Our take
Plenty of films celebrate this popular instrument, but rarely have we seen it in a story like The Piano. For some of the characters, it’s the thing that makes music, or nice decor, or simply extremely heavy luggage. For Scottish immigrant Ada McGrath, however, it’s the one thing that allows her to express herself directly, without requiring her daughter’s sign language translation or her neighbor George Baine’s translation to the Maori crew. The additional hurdle is then the bridge to love. Writer-director Jane Campion cleverly pairs the sound and visual of Ada’s playing with the intimacy that the music forges.
What it won
Oscars
3 wins · 5 noms
Cannes
2 wins
Golden Globes
1 win · 5 noms
BAFTA
3 wins · 7 noms
DGA
1 nom
Spirit Awards
1 win
WGA
1 win
Nat. Board of Review
2 wins
NYFCC
3 wins · 2 noms
LAFCA
5 wins · 2 noms
César Awards
1 win
The story
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Elsewhere
"The details of the story seem utterly inseparable from, and continuous with, the riotously ornamental visual realms that it sets into motion."
— Richard Brody
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
