Directed by Jane Campion
When 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.
Pianot, O Piano, Пианино, El piano, La leçon de piano, Das Piano, Lezioni di piano, Fortepian, ピアノ・レッスン, Piano, La lección de piano, 鋼琴別戀, Pianul, Μαθήματα Πιάνου, 피아노, Te Piana, La Leçon de piano, Zongoralecke, 钢琴课, הפסנתר, Piyano, Пианото, 鋼琴師和她的情人, Pianinas, Klavir, เดอะ เปียโน, Chiếc Dương Cầm, Klavieres
France Cannes Film Festival 
Italy FranceTP 
AustraliaMA15+ 
Netherlands12 
Germany12 
FinlandK-16 
Sweden11 
South Korea18 
PortugalM/16 
UK15 
Ireland15 
USAR 
Spain12 
Czechia15+ 
Estonia South Korea18 FranceTP South Korea18 France France16 France France France Sweden11 France France Australia Czechia Estonia Finland France Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Portugal South Korea Spain Sweden UK USA 
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
bro, imagine raising a snitch
I’m starting to think Harvey Keitel wasn’t serious about wanting to learn to play the piano
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
This film has the wrong ending. It was such a startlingly wrong ending that I looked it up to confirm--Campion herself has said she intended a different ending. While the film's wrong ending is fine, really, it seems tacked on. And while it conveys a certain sense of what the film is about, it muddles it slightly. What this film is about is a woman's passion, about her defining herself through something other than a man (namely, her piano), and about how being bound to a man--being controlled by one--diminishes her.
If taken literally, well, that's a flawed tale, but she's more a metaphor for the representation of women. She's every silent female character who serves only to be a…
SHE JUST WANTED TO PLAY HER PIANO
why are heterosexuals like this
"I'm quite the town freak, which satisfies."
55/100
[originally written on my blog]
Ada's wholehearted surrender to Baines still troubles me. Obviously the film is very much a woman's vision, and I'm not averse to potentially off-putting complexity in this realm, but Campion really does present Baines' sexual blackmail as a genuine expression of pure love, which comes perilously close to "I beat you because I care." And the film just doesn't complicate that enough for my taste. Otherwise impeccable, and holy moly Paquin is amazing.
the way anna paquin grew up to hate harvey keitel even more in the irishman... poetic cinema
Some of the most beautiful music ever written for a film, and very rich, expressive images that say everything the lead character can't. "Like a mood that passes into you."
a weird lullaby
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
going to pretend this ended the way jane campion actually intended and call this a masterpiece
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
knowing campion could not, no matter how right it felt, kill ada in those final moments, is somehow even more special to me than this movie getting the ending it deserved. there is so much kindness and love for her. i am a sucker for tragedy, but there is nothing this character deserved more than a second chance.
“what a death. what a chance. what a surprise.”
