PIANO, THE (director/writer: Jane Campion; cinematographer: Stuart Dryburgh; cast: Holly Hunter (Ada), Harvey Keitel (Baines), Sam Neill (Stewart), Anna Paquin (Flora), Geneviève Lemon (Nessie), Kerry Walker (Aunt Morag), 1993-Australia)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The tune emanating from The Piano is a passionate one, coming forth on a desolate New Zealand coastline, far removed from European culture, where a piano is seen as something peculiar to possess in such a backward area of the world. It is used symbolically to represent the works of civilization that can soothe the savage beast, if the beast is lonely and willing to listen to something he usually doesn't listen to.
The underlying premise of the film is one of communication or lack of it in a world that can be cold, and of how easy it is to never find love in such a world. The coastline is a place where the sky and sea are dismally gray, and it rains all the time; where the native Maoris, with their tattooed faces, and the white settlers of this nineteenth century tale are living in a marshy forest, with the settlers trying to live by the rules they were accustomed to in Europe, but are now faced with muddy roads and squalid living conditions, making their life almost unbearable; and to top that off, the two diverse groups seem unable to see each other's point of view, as the Maoris mock the settlers under their breath and the settlers treat the natives as if they were children.
It is a place where the characters either can't talk (the bride), or can't listen (the new husband), or are spiteful (the daughter), in a film that unrelentingly studies the affects of erotic yearnings in a restrictive society... And who can forget the powerful image it leaves the viewer, of the piano left abandoned in its crate against the forlorn backdrop of the rushing surf and the desolate beach!
Ada (Holly) is a young mute in her early thirties, for some inexplicable reason, she has not been able to talk since she was 6 years old. Her voiceover says, "This is not the sound of my voice you are hearing; it is the sound of my mind."She is seen in the film's opening arriving in New Zealand by boat and then being rowed by canoe ashore, coming all the way from her native Scotland for an arranged mail-order marriage at her father's insistence. She is accompanied by her 8 year old daughter Flora (Paquin), as she awaits on the beach with all her possessions to meet her unseen British emigrant husband Stewart (Neill), who is trying to make a go of it by cultivating the land in this bush country.The only two things she cares about in life are with her on the beach: her daughter and her piano.
The contradiction of a deaf mute playing music, is underscored by the tremendous joyous feeling that it exudes in Ada, as it is her only real contact with the world, and the piano is something that this fiercely proud woman cannot live without.
She is soon met by the anxious groom, seen trying to comb his unruly hair, but who doesn't have the presence of mind to give the ladies a kindly welcome, instead orders the Maoris accompanying him to start bringing all the luggage with them except for the piano. He is not listening to his new bride who writes him anxious notes and talks in a hand sign language to her daughter who translates, as she urgently tells him the piano is hers and she must keep it, even, above her other worldly possessions. But her insensitive and demanding husband, who actually wishes for a woman who is totally mute, one who does not even play the piano, tells her the piano can't be taken with them on their long trek to the house because it is too heavy for the Maori laborers to carry, and he refuses to return for it at a later date. Also at the beach, watching these precedings, is a coarse-looking white man gone native, tattooing his face Maori style, saying nothing about what he sees taking place. The name of this ex-whaler now laborer, is Baines (Keitel).
The illiterate Baines is overtaken with joy, after hearing Ada play the piano when she returned to the beach. She is despondent about her marriage and refuses to offer her shy husband any affection, and thusly plays her heart out in the only way she knows how to communicate her feelings. Baines, thereby, decides to make a deal with Stewart for the piano, offering him some land for it, if he can also receive piano lessons from his wife. When the lessons begin, he tells Ada that he wants to receive sexual favors from her. He starts off slowly, by lifting up her skirt when she plays, and will eventually take her into his bedroom. In return, after a series of such sexual encounters, adding up to the number of black keys there are, the piano will go back to her. That makes the relationship that develops between the two seem devilishly strange. These scenes are very powerful and surprisingly enough come across as being sensual, even if, the proposal as put-forth, at first, seemed to be an obvious power-play against a hapless victim. But Campion knows how to draw out the passions from these scenes and make this unlikely romance between these opposites bloom. It all seems plausible because their physical wants are motivating them to act this way toward each other. In the beginning, she pretends to be repulsed by him, but eventually she warms up to him, in fact, she looks forward to the lessons. She does all the playing while he listens, as the music gives off the vibes she wants to communicate. All that he knows, is that he just wants her physically, that he feels her inside his gut; and, that he turns out to be a more sensitive person than at first thought possible, is precisely what gives impetus to this Gothic romance.
Possibly the most complex character in the story, is the little girl, who is shown to be cute as a button, a seemingly loyal companion of her mother, an able liar, and a bit of a prude. But on the spur of the moment, one day, she fails to follow her mother's orders to deliver a message to Baines- someone her husband has now forbidden her to see- and does something that turns out to be devastating, betraying her mother by impishly delivering the message to Stewart instead of Baines, knowing exactly what she is doing, but somewhat astonished, to her regret, about what tragedy this brings about for her mother.
Michael Nyman's astonishing score, performed by Holly Hunter herself, expresses the explosive mood of this extraordinary visionary film. A film whose silence and music speaks for itself as an apt way of communicating. The two men want Ada, even though each of them is not really suited for her, as one represents a cold and frustrated civilized society, while the other is able to express the feelings he has inside himself without being uptight about it, just like the natives of the culture he adopted are able to so easily do.
With Stewart, embroiled in jealousy, fighting off his loneliness and repressions, unable to be a warm person and fulfill his marriage duties properly, he is seen as a lost soul, out of his elements in a wild country he can't even begin to fathom. He is stuck in the trap he built for himself, struggling to work the land and tame his restless soul. Sam Neill is stupendous as the lost soul wrestling with his passions. Harvey Keitel, masking a NYC accent by talking in some kind of Maori pigeon tongue, is ably cast as the brooding lover who turns out to have a gentle soul, something this loner must have felt in his heart for a long time but now emerges inside him and gives the film a certain kind of raw power to it. Anna Paquin, in my opinion, is the best surprise in the film, the one with the most difficult role, and the one with the biggest part in the film. What makes it all the more amazing is that she is a mere child, asked to play a part on equal footing with all the accomplished actors she is surrounded by. Holly Hunter, with a gaunt ash-striken face, is mesmorizing in a role that she emotionally is in perfect harmony with. Her performance is the key one; it is the one that propels the film to give it its needed air of desperation and to outline the passionate struggle between just surviving and living for love. She is strangely rejuvenated by the naturalism and lack of inhibitions found in this backward place and the passion she feels from Baines, as it seeps into her repressed soul and transforms her.
The film is brought slowly together by Jane Campion's masterful direction, whose understanding of the erotic desires of the characters is right on the mark, with the result being an original and haunting film, a story that grew more intensively disturbing for me the longer I thought about it. Stuart Dryburgh's camera captures the internal mood of the characters, as well as the monotonous beauty and the oppressive reality of the countryside. But the film misses the mark, at times, as the two main characters, Stewart and Baines, despite their fine performances, are nevertheless too one-dimensional to give the film more of an impact. It seems as if this is Ada's story to tell and no one else's. This is a film, nevertheless, that will justifiably garner great interest because of her very trying performance.
REVIEWED ON 10/14/99 GRADE: B+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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