The Piano (1993)
Directed by Jane Campion
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited pre-teen daughter Flora to the wilderness of 19th-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.
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What critics compared The Piano to
The entire camera work by Stuart Dryburgh, most notable for his work on Jane Campion’s “The Piano” twenty years ago, is smoothly appealing with stunning shots for the audience to sink their teeth into.
This “Mitty” is visually resplendent with some of the best work of cameraman Stuart Dryburgh’s (“The Piano”) career amid eye-catching landscapes.
Bright colors prevail: cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (“The Piano,” “Lone Star”) seems to be auditioning to shoot the next generation of videos for songs by sigur rós.
The comparison with Jane Campion’s Palme D’or winner, The Piano , is an obvious one to make, but when the credits roll 120 minutes later it is obvious that Sciamma’s picture stands tall on its own merit.
Not since Jane Campion’s The Piano has a costume drama presented such a gorgeous view of love from a woman’s point of view, as in Portrait of a Lady on Fire .
Anyone who appreciates the work of writer/director Jane Campion — particularly her Oscar-winning 1993 drama The Piano — knows you’ve simply got to let her take the wheel and drive.
McKenzie, who is from New Zealand, gives as rich and confident a performance as her compatriot Anna Paquin in The Piano .
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It’s a trip of which Lucy had only dreamed, since being educated in all things English by a friendly explorer from the Geographers’ Guild of Great Britain — a detail illustrated in an amusing introductory pastiche of 1930s newsreels that includes, of all things, a supremely unlikely reference to Jane Campion’s “The Piano.”
Well, you know, Sally Potter with Orlando, and Jane Campion with The Piano...
Variations on the theme have found their way into a broad assortment of popular films, from "The Sound of Music" and "The Piano" to the Oscar-winning "Antonia's Line" to such classics as "Like Water for Chocolate" and "Babette's Feast," in which the forbidden fruit of the flesh is given a gastronomical dimension.
While Hardy's tale is incredibly modern for its time, Vinterberg has further freshened the material, most notably with Janet Patterson's ("The Piano," "Bright Star") costuming.
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In films like Caché, The Piano Teacher and Year of the Wolf, he depicts a bleak human condition where desires are unhealthy, actions are furtive and motives are suspect.