Saturday, January 21, 2006

The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)

Up to a certain point I was rather uninterested, as the passion depicted seemed too far-fetched. It looked as if made upon a preconceived notion that "passion is something like this, see?" and it was not convincing. It looked more like a demographic problem; a woman versus two men. What happens next is predictable. Only things that kept my interests were the episodes with the Maori (infuriated by a play of Bluebeard) and the fabulous Anna Paquin.

But then toward the end, for the last thirty minutes or so, the film showed its true color; violent, engaging, enraging, shocking. The burial of the piano in the ocean has something truly extraordinary in it. And the ending sequence has a sense of humour that's commendable. It's not a laugh-out-loud humour, you know, but something that saves the film's otherwise gloomy possible ending.

And the land of Aotearoa is beautifully conceived. Looking back from Holy Smoke!, the woman's urination is pretty funny. Is it a bit of an obsession for Jane?

A strong, powerful work. A classic.