A LETTERED SOUL, BOOK 2- MUSINGS ON ART AND CULTURE

PIANO NOTES, FIERY SPIRITS AND LIFE PORTRAITS.

THE PIANO(1993)

Inspiration can be striking and is often found in intertextual strains of thought. As much as I have appreciated Jane Campion's output on TOP OF THE LAKE and this year's seminal THE POWER OF THE DOG, THE PIANO had been out of my reach so far. Blame the fact that it's not available on any streaming service. I certainly didn't want then to sift through a select few clips because that's not how I approach viewing any particular work or writing about it based on a passing glance.

It was Maggie Gyllenhaal's words while discussing her latest directorial feature THE LOST DAUGHTER as part of a FILM INDEPENDENT panel that stoked the fire in me to watch THE PIANO finally. She referenced its haunting final scene and since I had read about it earlier not too long ago, that atleast emboldened me to find it on YouTube. Lo and behold! it was there in a respectable visual definition and sound. Which is to further emphasise how everything we watch and read leads us to discovering benchmarks as this one.

THE PIANO is immersive to me because of Holly Hunter's rich inner world that unravels sans a single word spoken by her. Her body language and expressive face, though mired in limited social interactions and a marriage of convenience, is something that will make any cinephile plunge deeper and deeper into what goes through her mind. In her, the lingua franca of repression and a simultaneous sturdiness of being find equal representation. It is also richly indicative of a single person's individual agency. So even though there are gender norms afoot in her world, she exercises a freedom and control over her desires as much as her affinity to the piano. The piano, thus, is her lifeline, her only connect to who she essentially is. Her gift of playing the blessed instrument is her source of unmitigated agency which she refuses to part with at any cost. It symbolises her and is a metaphor for the power of music that guides us through thick and thin. In Jane Campion's direction, all these factors are given a dense complexity along with a fluidity of expression on the screen.

It is also a work that understands Ada's journey to the new world, i.e. to her marital home in New Zealand from her native Scotland, is one rife with further subjugation for her. It's a compelling parallel to the way the native Maoris are shown here, assimilated by dint of an exotic idea of who they are and colonized by the white man's desire for their land and resources. Both refuse to be tamed and revel in the way of life they choose to lead.

Anna Paquin and Hunter together paint a beautiful mother- daughter bond where the interactions show us the true, non-judgmental nature of this universal relationship. Besides the fact that Ada refuses to speak out of her own choice since the past many years, we get a tantalising sense of the circumstances that led her to do so. A kind of backstory gets created in our minds which will be unique to each person imagining it. I have to say that THE PIANO devoted its narrative to flesh out, in minimalistic strokes, the dynamic between Ada and Baines ( Harvey Keitel) which at face value is one of an unhealthy sensual transaction, a point of one-upmanship on the part of the man in the relationship. But even here, Ada's consent and refusal to be a mere chattel and the man's own moral compass imbue it with an unpredictable gravitas. Equally important is Sam Neill's contribution as her husband who blows hot, blows cold and is perhaps as repressed as Ada which, in turn, fuels his rage to the point of cruelty in the end portions. He relents to the reality of this non-existent relationship between 'man and wife' and lets her go. Each strand is seen through Ada's agency, through her nimble, animated actions and conveyance of her own desires in this unusual passion play.

To me, each relationship here and the level of passion invested is an extension of the sensual charms of playing the piano for her. Every touch, every sensation that she responds to springs forth from that knowledge of her own affinity to its notes. That delicate touch, which she receives when in the arms of passion, means everything to her. Those are the moments where she is free to be herself. That final image of her and her beloved piano on the surface of the sea is hence haunting, signifying the choice to live in a mortal world with unfair paybacks but where she can be one with her instrument of self-expression.