The rough process of colonisation

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2012)

New Zealander director Jane Campion is a renounced visualist as a director but many of her films do not connect with audiences. Her IMDb ratings struggle to get up to a 7.0/10 and whilst she does please critics, audiences find her films uninteresting. But her period drama The Piano is the exception, wining three Oscars, having a 7.5/10 on IMDb, 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and working as an art film.
1850s a mute Scotswoman, Ada (Holly Hunter) who is arranged to marry a man she has never met, Alistair (Sam Neill), a man who lives on the frontier of New Zealand. Ada, her young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her prized piano move to the forests of South Island in New Zealand. But when Alistair refuses to move the piano his remote home, Ada takes an instant dislike to the shy man. Alistair's friend Baines (Harvey Keitel) offers a solution, he buys the piano and ask Ada to teach him to play. But Baines only wants Ada around for sexual arousal and the sexual tension starts to grow.
Campion is a certainly bring a rough edge to The Piano and it felt like the period. This remote outpost really felt like the edge of civilisation. You can easily feel the mud, the rain, the wind and the harsh environment and that it was a tough place to survive. This is not a romantic view of the New Zealand landscape like other director but show what would have been like for settlers in a land that has yet to be developed. This bleak and nature visual is enhanced by the art direction and Stuart Dryburgh slightly dark and dim cinematography.
Thematically there is a one big ideas is a clash of cultures. Obviously there the clash between British settlers and Maoris, but also between Ada moving from upper class luxury in Scotland to a small colonial outpost with her daughter and that Baines is a rough, tough and a uncultured man. There is a also a big theme of sexual repression, from Alistair to being a man who seems very shy, looking for love and Baines unable to express himself so starts off being a very creepy. There is also idea that love can not grow or be forced, but a spontaneous thing, something that happens from an act of passion.
The acting is excellent throughout. From Holly Hunter in a very difficult role as a mute character, so has to express herself through her body language and her face. Neill and Keitel were great male leads, Neill being the man of civilisation and more traditional fellow and Keitel as a more rustic man of the wilderness and looking for an outlet for his sexual desires. Accompanied with the direction Baines comes off as a creepy character, particularly during a scene when he makes Ada lift up her skirt as she plays the piano and gets pleasure from touching a hole in her clothes. Paquin showed that she was a very good child actress, giving a confidence performance as a young acting older then she is but still acts childish at times. And she also gave an excellent Scottish accent.
Michael Nyman supplies an excellent simple piano based that fitted the film.
At times The Piano is a little slow at times and about ten minutes could have cut. But overall it is a very interesting film that will supply some food for through 7.5/10