The Piano

Director: Jane Campion

1993 / 120min / 4K DCP

Gale-force winds and interminable lashing rain render colonial New Zealand a nigh uninhabitable mire in Campion’s elemental Antipodean Gothic romance, in which mute Scotswoman Ada and her young daughter (Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin) arrive under the Southern Cross so that Ada can be wed to stiff-backed settler Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill)—an arranged union that quickly sours when Stewart separates Ada from her lone means of expression, her piano, and Ada drifts into an increasingly compromising and sexualized relationship with neighbor George Baines (Harvey Keitel), an ex-sailor and the instrument’s new owner. With its Palme d’Or win at Cannes, Campion became the first female director to receive that honor—and a shower of Academy Awards still lay ahead.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Part of And Then The Rain Came