RATINGS: IMDB ― 7.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 90%, ME ―85%
Stewart: What would you think if someone played a kitchen table like it were a piano?
Aunt Morag: Like it were a piano?
Stewart: It's strange isn't it? I mean it's not a piano, it doesn't make any sound.
Aunt Morag: No, no sound.
Stewart: I knew she was mute, but now I'm thinking it's more than that. I'm wondering if she's not brain affected.
Aunt Morag: No sound at all?
Stewart: No, it was a table.
Sam Neill as Stewart and Kerry Walker as Aunt Morag
Trivia (From IMDB):
Holly Hunter had to learn how to play the piano to prepare for her role as Ada, therefore she played most of the piano sequences herself.
Despite winning an Oscar at a young age, Anna Paquin admitted to David Letterman in 2009 that she had only recently watched the film for the first time at the time of the interview. She was not allowed to watch the film at the time of its release because of its sexual content, being 11 years old at the time.
Flora's name is never mentioned throughout the entire film.
The last movie Nirvana Frontman Kurt Cobain watched before he died.
Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh was the only man to receive an Oscar nomination for his work in this film. All the other nominations (7) were given to women (screenwriter and director Jane Campion, producer Jan Chapman, costume designer Janet Patterson, editor Veronika Jenet and actresses Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin) a rare feat.
We never learn who Flora's illegitimate father is in the film. It is revealed in Campion' s novelization of the film that it was Ada' s former piano teacher.
Jane Campion became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with this film, though she was unable to receive the award in person as she was due to give birth.
Film debut of Anna Paquin. At the age of 9, she beat out 5,000 other girls who sent in audition videotapes for the role of Flora. (NOTE: Castle in the Sky (1986) is Anna Paquin's earliest listed role on IMDB. However, this was an English dub of a Japanese animation film by Hayao Miyazaki. Although the movie itself was first released in Japan in 1986, Paquin did not do the English voice-over for it until 1998. The Piano (1993) was her first film role ever.)
The play performed in the movie is an adaptation of "Bluebeard", which is a French fairy tale recorded by Charles Perrault about a man who marries, kills his wives after they fail a test, stashes their bodies in a small chamber, then marries again. In the original story, the main character (Bluebeard's current wife) escapes her psychopathic husband and finds happiness elsewhere.
Before deciding on Holly Hunter, Jane Campion met with several actresses in England, France and the US for the role of Ada. Among the actresses she considered were Sigourney Weaver, Anjelica Huston, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Isabelle Huppert, Juliette Binoche and Madeleine Stowe.
The two similarly titled films, The Piano (1993) and The Pianist (2002), made and released around a decade apart, both won the same number of Academy Awards, that being three. All the Oscar winners for The Piano (1993) were women while all the Oscar winners for The Pianist (2002) were men.
Picked by Entertainment Weekly magazine as one of the "50 Greatest Independent Films" in a special supplement devoted to independent films that was only distributed to subscribers in November 1997.
Holly Hunter receives three onscreen credits for the film, playing the character Ada, playing the piano herself, and being a British sign language interpreter for Anna Paquin.
Film debut of both Rose McIver and Cliff Curtis.
After Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1975), Jane Campion was only the second woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the first for an English language film as the earlier film was Italian. The only other women to be so nominated are Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008), winning for The Hurt Locker (2008), making her the only woman to win the award.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
As her character is mute, Holly Hunter has no lines of dialogue throughout the entirety of the film, only when she is providing narration.
Holly Hunter won 14 awards of the 15 nominations she received for her role in this movie.
The theme tune is called "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" on the soundtrack album.
On-screen mother and daughter Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin have both appeared in superhero films with Hunter playing Senator June Finch in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Paquin playing Marie / Rogue in the X-Men franchise.
Holly Hunter had to learn how to play the piano to prepare for her role as Ada, therefore she played most of the piano sequences herself.
Despite winning an Oscar at a young age, Anna Paquin admitted to David Letterman in 2009 that she had only recently watched the film for the first time at the time of the interview. She was not allowed to watch the film at the time of its release because of its sexual content, being 11 years old at the time.
Flora's name is never mentioned throughout the entire film.
The last movie Nirvana Frontman Kurt Cobain watched before he died.
Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh was the only man to receive an Oscar nomination for his work in this film. All the other nominations (7) were given to women (screenwriter and director Jane Campion, producer Jan Chapman, costume designer Janet Patterson, editor Veronika Jenet and actresses Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin) a rare feat.
We never learn who Flora's illegitimate father is in the film. It is revealed in Campion' s novelization of the film that it was Ada' s former piano teacher.
Jane Campion became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with this film, though she was unable to receive the award in person as she was due to give birth.
Film debut of Anna Paquin. At the age of 9, she beat out 5,000 other girls who sent in audition videotapes for the role of Flora. (NOTE: Castle in the Sky (1986) is Anna Paquin's earliest listed role on IMDB. However, this was an English dub of a Japanese animation film by Hayao Miyazaki. Although the movie itself was first released in Japan in 1986, Paquin did not do the English voice-over for it until 1998. The Piano (1993) was her first film role ever.)
The play performed in the movie is an adaptation of "Bluebeard", which is a French fairy tale recorded by Charles Perrault about a man who marries, kills his wives after they fail a test, stashes their bodies in a small chamber, then marries again. In the original story, the main character (Bluebeard's current wife) escapes her psychopathic husband and finds happiness elsewhere.
Before deciding on Holly Hunter, Jane Campion met with several actresses in England, France and the US for the role of Ada. Among the actresses she considered were Sigourney Weaver, Anjelica Huston, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Isabelle Huppert, Juliette Binoche and Madeleine Stowe.
The two similarly titled films, The Piano (1993) and The Pianist (2002), made and released around a decade apart, both won the same number of Academy Awards, that being three. All the Oscar winners for The Piano (1993) were women while all the Oscar winners for The Pianist (2002) were men.
Picked by Entertainment Weekly magazine as one of the "50 Greatest Independent Films" in a special supplement devoted to independent films that was only distributed to subscribers in November 1997.
Holly Hunter receives three onscreen credits for the film, playing the character Ada, playing the piano herself, and being a British sign language interpreter for Anna Paquin.
Film debut of both Rose McIver and Cliff Curtis.
After Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1975), Jane Campion was only the second woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the first for an English language film as the earlier film was Italian. The only other women to be so nominated are Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008), winning for The Hurt Locker (2008), making her the only woman to win the award.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
As her character is mute, Holly Hunter has no lines of dialogue throughout the entirety of the film, only when she is providing narration.
Holly Hunter won 14 awards of the 15 nominations she received for her role in this movie.
The theme tune is called "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" on the soundtrack album.
On-screen mother and daughter Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin have both appeared in superhero films with Hunter playing Senator June Finch in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Paquin playing Marie / Rogue in the X-Men franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment