Stats
Title: The Piano
Release year: 1993
Director: Jane Campion
Written By: Jane Campion
Recommended By: Blank Check With Griffin And David
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Review
Sometimes you hear over and over again that something is a masterpiece. You know something by reputation and yet nothing specific about it. Not really. And then you observe it, for yourself and it overwhelms you.
The only other time I ever felt that, that I can think of, the pure, overwhelming understanding that a piece of art could be as perfect and wonderful as it’s reputation was when I saw one of the canvases of Monet’s Water Lilies at The Museum of Modern Art. The size and scope and detail just hit me right in the heart.
It took me some time to realize that was the same feeling I got from The Piano. I knew very little about it. I knew it was notable historically because of Anna Paquin’s Oscar Win. (In a stacked category, at that) I knew there was something about a mute woman, and I knew it took place in the Victorian era.
I was just, not ready for this movie’s emotional heft. I was not ready for Holly Hunter’s mute performance to still convey ever thought and feeling she was having. For the casual violence and inherent foolishness of colonialism and patriarchy to be laid bare, and for art and emotion and love to all be mixed up in something just so powerfully visual and stunning.
This is a hard movie to sum up, when you verbalize what it’s doing, it loses some of it’s power, and also sounds weird and kind of rapey. (To be fair, there are aspects of it that are weird and kind of rapey) but this is a movie that takes full advantage of what film can do visually, what actors can do emotionally, what music can do cinematically.
It’s simply flawless. No notes.
What I Was Drinking
The Butcher’s Daughter Chardonnay. Soft, fruity and very easy drinking, this is the house white of The Butcher’s Daughter, a 5 star kosher restaurant in Paris. I picked it up at first when I thought I was going to spend New Year’s with a friend who keeps kosher and I was going to give it to her as a hostess gift. Instead…now it’s just my go to. Nice and creamy, takes a chill well and opens up as it loses temperature.