‘The Piano’ Review: The Power of the Dong
Kiwi filmmaker Jane Campion‘s 1993 drama The Piano is considered to be one of the best films ever made and especially one of the best of the late 20th century. With her return to feature directing, The Power of the Dog, coming to Netflix later this year, I decided it was time to check out what is still considered her greatest work.
For a long time various people had recommended The Piano to me, but whenever I asked what it was about or for their opinion, all they said was, “You see Harvey Keitel‘s dick” as if that was some sort of testament to its quality. Since I could never get a straight answer beyond that, The Piano somehow became the “Harvey Keitel dick-movie” in my mind. That said, after finally seeing it (the movie, not the piece of anatomy) I can safely say that everyone has shortchanged the film and that it indeed is a very good work.
The movie follows a mute Scotswoman, Ada (Holly Hunter) and her daughter Flora (Anna Pacquin), as they move to New Zealand when Ada is married off by her father to a frontiersman Alisdair (Sam Neill). Ada has little interest in Alisdair, and is only concerned with being able to maintain possession of her precious piano, which serves as her voice, allowing her to communicate to others in an almost subliminal way. While Alisdair, who is practical and literally minded, cannot understand his new wife, his business partner George (Harvey Keitel) develops an infatuation with her. George trades a plot of his land for the piano, which he then attempts to use to seduce Ada. While she is resistant at first, she eventually comes to develop her own infatuation with George and the two begin an affair.
In a technical sense, the movie is very well put together, and performances of the central cast are all very good, although I found Flora incredibly annoying. There are also some minor shortcomings, like the bookending voiceovers from Ada that frame the story at the beginning and the end, which, while functional, feel incredibly tacky.
The Piano is a fascinating study in style and execution of a story. The plot is relatively uncomplicated, almost more than it would be otherwise due to the muteness of the main character, but Jane Campion uses her cinematic toolkit, especially the cinematography and music, to convey a strong sense of mood and communicate the emotions of the story to the audience in a clear and powerful way. And ultimately, emotion is the focal point of the movie. Much of what happens narratively occurs in an emotional space, as the film is less concerned with the particulars and the meaning of literal events. The execution of this aspect is key, since very little happens for large portions of the film. The romance between George and Ada is almost a non-event for large stretches of the movie, with George being very clear about what he wants, while Ada is more of a mystery. Things essentially go nowhere, remaining at a low simmer until they explode, and the movie does a lot of very subtle work to carry the audience through the nuances of that build up, as well as conveying how the world is transformed for Ada once she acknowledges her attraction to George.
And that transformation is ultimately what The Piano is about. The flame of erotic passion that George ignites within Ada, ultimately rekindles her desire for life itself. For much of her life, Ada is drawn inward, living inside her own mind and unable to communicate with others except through her daughter and through her piano. However, once she begins to fall for George, she finds a desire to live her life more fully and to embrace the world, which is shown subtly through her piano playing, but also through the way her actions are reframed by the camera and the editing. Earlier I referred to this movie as the “Harvey Keitel dick-movie”, and while I meant that as a joke, in some sense it’s not far off from what the movie is at its core, albeit in a much more elegant way than I put it in this article. Sometimes getting laid really does put life in a new perspective.
While I would say that The Piano‘s GOAT status is a bit of a reach, it’s a very good movie and and well worth checking out.
