MovieChat Forums > The Piano (1994) Discussion > What the hell.... (Spoilers!!!!)

What the hell.... (Spoilers!!!!)

posted 12 years ago by Reel_IN_Sight
7 replies | jump to latest

What is this movie about? I honestly don't understand. Harvey Keitel's and Holly Hunter's romantic relationship appears to have no reason behind it whatsoever. Is it that he was the only one who would listen to the only means of expression she has... the piano? Is that really it? To me he was super creepy and irksome, yet Holly Hunter's character seems to find sexual and emotional solace in some brutish man with a few unique fetishes....

Is it the tempered music that tames him? Is their relationship a foil to that of Sam Neil's marriage, where she is forced to be with a man but here with Keitel she is free.

Or is it the irrational decision making of a traumatized mute whose silence has drawn her to insanity... If so what is the cause of the trauma? And since the movie doesn't really answer that question I wonder the nature of her trauma or of the resultant person....

Also.... awful music.... Friggin' major 7ths set to dissonant base supposed to make me feel something? Sheesh...

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Reel_IN_Sight 12 years ago

Right I'm going to ignore everything you said just for this...."If you want a potsy, clean love story with cute faces and a treacly, predictable storyline, then watch Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly"

Really buddy... That's what Pride and Prejudice is to you? A little too subtle? I can't take someone seriously who recommends Pride and Prejudice under the heading 'potsy clean love story', looking completely past the layers and intricacies of a Jane Austen novel that even in Joe Wright's rather abridged take on things are very poignantly visible.

You need flashes of penis and dramatic violence in drenching rain for you to consider something unique and visceral... pathetic....

[–] BuffySummers-2 12 years ago

Actually FallingCrate, I think you are on the right track.

I started a new topic:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107822/board/flat/196324956

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093 Lambert

[–] Reel_IN_Sight 12 years ago

I love it. An interpretation it seems out of a dire necessity for things to make sense but makes really good sense in itself.

Actually all that is unnatural in the characters suddenly seem necessary to maintain that symbolic significance. I like it and this will definitely keep me thinking for a while and I may even rewatch it. Thank you BuffySummers-2.

[–] BuffySummers-2 12 years ago

You're welcome. :-)

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[–] BuffySummers-2 12 years ago

Dire necessity indeed, lol.

I did wonder if my interpretation was perhaps a bit cleverer than Campion intended, heavily influenced by other TV shows and a lot of Tori Amos, but it does work...

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[–] prplayer 8 years ago

i liked it because it created (semi)-memorable characters, in a way such that about 2 weeks after you've seen it, you haven't completely forgotten about it

so many movies, so little time