The Piano

“Okay. Next: The Piano. One of my favorite movies of all time. Holly Hunter. The score is something that you’ll never forget, this beautiful, lonely piano score that Holly Hunter learned how to play piano to be able to play this incredibly difficult score. It’s a very quiet movie, about a woman who is mute, and so expresses herself and shows herself through her music. Gorgeous movie. If you love New Zealand, you will love this film.”

“Jane Campion’s The Piano is a masterpiece. Holly Hunter’s performance is so extraordinary. And the location of this place is visionary. I just still remember first seeing this movie. Anna Paquin dancing on the beach. The landscape, the… the cinematography is just extraordinary. So this is going into my collection.”

“And this is a film everybody loves and that makes everybody cry. It's The Piano. Talking with friends, I realized that, of course, there are some very emotional moments. The one in which she falls down with the finger. And– of course. But there is a moment in this film that really gives me one of the most strong emotion ever. I don't know why, but the moment in which she goes back to the beach and she's allowed to play again her piano, and she smiles like this woman that expresses herself through a piano. And she can go back to her expression instrument. So. Great.”

“Jane—Jane's The Piano. The Piano... You know, taught me to be quiet. And Jane does that. She sits with people. Where Cassavetes is moving it, moving it all around, you know, Jane is still. And, you know, taught me to be still with the camera.”

“Have you guys ever seen The Piano? No. What? It's really special. All right, wow. So I first saw it when I was 13, and it's full of desire, and it's also exotic in some way, set in the 19th century, I think, in New Zealand. Holly Hunter's caught in this, oh my God, longing between the man that she's supposed to marry and then, and then Harvey Keitel. And, and then the music of Michael Nyman. I've played it for years on The Piano. You still? I still play it. It's like one of the few tunes I can still play without looking at the notes, you know? Yeah, I didn't know. I saw it when I was 13 together with my mother, and there's so much, I don't know, erotic tension and desire underneath the surface. She just jumped on top of my head, because, you know, she was like, "My daughter can't see this.", but it really sparked some interest in, yeah, in, in eroticism and sex in me at that time. I never seen anything like that on, on the screen.”