Jane Campion

The Piano

The Piano

With this sublimely stirring fable of desire and creativity, Jane Campion became the first woman to win a Palme d’Or at Cannes. Holly Hunter is achingly eloquent through silence in her Academy Award–winning performance as Ada, an electively mute Scottish woman who expresses her innermost feelings through her beloved piano. When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter (Anna Paquin, in her Oscar-winning debut) to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband (Sam Neill) and a rugged frontiersman (Harvey Keitel) to whom she develops a forbidden attraction. With its sensuously moody cinematography, dramatic coastal landscapes, and sweeping score, this uniquely timeless evocation of a woman’s awakening is an intoxicating sensory experience that burns with the twin fires of music and erotic passion.

Film Info

  • New Zealand, Australia, France
  • 1993
  • 120 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English, Maori
  • Spine #1110

Director-Approved 4K UHD + Blu-Ray Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jane Campion and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Audio commentary featuring Campion and producer Jan Chapman
  • New conversation between Campion and film critic Amy Taubin
  • New interviews with Dryburgh, production designer Andrew McAlpine, and Maori adviser Waihoroi Shortland
  • Interview with actor Holly Hunter on working with Campion
  • “The Piano” at 25, a program featuring a conversation between Campion and Chapman
  • Interview with composer Michael Nyman
  • Excerpts from an interview with costume designer Janet Patterson
  • Inside “The Piano,” a featurette including interviews with Hunter and actors Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill
  • The Water Diary, a 2006 short film by Campion
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray
New cover by Greg Ruth

Purchase Options

Director-Approved 4K UHD + Blu-Ray Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jane Campion and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Audio commentary featuring Campion and producer Jan Chapman
  • New conversation between Campion and film critic Amy Taubin
  • New interviews with Dryburgh, production designer Andrew McAlpine, and Maori adviser Waihoroi Shortland
  • Interview with actor Holly Hunter on working with Campion
  • “The Piano” at 25, a program featuring a conversation between Campion and Chapman
  • Interview with composer Michael Nyman
  • Excerpts from an interview with costume designer Janet Patterson
  • Inside “The Piano,” a featurette including interviews with Hunter and actors Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill
  • The Water Diary, a 2006 short film by Campion
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray
New cover by Greg Ruth
The Piano
Cast
Holly Hunter
Ada McGrath
Harvey Keitel
George Baines
Sam Neill
Alisdair Stewart
Anna Paquin
Flora McGrath
Kerry Walker
Aunt Morag
Genevieve Lemon
Nessie
Credits
Director
Jane Campion
Written by
Jane Campion
Producer
Jan Chapman
Executive producer
Alain Depardieu
Associate producer
Mark Turnbull
Director of photography
Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer
Andrew McAlpine
Costume designer
Janet Patterson
Music
Michael Nyman
Editor
Veronika Jenet
Casting directors
Diana Rowan
Susie Figgis
Victoria Thomas
Alison Barrett
Maori dialogue and advisers
Waihoroi Shortland
Selwyn Muru
Sound designer
Lee Smith

Current

The Piano: Gothic Gone South
The Piano: Gothic Gone South

A Victorian-era tale of self-discovery, Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or winner exults in the thrill of female rebellion.

By Carmen Gray