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Clip description
After the long voyage from Scotland, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) are camped on a New Zealand beach, in a tent made from Ada’s skirt hoops. They are woken by the arrival of Mr Stewart and his neighbour George Baines (Harvey Keitel), with Maori carriers. Ada insists that they take her piano, but Stewart (Sam Neill) overrules her.
Curator’s notes
One of the things that audiences responded to about The Piano was its sense of utter unfamiliarity – the strangeness of Ada’s fate. She has been married in absentia to a man she has never met, in a country she has never seen, where the natives are reputed to kill and eat people. The ship has deposited her, with daughter and piano, on a beach in the middle of nowhere, with no-one to meet her. She is woken by the face of a Maori man looking in through her makeshift tent, yet she appears to retain a strong sense of purpose and will.
Much of the trouble that follows starts here with Stewart’s dull wits – his failure to perceive the importance of the piano, to listen to her wishes, to accept that this woman knows her own mind. Baines, on the other hand, perceives much about her – starting with the fact that she is tired after a long and difficult journey. The failure to communicate is given another dimension in the script by the behaviour of the Maoris, who touch and prod, making faces and gestures, or jokes at the others’ expense. There is a constant ridicule in their actions in this scene, but also a sense that they miss nothing. One man emulates Ada’s sign language behind her; another stands behind Stewart, mimicking his every move. Their reactions underline the idea of the whites as strangers in their land. Ada and Stewart are also strangers to each other, and their first meeting is not encouraging.
Note the final shot – Ada and daughter looking back over their shoulders, faces dark with foreboding. That’s a classic shot that seems to recall earlier films based on the work of 19th century female English novelists – such as the 1939 William Wyler version of Wuthering Heights. Stuart Dryburgh’s lighting of this scene is almost monochromatic, emphasising very dark tones, of the eyes as well as the clothing.
