The mute wife (Holly Hunter) of a settler (Sam Neill) teaches her lover (Harvey Keitel) to play the piano... (Learn more)
Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill (View All)
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Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill
Writer/director Jane Campion's third feature unearthed emotional undercurrents and churning intensity in the story of a mute woman's rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strong-willed young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters' confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada's buried sensuality, Baines' hidden tenderness, and Stewart's suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player. Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces between a character's fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters' gazes. And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodrama. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
11/12/93
MPAA Rating
Rated R
Running Time
121 mins.
Locations
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Tarankaki, New Zealand
Language
- English
Box Office Total
$39,312,718
Awards
- Nominated for a Best Cinematography award at the 1993 American Society of Cinematographers [ Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1993 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Editing award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1993 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the Palme d'Or award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Cinematography award at the 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Score award at the 1993 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director (Runner-up) award at the 1993 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1993 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture - Drama award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1994 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture (Runner-up) award at the 1993 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1993 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Cinematography award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1993 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Costume Design award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Foreign Film award at the 1993 Independent Spirit Awards [Festival/Aw Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award at the 1993 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a David Lean Award award at the 1993 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1993 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Winner of the Best Foreign Film award at the 1993 French Academy of Cinema [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Original Screenplay award at the 1993 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Original Score award at the 1993 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
Distributor
- LIVE Home Video
- Miramax
- Miramax Films
