The Piano
Director: Jane Campion
Writer: Jane Campion
Cast: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, Kerry Walker, Cliff Curtis
Seen on: 25.1.2026

Content Note: (attempted) rape, intimate partner violence, colonialism, racism, (attempted) suicide

Plot:
When Ada (Holly Hunter) was just a child, she decided not to talk anymore, expressing herself mostly through her piano. When her parents arrange a marriage in New Zealand for her, it is clear that Ada, her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her piano will travel together. Her husband Stewart (Sam Neill) had little understanding for Ada’s passion, but he is willing to be patient. Meanwhile his neighbor and worker George (Harvey Keitel) takes an instant interest in Ada and her piano.

I saw The Piano when I was a teenager, and probably still too young to really understand or appreciate it. Most of what I remembered about it was that we get to see Harvey Keitel completely naked. So I thought it is time to revisit this film, and I am glad I did. It is a complicated and beautiful movie that should be remembered for more than full frontal nudity.

The Piano refuses easy classifications or moral judgements. The start of Ada and George’s relationship is absolutely fucked up, with him effectively pressuring her and she having very little space to negotiate. I did have trouble to get into the romantic side, but that’s just as it should be. They find their way despite this beginning, especially since Ada is no blushing virgin and no simple victim, she finds ways to control the situation and is never without agency. Stewart is both kind and cruel, uninterested and controling, and Flora is both a devoted daughter and a troublemaker, a child, but not a naive one.

Equally ambivalent is the relationship between the white settlers and the Maori people, especially when it comes to George (all other white people are more clearly simply racists). George is seen as well-regarded in the Maori community. He has friendly and non-transactional contact with them, he even has tribal tattoos on his face. But when Stewart is frustrated because the Maori wouldn’t accept trinkets for land, George agrees that Stewart should just claim the land, regardless. I wouldn’t have minded if the film had been a little more openly critical regarding colonialism, I have to admit.

It’s probably a rather realistic portrayal of the way things were at the time, and the way people would have acted within the constraints of a patriarchal and deeply racist society. It is certainly no glorification of colonialism, with the endless rain and mud that weighs everything down, with unease and violence lurking everywhere. Yet it absolutely centers the white perspective.

The film is beautifully shot, something that feels almost impossible given all that gray mud, but they manage anyway. And it is an actor’s film for sure, with Hunter, Keitel, Paquin and Neill giving fantastic performances, each in very different ways that nevertheless match very well. In short, it is a really, really good film that is lauded for a reason.

Summarizing: excellent.