The Piano (1993) - Campion's enthralling Maori period romance

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+ Best $ Return of the Year: 20 times the cost + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New Zealand Movie of the Year + Best On-screen Couple of the Year: Holly Hunter & Harvey Keitel + Best Romance of the Year

 

A striking, almost ethereal still from the film makes up this poster for Jane Campion's The Piano

A mute woman from Scotland arrives to New Zealand with her daughter and her piano, as she has been married off to a frontier man there, who is a stranger to her. Gradually, however, she falls in love with another man of the new land, who lives in the forest with the native Maori people.

 

The Piano is written and directed by New Zealander master filmmaker Jane Campion (Sweetie (1989)), whose 3rd feature it is.

It is a highly esteemed film about love with beautiful long takes - that are never too long still, (cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh (Gifted (2017))), fabulous nature and music (score by Michael Nyman (Everyday (2012))). 

The actors are also eminent: Anna Paquin (The Irishman (2019)) as the young daughter is brilliant; Holly Hunter (Succession (2019, TV-series)) and Harvey Keitel (Saturn 3 (1980)) as the odd couple are the same. SPOILER A devastatingly tragic ending is averted, (Campion has later divulged that this ending was her original choice), and instead The Piano ends on a life-affirming note.  

 

Related post:

 

Jane Campion: 1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 140 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 20 times its cost)

[The Piano premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place from May - July 1992 in New Zealand. The film opened #18 to a 151k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 671 theaters (different weeks), grossing 40.1 mil. $ (28.6 % of the total gross). The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes (shared with Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine), making Campion the first female recipient in history. It was also nominated for 8 Oscars, winning for Best Actress (Hunter), Supporting Actress (Paquin) and Script. It lost Best Cinematography to Janusz Kaminski for Schindler's List, Costumes to The Age of Innocence, Director to Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List, Picture to Schindler's List and Editing also to Schindler's List. It also won 3/10 BAFTA nominations, 1/6 Golden Globe nominations, a César award, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won 2 National Board of Review awards and the Best Actress award at Cannes (Hunter), among scores of other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Campion returned with The Portrait of a Lady (1996). Hunter returned in The Firm (1993); Keitel in Rising Sun (1993); and Sam Neill (Rams (2020)) in The Rainbow Warrior (1993, TV movie) and theatrically in Jurassic Park (1993). The Piano is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Piano?

The Incredibles (2004) - Bird's overrated superhero action animation hit

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An explosive, fiery red and character-stuffed poster for Brad Bird's The Incredibles

In a world where people have reacted to 'supers' saving them by blaming and suing the heroes, Mr. Incredible has resorted to working in insurance at his wife's behest. But he misses his old glory-days, and on the day that he gets fired, an opportunity to return to an important mission arises. Though Mr. Incredible tries to keep it a secret, his family soon get sucked into the job, and then they will have to work together to save themselves and the world.

 
That is the essence of the plot of the overly celebrated superhero action family animation movie written and directed by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant (1999)).
The Incredibles is the first Pixar film about people, which caused many headaches and extra work and software development strides to execute. Bird also had in mind countless action scenes featuring all the elements, characters with free-flowing hair etc. - all also laborious efforts. But the Pixar animators pulled it off.
The best parts of The Incredibles are the family scenes, which are played with intelligence and truthfulness. Mr. Incredible's (Craig T. Nelson (Get Hard (2015))) midlife crisis and superhero work deceit behind his wife's back is an engaging angle. Unfortunately, his wife, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter (Manglehorn (2014))), is a mostly tense harpy. Bird should definitely have given this character 'a lump of sugar', a redeeming quality. None of the couple's three kids are particularly sympathetic, full as characters or engaging, which is another problem. As Incredible's friend, Samuel L. Jackson (The Last Full Measure (2019)) voices the black stereotype character Frozone, who is reluctant to use his powers and basically just wants to comply with his wife's tyrannical commands. The villain of The Incredibles is this guy:

Syndrome, a man embittered from being scrapped as Mr. Incredible's sidekick earlier in his career, and now out to spread super-ness to the every man, and thereby destroying the essence of super. But beside his amusing, bobbing hairdo, Syndrome is not a very charismatic or memorable villain.
The Incredibles, like all Pixar films, is extremely well done technically in every way, but I was not stunned and thrilled by the animated action so much as just thinking that it would have been a lot cooler, if it had been real, live-action. Fortunately, animated movies are rarely action films like The Incredibles, - because action should be real, or at least be more incredible than they appear in The Incredibles, which is a strange mix of elements from James Bond and The Fantastic Four with dramatic family elements and endless chase and explosion scenes. I generally find that animation is more auspicious for the romance, adventure and/or comedy genres.
The Incredibles is extremely loud and requires wild interest in superhero characters to really succeed. That level of interest I failed to find, instead finding its long playtime fatiguing. I regress to speculating if some of its scenes were made to sell video games based on the film. I think it spans too far in its hunt for mass appeal and overdoes its action scenes instead of elaborating on its characters and the family dynamic. It is occasionally funny and absolutely well-animated throughout, but I still find it highly overrated over-all.

Related posts:

Brad Bird: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Cruise and Bird's phenomenal action spectacle 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 92-145 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 631.6 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.32 times its cost)

[The Incredibles premiered 27 October (London) and runs 115 minutes. Following Bird's major animation flop The Iron Giant (1999), he reached out to CalArts film school friend John Lasseter of Pixar, who trusted Bird's Incredibles vision enough to let him run wild as writer-director, a 'one-man-show' construction not previously done at the studio. Production took place from April 2002 in California. The film opened #1 to a 70.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another 3 in the top 5 (#3-#2-#4), grossing 261.4 mil. $ ( 41.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 61.9 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Japan with 49.9 mil. $ (7.9 %). It was the year's 4th highest-grossing film worldwide. The return above is based on a median of the two very different cost numbers that surround the film. The film was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning for Best Animation and Sound Editing, while losing Original Screenplay to Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sound Mixing to Ray. It also won a BAFTA, and AFI award, was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Grammy and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #228 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between To Be Or Not To Be (1942) and La Haine (1995). The film was the top-selling DVD of the year in North America, selling 17.38 mil. copies. Bird returned with also returning stars for the successful sequel Incredibles 2 (2018). Bird returned first with Jack-Jack Attack (2005, video) and theatrically with Ratatouille (2007). Nelson returned in Mr. Incredible and Pals (2005, video) and theatrically in The Family Stone (2005); Hunter in Nine Lives (2005); and Jackson in Twista: Hope (2004, music video) and theatrically in Coach Carter (2005). The Incredibles is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Incredibles?