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Dom Robinson reviews

The Piano

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

The Piano is the item treasured by Ada (Holly Hunter) as she is shipped off to New Zealand with her nine-year-old daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) to be with her new husband Stuart (Sam Neill), thanks to an arranged marriage.

Since Ada is mute by choice - she just hasn't spoken since the age of six and doesn't know why - her only form of expression is through her beloved piano. Alas, when they arrive on the beach, Stuart refuses to have it transported to their home. Ada can't bear to watch it literally go to pieces, so strikes up an arrangement of her own. In return for one black key per piano lesson, she allows an illiterate, tattooed man named Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take advantage in ways she'd rather he didn't.

This film won three Oscars (Best Actress - Holly Hunter, Best Supporting Actress - Anna Paquin and Best Original Screenplay) and three BAFTAs (Best Actress again, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design).

One surprise here is that for once we have an anamorphic transfer, increasing the resolution for widescreen televisions by 33%, on a dual-layer disc. This is something that EiV have never done for a £15.99 DVD and didn't appear on the Region 1 disc. The average bitrate is an excellent 9.10Mb/s, although the print can be very grainy at times giving way to artifacts onscreen. When it is clear though, it gives a faithful reproduction of the dark, dank place that the film is set in. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1.

The sound is stated on the back of the box as Dolby Digital 5.1, but I have it from a reliable source that it's plain old Dolby Surround, which is misleading to any potential customers and breaks the Trades Descriptions Act. That said, while the film isn't quite my cup of tea, the musical score by Michael Nyman is excellent, particularly the main theme, "The Heart Asks For Pleasure First", which gets a regular airing on Classic FM.

Extras :

  • Chapters :

    There are only 12 chapters here, unlike the Region 1's 26, to cover the 115 minutes of the film and for some reason, EiV have again provided approximate times for where the chapter breaks occur but... they're TEN HOURS AHEAD !?! Also, like a couple of other recent EiV DVDs, my DVD-ROM player is locked up if I try to fast-forward through the last chapter which lasts nearly half-an-hour!

  • Languages & Subtitles :

    English only in Dolby Surround, but at least we do have subtitles, even for the occasional Maori language.

  • Menu :

    A plain shot of Ada, Flora and the piano, with very few options: chapters and subtitles only. In fact, I switched the subtitles on before starting the film but they didn't appear and I had to select them manually during the film.

    Regardless of whether you liked the film or not, the only thing that stands this release apart from EiV's least-impressive discs is the anamorphic transfer and subtitles, neither of which the Americans got and they had to pay $30 for their disc.

    However, it still has to be noted that from most distributors the back-catalogue titles are getting a very rough deal.

    DVD Trivia: Watch out for Holly Hunter's impression of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns in the X-Files-ish "The Springfield Files" episode when she too is wondering through the forest halfway through, albeit avoiding Sam Neill, with the same doe-eyed look on her face. 

    FILM	 		: **
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ***½
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: 0
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: **½

    Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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