Amazon.co.uk Review
Jane Campion's The Piano struck a deep chord (if you'll excuse the expression) with audiences in 1993, who were mesmerised by the film's rich, dreamlike imagery. It is the story of a Scottish woman named Ada (Holly Hunter), who has been mute since age 6 because she simply chose not to speak. Ada travels with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her beloved piano to a remote spot on the coast of New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a farmer (Sam Neill). She gives piano lessons to a gruff neighbor (Harvey Keitel) who has Maori tattoos on his face and, well, things develop from there. The picture takes on a powerful dream logic that simply defies synopsis. It's a breathtakingly beautiful and original achievement from Campion, a unique stylist. The Piano won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Oscars for Hunt, Paquin and Campion's screenplay. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
The Piano.......2007-09-11
I had this film on video tape, and it has been watched, and loaned out to friends so many times, it's worn out. So, I had to but the DVD!!!!!!!!!!!
The special edition DVD is fascinationg because if you already love the film, you are given an insght into the mind of the writer. I also loved watching the interview with the composer, being a keen piano player. The film is a very dark, dramatic and moody and the music is beautiful, matching perfectly the whole feel of the movie. Oh, and Holly Hunter actually plays the piano! But it!You won't be disappointed.
Book? What book?.......2007-02-03
I am not sure what others are referring to when they say this film is not as good as the 'book it is based upon' - because The Piano is a total original. The screenplay is not based on a book and was written directly for the screen (which is also one of the three Oscars it deservedly won). I believe there may have been a novelisation that followed the film, but the fierce artistic vision that Campion committed to celluloid is where it all starts - it is won that invites people to unravel it's mysteries, but remains ambiguous and untenable enough that they never really can be. An amazing film.
Amazing performances, beautifully haunting movie..........2006-11-19
The Piano is an amazing tale of lust, envy, jealousy, betrayal and female identity and independence. Set in the mid nineteenth century, Ada McGrath is shipped off with her daughter Flora and their scant belongings to New Zealand, the reason being her arranged marriage to a somewhat successful land owner. Ada's beloved piano makes the journey with her.
The visually haunting opening scene of her arrival on the beach is perhaps one of the most haunting movie openings I think I've ever seen. From the beginning you sense her suffocating sense of misplacement and isolation, her sense of being out of place in the rain drenched, mud soaked South Island is overpowering (you have to remember this was way back when the area was hardly populated except by natives and there were few roads etc).
Holly Hunter excells, as usual, in her role, deservedly winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a woman who chooses to be mute and has not spoken since she was six years old. Ada's true love, is her piano, which is her emotional and symbolic voice, being her most powerful expression of emotion and spirit. Ada takes an instant dislike of her new husband (Sam Neil) when he refuses to bring her piano up from the beach, and when an illiterate neighbour George Baines (played by Harvey Keitel) decides to bring her piano to his home, he strikes up a deal with her, formulating a way for her to earn it back. He proposes that for every lesson she gives, he gets to perform one sexual act. In the beginning, Ada despises George for his immoral, lustful blackmailing, however slowly, tacitly, their relationship transforms into a strong emotional and intellectual bond, and their lives spiral down into a frenzy of lust, deadly jealousy, envy and tragedy. The movie is full of symbolism and should be read metaphorically rather than literally. Passion is abundant, and as a pianist, I felt her intense passion for playing, which offered not only a voice for her to express herself with, but formed a part integral to her identity.
It is long, and quite slow to get into but very rewarding, and the haunting climax, and ending will leave you breathless but with a feeling of fullfilment.
I watch it again and again, and realise each time more and more symbolism within the movie. Amazing, Jane Campion deserved her praise and awards, while Anna Paquin became the youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award, whilst Holly Hunter excels in the peformance of a lifetime.
Tagged as one of the best movies of the last 30 years of the twentieth century?... I certainly think so.
Minor Chord Struck.......2006-07-18
It is understandable that movies cannot be the same as the book they are based on, however, in this one a number of important parts from the book were left out that would have given more meaning to the movie - especially the reasons for Ada chosing to remain mute. Not a bad movie, but rather read the book!
Amazingly disappointing.......2006-07-15
This movie has won lots of plaudits and we had expected (perhaps too) much but were correspondingly disappointed. The scenery has odd fine moments but for some reason the movie is set mostly in muddy wet forest (very unfair to NZ!), and it is very hard to sympathize with the adult leads (the daughter is much the best), many of whose motives (for example for remaining mute) are never explored.
The music is beautiful but the ultimate violence seems ritualistic, if predictable in movie terms.
Customer Reviews:
Filmmaking at its best.......2007-12-12
Autumn Sonata is a great psychological study of a dysfunctional relationship between a self-absorbed mother and her two daughters, as well as the devastating damage inflicted by her negligent parenting.
Bergman makes a convincing case that achieving one's true happiness - that Aristotelian ideal of human perfection - is not to be achieved through focusing exclusively on one's own needs and wants.
The relationship between parents and their children can go very wrong, even tragically wrong. There is, indeed, such a thing as poor parenting. How sad and how unfair that it is the children who often pay the heaviest price for the wrongdoings of their own parents.
The acting, script, directing, and cinematography in this film are all superb.
A BERGMAN CLASSIC.......2007-08-08
Before she was an international star of incomparable charisma and beauty, and even before Ingmar Bergman became a legendary director of films bleak and intense, Ingrid Bergman played in the Swedish cinema. So it is entirely apropos that someday Bergman might direct Bergman.
Ingrid plays Charlotte, a concert pianist who has, upon the recent death of her longtime lover, Leonardo, returned to her native land to visit her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), whom she hasn't seen for seven years, and her husband Viktor (Halvar Bjork), who is a minister. Ullmann is frumpish in specs with her hair up and her dress loose and ill-fitting. She is Ingrid's nerdish daughter who has been throughout her life entirely overshadowed by her glamorous mother. Eva has an unpleasant surprise for mom. Her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who suffers from a crippling disease, perhaps muscular dystrophy, is on hand. Eva didn't tell her mother that Helena was now living with them. She says she didn't tell her because she knew that, if she had, Charlotte would not have come. And so we can guess that there are issues that will come out, issues between mother and daughter that have been festering for decades.
I got goose bumps seeing Ingrid Bergman as an elderly woman, and seeing the smooth, graceful style again, the elegant presence, a hint of the old gestures, the sly glances, the tentative smiles... It was really wonderful and at the same time disconcerting to examine her face (Sven Nykvist's intense close ups expose every inch of skin) and sigh and remember and understand the effect of the passing years. Ingrid is elegant but she has been robbed of her beauty so now we are able to see her character; unfortunately Ingmar's script allows little of the real Ingrid Bergman to appear. Hers is not a pleasant part to play. She is an entirely selfish and self-centered woman who has put her career before her family, but is unaware of what she has done. Eva seizes this opportunity to punish her mother by dredging up the neglect of her childhood to throw it in her mother's face (which perhaps explains why Charlotte hasn't been home in seven years). The sheer cold hatred that Eva expresses is enough to make the devil himself cringe. After a bit one begins to feel sorry for Charlotte, despite her failures as a mother, to have a daughter so unforgiving and so hateful.
Liv Ullmann is rather startling in this portrayal, with her penetrating eyes, her hard, Neandethalish forehead, the severe specs, and the uncompromising tone of her voice. Charlotte is ashamed and begs for forgiveness and tries to defend herself, but it is no use. Eva is too strong for her. This is one of the more intense scenes in cinema, and one not easily watched. Meanwhile in the upstairs bedroom and then in the hallway and down the staircase, Helena has heard them arguing and is pulling her crippled body over the floor, desperately trying to reach them. She cries out, "Mama! Mama!" but is not heard.
Viewers might want to pick sides between mother and daughter to say which is the more at fault. Indeed, it is hard to say who Bergman himself found more at fault. Perhaps there is no fault, only human weakness and stupidity. Such scenes are usually followed by a greater understanding, forgiveness and a willingness to start anew. However, although Charlotte wants that, it is not clear in Bergman's script that anything good will come of what has happened. Charlotte leaves, the minister returns to looking at his wife, (having overheard the argument, about which he has said nothing) and Eva writes a letter to her mother. It is not clear whether she wants to patch things up or to gain another opportunity to pick her mother to pieces. The viewer is left to decide.
Perhaps the best scene in the film is the one that follows dinner the night of Charlotte's arrival in which Eva plays the piano, a Chopin prelude. She has worked hard on it and hopes to please her mother. Alas, her play is not so good. After all, the mother is a genius, the daughter only the daughter of a genius. Charlotte sits down next to Eva and takes the keys to gently demonstrate how the piece should be played. We see and feel at once the inadequacy of the daughter in her mother's eyes. It is a great scene filmed with a tight focus on the faces of the two women. When Eva turns to stare at her mother, who is, of course, playing brilliantly with great finesse and touch, the expression on Eva's face, held for many long seconds, is unforgettable.
Not to second guess the master, but I would have liked to have seen the entire movie played in this, a more subtle key than that which followed. However when it comes to dysfunction and disease, Ingmar Bergman is unrestrained.
Ingrid Bergman was nominated for an academy award for best actress in this, her last feature film (she had already been diagnosed with cancer), but lost out to Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978).
Classic Bergman........2006-04-16
Höstsonaten brought together two of the great Swedish legends of cinema - Ingmar Bergman and Ingrid Bergman (they're not related.) Ingmar would make only two more films before announcing his retirement as a film director, and it was Ingrid's very last feature. The film is an intense exploration of the dysfunctional relationship between a mother (played by Bergman) and daughter (Liv Ullmann). Scenes of apparent normality are juxtaposed with scenes of deep and traumatic revelation as the two women struggle with their love and their hate for each other and discuss the very different ways in which they see the past. This is classic Bergman: intense drama, fantastic writing and the outstanding performances he always manages to get from his actors.
More than a classic.......2003-07-16
Well, I adore Bergman. He knows how to work with colors. The movie is overwhelmed with tones of brown and yellow emphasizing the season. (remember Cries and Whispers' red tones)However it is not just an autumn of a certain year, no; the autumn of the lives. You expect to witness a nostalgic conversation, however are shaken with a severe confrontation of two leading characters about the past acts. (sins ?) Very brief flashbacks, static camera with fabulous art direction has created a masterpiece, that is worth to view again and again. Liv Ullman's performance was notable, I should say: a benchmark for actors and actresses which is not exceeded till now yet.
Bergman on Bergman.......2003-05-19
While some of Ingmar Bergman's actors consistently gave great performances over a number of films, the greatest one-off performance in a film of his is that of his namesake, Ingrid, in this, her last film before she died of cancer.
Well into her seventh decade, Ingrid Bergman's beauty as an aging concert pianist, Charlotte, is striking, especially in contrast with her daughter played by Liv Ullman. Ullman's astonishingly attractive looks (which dominate such classics as "Persona" "The Passion of Anna" "Cries and Whispers" and "Scenes from a Marriage") are convincingly masked by the dowdy attire, owlish glasses and prissy manner which give great credibility to her depiction of a priest's wife, unloved by and resentful of her mother.
Unique among Ingmar Bergman's films, the principal relationship under examination is that of mother and daughter. The closest film in this respect is "Cries and Whispers" but there the presence and unflattering characterisation of the mother is principally designed to informs the tortured relationship between the sisters Agnes, Maria and Karin as we see the similarities between Maria and her mother. Although "Autumn Sonata" touches on many of Bergman's favourite themes, the mother and daughter angle gives a freshness to the film and makes the quality of the acting all the more treasurable.
"Autumn Sonata" tends to be forgotten in comparison with Bergman's other late period works, both those made in exile from Sweden and those made before such as "Cries and Whispers" and the trimphant home-coming "Fanny and Alexander" both of which richly deserved Oscars.
Although "Autumn Sonata" is not as technically adventurous or as stunning visually as others, Ingrid Bergman deserved more than the Oscar nomination she received and the awards bestowed upon the film as a whole were richly deserved. Furthermore, the use of the Chopin prelude, in revealing Charlotte's personality is perhaps the most successful use of music in Bergman's directing history.
The extras are spare as one has come to expect from Tartan. Best is the original trailer which manages to capture the film's essence without being sensationalist or sentimental.
UK DVD:
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An Angel At My Table [1990]
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