new master? How will you make changes in your life? It seems to be a story about the fate of a woman in the Victorian era. Why not? – it is also interesting and informative. But do not rush to conclusions, we still have many surprises ahead.
The white inhabitants of these places stage amateur performances, eat from beautiful dishes, wear crinoline and caps - but inexorably and inevitably say goodbye. Under these conditions, it's not gallantry. Why do you need a piano if you give it a good plot of land? And why does a guy need his “friend” if he is hanging around?
So maybe they will be ennobled by beautiful music?
Holly Hunter (God give her a long summer!) plays her role selflessly, as if saying: "Remember me like this!" It's playing like the last time! You have to be in the dirt, you have to be naked, please. He plays all the piano parts himself. She's not beautiful - but every inch of an open body is stunningly desirable! Her game can without exaggeration be called passionate: a burning look, gusty movements, excited breathing. And all these emotions are conveyed without a single word. It is difficult even to immediately remember who and when exactly "came into the role."
They are all good in this film: Harvey Keitel, Sam Neal, girl Anna Paquin, neighbors, aunts, aborigines.
But Hunter is the first.
10 out of 10