Ada had a relationship with a piano teacher whom she believed she had seduced through mental telepathy, resulting in Flora's birth, but the teacher left her after becoming frightened and refusing to listen.Īda and Flora, along with their handcrafted piano, are stranded on a New Zealand beach by a ship's crew. She communicates through playing the piano and sign language, with Flora acting as her interpreter. Ada has not spoken since the age of six, and the reason remains unknown.

In the mid-1800s, a Scotswoman named Ada McGrath who chooses not to speak is sold by her father into marriage with New Zealand frontiersman Alisdair Stewart, along with her daughter Flora. Campion has cited the novels Wuthering Heights and The African Queen as inspirations. The plot has similarities to Jane Mander's 1920 novel The Story of a New Zealand River, but also substantial differences.

Paquin was 11 years old at the time and remains the second-youngest actor to win an Oscar in a competitive category. It won three Academy Awards out of eight total nominations in March 1994: Best Actress for Hunter, Best Supporting Actress for Paquin and Best Original Screenplay for Campion. In 1993, the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Campion the first female director to ever receive this award. Hunter and Paquin both received high praise for their performances. Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin in her first major acting role, the film focuses on a mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote part of New Zealand with her young daughter after her arranged marriage to a frontiersman.Ī co-production between New Zealand, Australia and France, The Piano was a critical and commercial success, grossing US$140.2 million worldwide against its US$7 million budget. The Piano is a 1993 period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion.

The piano jane campion 1993