The Piano
Encyclopedia
The Piano is a 1993 New Zealand drama film
about a mute
pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater on the west coast of New Zealand
. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion
, and stars Holly Hunter
, Harvey Keitel
, Sam Neill
, and Anna Paquin
. It features a score for the piano by Michael Nyman
which became a bestselling soundtrack album
. Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film, and also served as sign language
teacher for Paquin, earning three screen credits. The film was an international co-production
by Australian producer Jan Chapman
with the French company Ciby 2000.
The Piano was a commercial and critical success, grossing more than $40 million, against its $7 million budget. Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin received high praise for their role as Ada McGrath and Flora McGrath. At the 66th Academy Awards
, The Piano won three awards: Best Actress
for Hunter, Best Supporting Actress
for Paquin, and Best Original Screenplay
. Paquin, who at the time was 11 years old, became the second youngest ever Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner, after Tatum O'Neal
, who won the award in 1974 for Paper Moon
, at 10.
), whose father sells her into marriage to a New Zealand frontiersman, Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill
). She is shipped off along with her young daughter Flora McGrath (Anna Paquin
). The voice that the audience hears is not her speaking voice, but her mind's voice. Ada has not spoken a word since she was six years old, expressing herself instead through her piano playing and through sign language for which her daughter has served as the interpreter. Ada cares little for the mundane world, occupying herself for hours every day with the piano. It is never made explicitly clear why she ceased to speak. Flora, it is later learned, is the product of a relationship with a teacher whom Ada believed she could control with her mind, making him love her, but who "became frightened and stopped listening," and thus left her.
Ada, Flora, and their belongings, including the piano, are deposited on a New Zealand beach by the ship's crew against her angry objections. As there is no one there to meet them, they spend the night alone, sheltering under a tiny tent made of a hoop skirt frame. The following day, Alistair arrives with a Māori crew and his friend Baines (Harvey Keitel
), a fellow forester and a retired sailor, who has adopted many of the Māori customs, including tattooing his face
and socializing with the Māori instead of his own race (save Alistair). There are insufficient men to carry everything and Alistair abandons the piano, again eliciting objections from Ada.
Alistair proves to be a shy and diffident man, who is jokingly called "old dry balls" by his Māori cohorts. He tells Ada that there is no room in his small house for the piano. Ada, in turn, makes no effort to befriend him and continues to try to be reunited with her piano. Unable to communicate with Alistair, she goes, with Flora, to Baines and asks to be taken to the piano. He agrees, and the three spend the day as she plays tunes on the beach. While he socially allies himself with the Māori, Baines has steadfastly refused any sexual activity with Māori women. But he clearly finds Ada attractive due to her passion for music. Baines eventually retrieves the instrument and suggests that Alistair trade itand lessons from Adafor some land that Alistair wants. Alistair consents, oblivious to the budding attraction between Ada and Baines. She is surprised to find that he has had the piano put into perfect tune after its rough journey. He asks to simply listen rather than learn to play himself, and then offers to let her buy the piano back, one key at a time, by letting him do "things he likes" while she plays. Ada reluctantly agrees, as she is attracted to Baines. Ada and Alistair have had no sexual, or even mildly affectionate, interaction even though they are by now formally married.
Baines is sexually aroused by Ada's playing to the point that he openly approaches her. Finally, she yields to her own lust one afternoon, and she and Baines have intercourse. Alistair finally begins to suspect the love affair and after discovering them, he angrily boards up his home with Ada inside when he goes off to work on his timberland. After that interlude, Ada avoids Baines and feigns affection with Alistair, though her caresses only serve to frustrate him more because when he makes a move to touch her in return, she pulls away. Before Alistair departs on his next journey, he asks Ada if she will go to see Bainesshe shakes her head noand he tells her he trusts that she won't go to him while he's gone.
Soon after, Ada sends her daughter with a package for Baines, containing a single piano key with an inscribed love declaration that says "dear George, you will have my heart, Ada McGrath". Flora has begun to accept Alistair as her "papa" and is angered by her mother's infidelity. She brings the piano key instead to Alistair. After reading the love note burnt onto the piano key, Alistair furiously returns home and cuts off Ada's index finger with an axe to deprive her of the ability to play her piano. He then sends Flora to Baines with the severed finger wrapped in cloth, with the message that if Baines ever attempts to see Ada again, he will chop off more fingers. After Ada recovers from her injury, Alistair sends her and Flora away with Baines and dissolves their marriage. They depart from the same beach on which she first landed in New Zealand. While being rowed to the ship with her baggage and the piano tied onto a Maori longboat, Ada feels that the piano is ruined as she can no longer play and insists that Baines throw the piano overboard. As it sinks, she deliberately puts her foot into the loop of rope trailing overboard. She is rapidly pulled deep underwater connected by the rope to the pianobut then she changes her mind and kicks free to be pulled back into the boat.
In an epilogue
, she describes her new life with Baines and Flora in Nelson
, where she has started to give piano lessons in their new home, and her severed finger has been replaced with a silver finger made by Baines. Ada says that she imagines her piano in its grave in the sea, and herself suspended above it, which "lulls me to sleep." Ada has also started to take speech lessons in order to learn how to speak again. The film closes with the Thomas Hood
quote, from his poem "Silence," which also opened the film: "There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave under the deep deep sea."
was Campion's first choice, but she turned down the role because she was taking a break from film at the time. Jennifer Jason Leigh
was also considered but she couldn't meet with Campion to read the script because she was committed to shooting the film Rush
. Isabelle Huppert
met with Jane Campion
and had vintage period-style photographs taken of her as Ada, and later said she regretted not fighting for the role as Hunter did.
The casting for Flora occurred after Hunter had been selected for the part. They did a series of open auditions for girls age 9 to 13, focusing on girls who were small enough to be believable as Ada's daughter (as Holly Hunter is a rather short actress at 5' 2").
Alistair Fox has argued that The Piano was significantly influenced by Jane Mander
's The Story of a New Zealand River. The movie also serves as a retelling of the fairytale Bluebeard
, which is hinted at further in the inclusion of Bluebeard as a piece of the Christmas pageant
.
(Golden Palm, shared with Chen Kaige
's Farewell My Concubine) and a Best Performance Prize for Holly Hunter
at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival
. In 1994, the film won Academy Awards
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
(Holly Hunter), as well as Best Actress in a Supporting Role
(Anna Paquin) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Anna Paquin was the second youngest person after Tatum O'Neal
to win an Academy Award. Holly Hunter
is notable for being one of three actresses — along with Marlee Matlin
(for her American sign language
performance in Children of a Lesser God
) and Jane Wyman
(for her deaf-mute role in Johnny Belinda
) − to receive an Academy Award for Best Actress in the post-silent era for a non-speaking role (her voice is only heard off-screen in a few scenes). The film made its US premier at the Hawaii International Film Festival
.
Critical reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. Roger Ebert
wrote: "The Piano is as peculiar and haunting as any film I've seen" and "It is one of those rare movies that is not just about a story, or some characters, but about a whole universe of feeling." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post
called it "[An] evocative, powerful, extraordinarily beautiful film." On the film site Rotten Tomatoes
The Piano scored 90 out of 100 percent, in a sample of top critics, it scored 100 percent.
Nominations
was written by Michael Nyman
, and included the acclaimed piece "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"; additional pieces were "Big My Secret", "The Mood That Passes Through You", "Silver Fingered Fling", "Deep Sleep Playing" and "The Attraction Of The Peddling Ankle". This album is rated in the top 100 soundtrack albums of all time and Nyman's work is regarded as a key voice in the film, which has a mute lead character (Entertainment Weekly, 12 October 2001, p. 44).
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
about a mute
Muteness
Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak caused by a speech disorder. The term originates from the Latin word mutus, meaning "silent".-Causes:...
pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater on the west coast of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion
Jane Campion
Jane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States...
, and stars Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
, Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
, Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
, and Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
. It features a score for the piano by Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
which became a bestselling soundtrack album
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
. Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film, and also served as sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
teacher for Paquin, earning three screen credits. The film was an international co-production
International co-production
An international co-production is a production where two or more different production companies are working together, for example in a film production...
by Australian producer Jan Chapman
Jan Chapman
Jan Chapman is an Australian film producer.Spouse= Jam Alex 2006-2010Films produced by Chapman include The Last Days of Chez Nous, The Piano, Love Serenade, Holy Smoke, and Lantana.Chapman met her first husband, film director Phillip Noyce, whilst studying English and Fine Arts at university in the...
with the French company Ciby 2000.
The Piano was a commercial and critical success, grossing more than $40 million, against its $7 million budget. Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin received high praise for their role as Ada McGrath and Flora McGrath. At the 66th Academy Awards
66th Academy Awards
The 66th Academy Awards were presented March 21, 1994, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The show was landmark in that it featured a female African American host for the first time, Whoopi Goldberg, and represented a direct contrast in edgy style from Billy Crystal who had hosted the...
, The Piano won three awards: Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for Hunter, Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for Paquin, and Best Original Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the...
. Paquin, who at the time was 11 years old, became the second youngest ever Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner, after Tatum O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is an American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10, which she won for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon opposite her father Ryan O'Neal...
, who won the award in 1974 for Paper Moon
Paper Moon (film)
Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...
, at 10.
Plot
The Piano tells the story of a mute Scotswoman, Ada McGrath (Holly HunterHolly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
), whose father sells her into marriage to a New Zealand frontiersman, Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
). She is shipped off along with her young daughter Flora McGrath (Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
). The voice that the audience hears is not her speaking voice, but her mind's voice. Ada has not spoken a word since she was six years old, expressing herself instead through her piano playing and through sign language for which her daughter has served as the interpreter. Ada cares little for the mundane world, occupying herself for hours every day with the piano. It is never made explicitly clear why she ceased to speak. Flora, it is later learned, is the product of a relationship with a teacher whom Ada believed she could control with her mind, making him love her, but who "became frightened and stopped listening," and thus left her.
Ada, Flora, and their belongings, including the piano, are deposited on a New Zealand beach by the ship's crew against her angry objections. As there is no one there to meet them, they spend the night alone, sheltering under a tiny tent made of a hoop skirt frame. The following day, Alistair arrives with a Māori crew and his friend Baines (Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
), a fellow forester and a retired sailor, who has adopted many of the Māori customs, including tattooing his face
Ta moko
Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Traditionally it is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by rather than punctured...
and socializing with the Māori instead of his own race (save Alistair). There are insufficient men to carry everything and Alistair abandons the piano, again eliciting objections from Ada.
Alistair proves to be a shy and diffident man, who is jokingly called "old dry balls" by his Māori cohorts. He tells Ada that there is no room in his small house for the piano. Ada, in turn, makes no effort to befriend him and continues to try to be reunited with her piano. Unable to communicate with Alistair, she goes, with Flora, to Baines and asks to be taken to the piano. He agrees, and the three spend the day as she plays tunes on the beach. While he socially allies himself with the Māori, Baines has steadfastly refused any sexual activity with Māori women. But he clearly finds Ada attractive due to her passion for music. Baines eventually retrieves the instrument and suggests that Alistair trade itand lessons from Adafor some land that Alistair wants. Alistair consents, oblivious to the budding attraction between Ada and Baines. She is surprised to find that he has had the piano put into perfect tune after its rough journey. He asks to simply listen rather than learn to play himself, and then offers to let her buy the piano back, one key at a time, by letting him do "things he likes" while she plays. Ada reluctantly agrees, as she is attracted to Baines. Ada and Alistair have had no sexual, or even mildly affectionate, interaction even though they are by now formally married.
Baines is sexually aroused by Ada's playing to the point that he openly approaches her. Finally, she yields to her own lust one afternoon, and she and Baines have intercourse. Alistair finally begins to suspect the love affair and after discovering them, he angrily boards up his home with Ada inside when he goes off to work on his timberland. After that interlude, Ada avoids Baines and feigns affection with Alistair, though her caresses only serve to frustrate him more because when he makes a move to touch her in return, she pulls away. Before Alistair departs on his next journey, he asks Ada if she will go to see Bainesshe shakes her head noand he tells her he trusts that she won't go to him while he's gone.
Soon after, Ada sends her daughter with a package for Baines, containing a single piano key with an inscribed love declaration that says "dear George, you will have my heart, Ada McGrath". Flora has begun to accept Alistair as her "papa" and is angered by her mother's infidelity. She brings the piano key instead to Alistair. After reading the love note burnt onto the piano key, Alistair furiously returns home and cuts off Ada's index finger with an axe to deprive her of the ability to play her piano. He then sends Flora to Baines with the severed finger wrapped in cloth, with the message that if Baines ever attempts to see Ada again, he will chop off more fingers. After Ada recovers from her injury, Alistair sends her and Flora away with Baines and dissolves their marriage. They depart from the same beach on which she first landed in New Zealand. While being rowed to the ship with her baggage and the piano tied onto a Maori longboat, Ada feels that the piano is ruined as she can no longer play and insists that Baines throw the piano overboard. As it sinks, she deliberately puts her foot into the loop of rope trailing overboard. She is rapidly pulled deep underwater connected by the rope to the pianobut then she changes her mind and kicks free to be pulled back into the boat.
In an epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
, she describes her new life with Baines and Flora in Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
, where she has started to give piano lessons in their new home, and her severed finger has been replaced with a silver finger made by Baines. Ada says that she imagines her piano in its grave in the sea, and herself suspended above it, which "lulls me to sleep." Ada has also started to take speech lessons in order to learn how to speak again. The film closes with the Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood was a British humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor.-Early life:...
quote, from his poem "Silence," which also opened the film: "There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave under the deep deep sea."
Cast
- Holly HunterHolly HunterHolly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
as Ada McGrath - Harvey KeitelHarvey KeitelHarvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
as George Baines - Anna PaquinAnna PaquinAnna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
as Flora McGrath - Sam NeillSam NeillNigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
as Alistair Stewart - Kerry Walker as Aunt Morag
- Genevieve LemonGenevieve LemonGenevieve Lemon is an Australian actress who has appeared in a number of soap operas – as Zelda Baker in The Young Doctors, Marlene "Rabbit" Warren in Prisoner and Brenda Riley in Neighbours...
as Nessie - Tungia BakerTungia BakerTungia Baker was a Maori actress who's notable film roles include Hira in The Piano.The daughter of noted Ngāti Raukawa elder Matenga Baker of Otaki, she was a National Representative of American Field Service, pioneering marae visits for incoming AFS scholars. She was closely associated with...
as Hira - Ian MuneIan MuneIan Barry Mune, OBE is a New Zealand character actor and director. He co-wrote and starred in Roger Donaldson's first film, Sleeping Dogs. He also directed Came a Hot Friday, which featured comedian Billy T. James as the Tainui Kid, and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, the sequel to Once Were...
as Reverend - Peter Dennett as Head seaman
- Cliff CurtisCliff CurtisClifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
as Mana - George Boyle as Ada's Father / Flora's Grandfather
Production
Casting the role of Ada was a difficult process. Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
was Campion's first choice, but she turned down the role because she was taking a break from film at the time. Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
was also considered but she couldn't meet with Campion to read the script because she was committed to shooting the film Rush
Rush (1991 film)
Rush is a 1991 American crime drama feature film, based on a novel written by Kim Wozencraft. A narcotics detective and his inexperienced partner go after an elusive drug dealer...
. Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress who has appeared in over 90 film and television productions since 1971. She has had 14 films in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the Best Actress Award twice, for Violette Nozière and La pianiste . She is also the most...
met with Jane Campion
Jane Campion
Jane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States...
and had vintage period-style photographs taken of her as Ada, and later said she regretted not fighting for the role as Hunter did.
The casting for Flora occurred after Hunter had been selected for the part. They did a series of open auditions for girls age 9 to 13, focusing on girls who were small enough to be believable as Ada's daughter (as Holly Hunter is a rather short actress at 5' 2").
Alistair Fox has argued that The Piano was significantly influenced by Jane Mander
Jane Mander
Mary Jane Mander was a New Zealand novelist and journalist.-Early life:Born in the small community of Ramarama, situated south of Auckland, she had little schooling, yet was teaching at primary school while being tutored for a high school education. Her father, the Hon...
's The Story of a New Zealand River. The movie also serves as a retelling of the fairytale Bluebeard
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the...
, which is hinted at further in the inclusion of Bluebeard as a piece of the Christmas pageant
Pageant
A medieval pageant is a form of procession traditionally associated with both secular and religious rituals, often with a narrative structure. Pageantry was an important aspect of medieval European seasonal festivals, in particular around the celebration of Corpus Christi, which began after the...
.
Reception
The film won the Palme d'OrPalme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
(Golden Palm, shared with Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige is a Chinese film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling.-Early life:...
's Farewell My Concubine) and a Best Performance Prize for Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival
1993 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :* Louis Malle * Claudia Cardinale * Inna Churikova * Judy Davis * Abbas Kiarostami * Emir Kusturica * William Lubtchansky * Tom Luddy * Gary Oldman * Augusto M...
. In 1994, the film won Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Holly Hunter), as well as Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Anna Paquin) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Anna Paquin was the second youngest person after Tatum O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is an American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10, which she won for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon opposite her father Ryan O'Neal...
to win an Academy Award. Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
is notable for being one of three actresses — along with Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Marlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...
(for her American sign language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
performance in Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...
) and Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
(for her deaf-mute role in Johnny Belinda
Johnny Belinda (1948 film)
Johnny Belinda is a 1948 American drama film based on the play of the same name by Elmer Blaney Harris. The movie was adapted to the screen by Allen Vincent and Irma von Cube, and directed by Jean Negulesco....
) − to receive an Academy Award for Best Actress in the post-silent era for a non-speaking role (her voice is only heard off-screen in a few scenes). The film made its US premier at the Hawaii International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
.
Critical reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote: "The Piano is as peculiar and haunting as any film I've seen" and "It is one of those rare movies that is not just about a story, or some characters, but about a whole universe of feeling." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it "[An] evocative, powerful, extraordinarily beautiful film." On the film site Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
The Piano scored 90 out of 100 percent, in a sample of top critics, it scored 100 percent.
Accolades
Won- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Screenplay — Original (Jane Campion)
- Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin)
- Cannes Film Festival1993 Cannes Film Festival- Jury :* Louis Malle * Claudia Cardinale * Inna Churikova * Judy Davis * Abbas Kiarostami * Emir Kusturica * William Lubtchansky * Tom Luddy * Gary Oldman * Augusto M...
- Golden Palm
- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- César Awards
- Best Foreign Film
- Australian Film InstituteAustralian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
:- Best Actor (Harvey Keitel)
- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Cinematography (Stuart Dryburgh)
- Best Costume Design (Janet Patterson)
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Editing (Veronika Jenet)
- Best Film
- Best Original Music Score (Michael Nyman)
- Best Production Design
- Best Screenplay — Original (Jane Campion)
- Best Sound
- BAFTA Awards:
- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Costume Design (Janet Patterson)
- Best Production Design (Andrew McAlpine)
- Boston Film CriticsBoston Society of Film Critics Awards 1993The 14th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1993. The awards were given on 19 December 1993-Winners:*Best Film:**Schindler's List*Best Actor:**Daniel Day-Lewis – In the Name of the Father*Best Actress:...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Chicago Film CriticsChicago Film Critics Association Awards 1993----Best Film: Schindler's List The 6th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards honored the finest achievements in 1993 filmmaking.-Winners:* Best Actor:** Liam Neeson - Schindler's List* Best Actress:** Holly Hunter - The Piano...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Score (Michael Nyman)
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film CriticsDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards 1993The 1st Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards honored best filmmaking of 1993.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Anthony Hopkins - The Remains of the Day*Best Actress:**Holly Hunter - The Piano*Best Director...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Actress — Drama (Holly Hunter)
- Independent Spirit AwardsIndependent Spirit Awards 1993The 1994 Independent Spirit Awards, given by Film Independent on 19 March 1994, honored the best in film for 1993.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Jeff Bridges - American Heart*Best Actress:**Ashley Judd - Ruby in Paradise*Best Cinematography:...
:- Best Foreign Film, Australia/New Zealand
- London Film Critics:
- Actress of the Year (Holly Hunter)
- Film of the Year
- Los Angeles Film CriticsLos Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1993The 19th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 1993, were given on 11 December 1993.-Winners:*Best Picture:**Schindler's List**Runner-up: The Piano*Best Director:...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Cinematography
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Screenplay (Jane Campion)
- Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin)
- National Board of ReviewNational Board of Review Awards 1993The 65th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 1993, were announced on 14 December 1993 and given on 28 February 1994.-Top 10 films:#Schindler's List *Academy Award for Best Picture*#The Age of Innocence...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- National Society of Film CriticsNational Society of Film Critics Awards 1993The 28th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 1994, honored the best filmmaking of 1993.-Best Picture::1. Schindler's List2. The Piano3. Short Cuts-Best Director::...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Screenplay (Jane Campion)
- New York Film CriticsNew York Film Critics Circle Awards 1993The 59th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1993. The winners were announced on 15 December 1993 and the awards were given on 16 January 1994.-Winners:*Best Actor:**David Thewlis - Naked*Best Actress:...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Screenplay (Jane Campion)
- Southeastern Film CriticsSoutheastern Film Critics Association Awards 1993The 2nd Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 1993, were held in January 1994.-Top 10 films:#The Piano#Schindler's List *Academy Award for Best Picture*#The Remains of the Day#Much Ado About Nothing...
:- Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Picture
- Writers Guild of America (WGA)Writers Guild of America Awards 1993The Writers Guild of America Awards 1993 were given on 13 March 1994.- Best Adapted Screenplay : Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian* The Fugitive - Jeb Stuart and David Twohy* In the Name of the Father - Terry George and Jim Sheridan...
:- Best Screenplay — Original (Jane Campion)
Nominations
- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
:- Best Cinematography (Stuart Dryburgh)
- Best Costume Design (Janet Patterson)
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Editing (Veronika Jenet)
- Best Picture
- American Cinema EditorsAmerican Cinema EditorsFounded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
:- Best Edited Feature Film (Veronika Jenet)
- American Society of CinematographersAmerican Society of CinematographersThe American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...
:- Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (Stuart Dryburgh)
- Australian Film InstituteAustralian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
:- Best Supporting Actor (Sam Neill)
- Best Supporting Actress (Kerry Walker)
- BAFTA Awards:
- Best Cinematography
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Editing
- Best Film
- Best Score (Michael Nyman)
- Best Screenplay — Original (Jane Campion)
- Best Sound
- Directors Guild of America (DGA)Directors Guild of America Awards 1993The 46th Directors Guild of America Awards, given on 5 March 1994, honored the best film and television directors in 1993.-Film:*Best Director - Motion Picture:**Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List*Best Director - Documentary:...
:- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Director (Jane Campion)
- Best Original Score (Michael Nyman)
- Best Picture — Drama
- Best Screenplay (Jane Campion)
- Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin)
Soundtrack
The score for the filmFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
was written by Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
, and included the acclaimed piece "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"; additional pieces were "Big My Secret", "The Mood That Passes Through You", "Silver Fingered Fling", "Deep Sleep Playing" and "The Attraction Of The Peddling Ankle". This album is rated in the top 100 soundtrack albums of all time and Nyman's work is regarded as a key voice in the film, which has a mute lead character (Entertainment Weekly, 12 October 2001, p. 44).