The Piano

Ada (Holly Hunter), a mute, 30-something Scotswoman, is uprooted and transported overseas with her precocious daughter (Anna Paquin) to wed an Antipodean landowner (Sam Neill) she has never met, and can never love. On arrival at the other side of the world, her beloved piano is abandoned on the shoreline, then sold to rough-hewn local Baines (Harvey Keitel).

Slow-burning eroticism is traded for each cold, polished key, as Ada buys back her piano, trading sex for her only mode of self-expression. Landscapes of misting trees and incessant rainfall drench the screen in pathetic fallacy, while Ada’s shrill, impossible narration contrasts with her tightly-corseted exterior.

Jane Campion’s Oscar-magnet has continued to attract reappraisal since its 1993 release; as post-feminist cautionary tale, romanticised portrayal of 19th century New Zealand and gothic melodrama. Taken at its most elemental, The Piano will endure, as only the most pure and haunting of fairytales do. [Kirsty Leckie-Palmer]