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.
"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.
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.
Oscars
3 wins, 5 nominations
Cannes
2 wins
Golden Globes
1 win, 5 nominations
BAFTA
3 wins, 7 nominations
DGA
1 nomination
Spirit Awards
1 win
WGA
1 win
Nat. Board of Review
2 wins
NYFCC
3 wins, 2 nominations
LAFCA
5 wins, 2 nominations
César Awards
1 win
