Piano

UPC: 031398149620

Studio: Miramax Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children]

Summary: Writer/director Jane Campion's third feature unearthed emotional undercurrents and churning intensity in the story of a mute woman's rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strong-willed young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters' confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada's buried sensuality, Baines' hidden tenderness, and Stewart's suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player. Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces between a character's fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters' gazes. And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodrama. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts David Lean Award – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Original Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Score – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Supporting Actress – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Original Score – null Best Foreign Film – French Academy of Cinema Best Actress – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Actress – National Board of Review Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards Best Picture (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Director (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Actress – National Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay – National Society of Film Critics Best Cinematography – American Society of Cinematographers Best Actress – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: cc
Theatrical trailer
Production notes
Cast and crew information

Piano

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 01/31/2012

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen, 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 121 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Piano
1. Main Credits [4:13]
2. Arrival [3:22]
3. Waiting [3:16]
4. Moving [3:44]
5. Abandonment [2:04]
6. The Photograph [3:37]
7. An Offer [4:20]
8. Reunited [5:33]
9. "It's Mine" [2:32]
10. Incomplete [2:02]
11. Tune-Up [2:06]
12. Black Keys [3:35]
13. A Beginning [4:33]
14. "Slowly" [2:36]
15. 2 Keys [2:51]
16. Teaching [2:05]
17. 5 Keys [2:35]
18. A Storm [5:18]
19. 10 Keys [3:43]
20. Bad Behavior [1:21]
21. A Present [3:27]
22. "Play a Song" [2:25]
23. "To Hell" [1:54]
24. "Go Home" [3:22]
25. "Do You Love Me?" [4:15]
26. Barricade [3:49]
27. Sleepwalking [2:31]
28. Savages [2:53]
29. Trust [5:04]
30. Messenger [4:27]
31. The Warning [3:52]
32. Madness [3:29]
33. The Voyage [2:41]
34. Overboard [4:20]
35. Silence [2:25]
36. End Credits [4:16]

Lucia Bozzola

Not just another costume drama, Jane Campion's The Piano (1993) lushly visualizes the emotional complexities of a 19th century woman's sexual awakening. Mute in a world that silences women, Ada has to find other means to express her responses to the untamed New Zealand landscape, her stiff husband Stewart, and the sensualist Baines. The elliptical narrative minimizes rational explanations in favor of visceral and emotional effects, often structured around parallels between Ada and the natural environment that surrounds her. While Ada's cumbersome 19th century clothes are initially at odds with the muddy forest, Campion reveals Ada's adaptability with a hoop skirt tent, and her reservoirs of passion with the parallel between braids of her hair and forest vines. Stewart, living amidst burnt-out trees, cannot fathom Ada's attachment to her piano, while natural man Baines understands her ardor when he hears and watches her on the open beach. Baines' piano blackmail is transformed into Ada's only path to selfhood; it is a meeting of two rebellious minds and bodies glimpsed voyeuristically by a culture that cannot comprehend its own erotic instincts. Co-winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, The Piano received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, winning Best Original Screenplay for Campion, Best Supporting Actress for Anna Paquin's resentful daughter, and Best Actress for Holly Hunter's finely tuned Ada. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Diana Rowan  Actor 
George Boyle  Actor 
Greg Johnson  Actor 
Susie Figgis  Actor 
Peter Dennett  Actor 
Pete Smith  Actor 
Eru Potaka-Dewes  Actor 
Jon Brazier  Actor 
Tungia Baker  Actor 
Julian Lee  Actor 
Bruce Allpress  Actor 
Te Whatanui Skimworth  Actor 
Stephen Hall  Actor 
Karen Colston  Actor 
Alison Barrett  Actor 
Ian Mune  Actor 
Cliff Curtis  Actor 
Jane Campion  Director 
Jane Campion  Screenwriter 
Jan Chapman  Producer 
Alain Depardieu  Executive Producer 
Michael Nyman  Composer (Music Score) 
Holly Hunter  Actor 
Harvey Keitel  Actor 
Sam Neill  Actor 
Anna Paquin  Actor 
Kerry Walker  Actor 
Genevieve Lemon  Actor 

Country: Australia,France