File:The-piano-poster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
"The Piano" is a 1993 film directed by Jane Campion about a mute woman and her daughter navigating life in nineteenth-century New Zealand. The film is considered significant for its distinctive storytelling, visual style, and its recognition as a major work by a female filmmaker during a period when few women directed major feature films.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.4When 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.
Cast
- Holly Hunter as Ada McGrath
- Harvey Keitel as George Baines
- Sam Neill as Alisdair Stewart
- Anna Paquin as Flora McGrath
- Cliff Curtis as Mana
- Kerry Walker as Aunt Morag
Themes
- adultery
- secret love
- beach
- jealousy
- love triangle
- isolation
- culture clash
- sexuality
- arranged marriage
- strangeness
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.5/10
99,214 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
90%
Metacritic
89/100
- Year
- 1993
- Runtime
- 121 min
- Genres
- Drama, Music, Romance
- Rated
- R
- Awards
- Won 3 Oscars. 65 wins & 57 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Jane Campion
- Written by
- Jane Campion
- Produced by
- Jan Chapman
- Starring
- Holly Hunter Harvey Keitel Sam Neill Anna Paquin Kerry Walker Genevieve Lemon
- Cinematography
- Stuart Dryburgh
- Edited by
- Veronika Jenet
- Music by
- Michael Nyman
- Production companies
- Jan Chapman Productions , CiBy 2000
- Distributed by
- BAC Films (France), Miramax (Australia and New Zealand; through Buena Vista International and Roadshow Film Distributors )
- Release dates
- 15 May 1993 ( 1993-05-15 ) ( Cannes ) 19 May 1993 ( 1993-05-19 ) (France) 5 August 1993 ( 1993-08-05 ) (Australia)
- Running time
- 117 minutes
- Countries
- Australia, France
- Languages
- English, Māori, British Sign Language
- Budget
- US$7 million
- Box office
- US$140 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Official website
Link to the official site · 2,977 chars · not written by Vinony
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Piano is a 1993 historical romance film produced, written and directed by Jane Campion. It stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin (in her first major acting role). The film focuses on a mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote part of New Zealand with her young daughter after her arranged marriage to a settler. The plot has similarities to Jane Mander's 1920 novel, The Story of a New Zealand River, but also substantial differences. Campion has cited the novels Wuthering Heights and The African Queen as inspirations.
An international co-production between Australia and France, The Piano premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 1993, where it won the Palme d'Or, rendering Campion the first female director to achieve that distinction. It was a commercial success, grossing US$140.2 million worldwide against its US$7 million budget. The film was also noted for its crossover appeal beyond the arthouse circuit in attracting mainstream popularity, largely due to rave reviews and word of mouth.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Piano” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.