Review of Campion's The Piano

This was a great film. An exhibition of restraint, of Victorian, 19th century values that had taken hold o the British Empire, including where The Piano is set, New Zealand. All of the sets, the costumes, the relationships of the whites with the natives, the moral repression of female sexuality, they all serve as narrative action that finally blows up in the seduction of the mute woman by Harvey Keitel. From there the film moves quickly with much plot development.

The big conflict is between the farmer who had an arranged marriage with Hunter and Harvey Keitel who has seduced his wife away. It reminded of Lady Chatterly. There are similarities between these two stories. Both are stories of affairs between people of different classes. I was thinking this as the film picked up speed and went racing to it's conclusion. I think a plot point of the second act of the film, perhaps even a turning point is when Sam Niell picks up his hatchet and marches back to his house. From there I thought he was going to destroy the piano, but he does something more gruesome then destroy an object. Instead he cuts off a finger.

From there the action dissipates into a scene where we see Hunter and Keitel leaving New Zealand for some other place, England perhaps? In the final dramatic scene Hunter pushes the piano into the ocean. She then sticks her leg into rope attached to the piano. In, perhaps, the best shot of the film we see her slowly drowning with the piano, but in a gasp at living manages to free herself from the piano. She does not drown with the piano. Instead her and Baines go onto live a life where she teaches piano.

I thought this scene was very well done. I don't know the exact details of how the shot was pulled off, but it looks like it was shot underwater. After she comes up for air, the pace of the camera slows down. When she is breathing, being saved by the natives, and pulled back onto the boat, her voice comes on again. From there the film concludes.

I have several questions about the film. First, and perhaps, foremost is what does the piano symbolize? Her loveless life? Her Victorian morals? Only Campion can tell us what it truly means. I think the performances were top notch. Hunter really pulls off her character well and Harvey Keitel is perfectly cast as the other man. I liked the use of voice over, I felt the pacing was good. It moved a little slowly in the beginning, but I think that works well to build up the tension in the movie leading up to the romance between Keitel and Hunter. Very good film.