The Piano (1993)

Romantic drama that won Oscars for Holly Hunter (lead actress), Anna Paquin (supporting actress) and Jane Campion (screenplay), Campion was also nominated for best director, only the second woman to ever be nominated in that category, the first being  Italian director Lina Wertmuller for the 1976 the film Seven Beauties. The Piano is set in the mid 19th Century and concerns a mute Scots woman (Hunter) who takes her daughter (Paquin) with her to New Zealand when she is basically solid in marriage by her father to a man she has never meet (Sam Neill). Hunter is  essentially cold to Neill, but over course of time slows falls in love with Harvey Keitel, a white man who has largely gone native and who Hunter is suppose to be giving piano lessons too, though mostly she just plays and he stares at her.

The Romantic dynamics are a little odd, Neill is awkward but nice to her, and Keitel kind of a creeper, but I suppose you could say that the prior is false as a person while the later genuine, if a little pervy. The film consists of a lot of build ups and slow burns, primary among these being what the heck is Neill going to do when he figures out his wife is cheating on him, and what he does is not pleasant. This film is largely a mode piece but contains impressive acting from all of the primary cast, but especially Hunter who is silent save for book ending narrations in voice over at the beginning and end of the film, and Paquin who at 11 would be the 2nd youngest person to win a best supporting actress Oscar, after Tatum O'Neal who was 10 when she won hers. A powerful and intense little movie that surprised me and prompts (albeit confused) reflection. ****