Feminist? or just a hoax.
The task that I’ve been set with is to inform you, the audience, on whether the film, “The Piano” is in fact feminist or not. This debate around whether this is a film that brings empowerment to women is shrouded in much controversy with critics bickering over the finer details on whether the move falls short or not.
I mean fair, I guess most people agree that the film deserved its title as a feminist classic, but why though? Was it because Jane Campion, the director is a woman herself, is it because our English teacher set us a text response essay and gave us the prompt “The Piano is a feminist film. Do you agree?”. Probably, but my job here isn’t to state whether it is or not (well technically it is) but rather I want to delve deeper into not only the script, but rather the camera work, the emotions, the music of the film, presenting them, contrasting them to explain why I believe whether it is feminist or not.
So, is it a feminist film? I’d say so, “The Piano” has been heralded as a feminist classic, littered with ironic hints of patriarchy and sexism. Jane Campion pushes the notion that Ada must choose between sex or art forward. Many critiques have because of this, agreed that The Piano falls short of a feminist film as it advances the trope that woman will give up their artistic pleasure to find “true love”. However, Campion suggests otherwise presenting Ada as a woman who has the ambition to have it all. Although I do understand why other critics are a bit reluctant to push forward this notion as yes, Ada gains power and self-worth the usual, but is this enough to outweigh the fact that the film is set in a patriarchal society where she practically had to choose between two rapists, a blackmailing one, and a possessive one.
When you put it in that sense you finally realise that maybe this isn’t that empowering, however, to really answer the prompt we must define what feminism is, according to the organisation, do something, “Feminism is defined as the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”. As political and economic qualities can’t really be explained thoroughly, I decided to split social equality into three sections that play major roles in the film, love, sex, and art.
Firstly, let’s look at art and how Campion uses art to give a voice to women. Early in the film, it is established at Ada is mute and cannot converse easily without the aid of her daughter Flora or her notepad. She possesses, however, an even more powerful voice in the form of her piano. She herself even believes this saying, “The strange thing is, I don’t think myself silent. That is because of my piano.” Regardless of being stripped of her voice, she cannot be silenced, and this sense of speech is how she conveys her feelings, how she is able to freely express her opinions. In the very first encounter Ada has with Baines, the patriarchal tone has already been set with him disregarding her plea for him to bring the piano back commanding her to sacrifice herself to the family.
We are left with the frame where it is an over the shoulder shot of Ada staring downwards towards her abandoned piano. The use of this camera work was to give the audience the sense of viewership and places, we, the audience, into her shoes. The frame is tinted with a faded golden sunset which pronounces the emotions of grief and sadness with hints of anger. Campion here showing how Baines is taking away her “voice”, metaphorically showcases how often in society, women are stripped of their voice and power of opinions which thus leave them vulnerable to exploitation, acting almost like puppets. In the same sense, Ada losing her voice results in her losing her active rights as a human being. Without this so-called voice, she cannot express anger, grief not joy, leaving her merely as a walking toy.
Surprisingly after losing your power to speak, you would think all hope was lost, but oh no, Ada had other plans in store. Ada now freshly stripped of her piano grows cold towards Alisdair. A man who is so used to power now gets a taste of what we call rejection, and he is flustered, he has never been treated like this before and is dazed at the fact that he is not the centre of attention. The frame taken above was taken moments after he tried to converse with his newlywed wife and is returned with a mere “hello” from Flora and silence from Ada. The silence in the scene was quite deafening, we see in the frame that Alisdair, rather than being situated in the centre of the screen, is pushed to the right with an awkward frown painted on his face. So, how does this highlight feminism? Well, Ada even though thought to be powerless had the strength to dig past Alisdair’s charismatic and chivalrous mask to reveal who he truly is.
We see this mask of his start to crumble as he is unable to grasp the importance of the piano and even called her “mad”. Surely being treated with neglect has had its mental toll on him, he inexperienced with this type of treatment is trying to find measly excuses to mend his now shattered pride.
Now that we have established the power that Ada possesses without her voice, how does she having the piano enhance this sort of dominance? Well, after being reunited with her piano (on the beach), we get to Ada, masterfully playing a triumphant piece of music and not only this scene but whenever Ada is playing her piano, it gives her this sense of physical strength that bothers the men. In the case of Baines, he loses all sense of “masculinity” and falls deeper into love and in the case of Alisdair he is placed in a sense of discomfort. Even the characters within the film acknowledge this as one of the Maoris even stated, “Her playing is strange,” says one of the other colonial women of Ada, “like a mood that passes into you”.
So how does this music have any effect on her relationship with Alisdair and Baines? Well, it doesn’t, it doesn’t have any physical properties that give her strength over the men, however in my opinion having a voice in a society where you’re drowned out and forced to conform to society’s standards is the source of your might. In contrast, the piano other than giving her a voice is what affects her physical relationships and in the end is what gives her authority over Alisdair and Baines.
The piano, however, is not only significant in the fact that it acts as Ada’s voice but the actual piano itself plays a major role in love. We see that Ada values Baines over Alisdair in the film as Baines actually has some kind of respect for the piano, which Ada must have found arousing.
Speaking of arousing, although surrounded by exploitative men, she used her sexual hunger to put them on a leash and use them for her own satisfaction. Let's revisit the last paragraph where I state that Ada fancies Baines over Alisdair. Well surprise, they end up having intercourse together. Now you may be asking Peter, he literally blackmailed her into sleeping with him that has be rape, well not necessarily as Baines is so in love with Ada that he is aware of the consequences of this affair stating, “This arrangement is making you a whore […] I want you to care for me, but you can’t”. He wants to love her, but he has a good (well semi-good) heart and doesn’t want the love of his life to walk down the wrong trail, but does Ada care? Of course, not she as an independent woman gets to choose who she wants to sleep with and even during the act she demonstrates her strength.
In this scene, we see that Baines is the one under her dress giving her oral sex, and in fact, this is the first time I have seen oral sex being received by a woman rather than a man in a “sex scene”. This small detail hints at the fact that Ada is the one in control of the intercourse, she has control over Baines and rather than her satisfying him, he is satisfying her.
Now, Baines has fallen even deeper into love and now thinks towards their future. He is worried that the act of love was only a one-time thing and there was no deeper meaning to it. He confronts Ada about this saying, “Now you are going I am miserable, why’s that? Ada, I need to know what will you do. Will you come again […] this is mean something to you?”. This quote demonstrates the full power that Ada holds over Baines now and how she has finally been able to control one of the men to her desires.
Well, where does this leave Alisdair, well he is also affected by the by-product of these events. While Baines and Ada were engaging in their sexual activities, Alisdair was outside watching, now the mask has finally been broken. He becomes jealous, almost mad with it (ironic as apparently playing a carved piano makes you stupid), the next time Ada tries to visit Baines, Alisdair tackles her grasping on to dear life and her dress pulling her back into him, pinning her towards the ground. This may indicate the fact that he is trying to pull her back into his hands where he has full control over her and where she has no say in their life. Now pinning her to the ground, we see that his face is flushed red with what I would assume to be anger and resentment. He presses his face onto hers showcasing almost pain. But does Ada show any remorse no? She has now been enlightened by the facts the Baines was the better option and does not need him anymore. The sense of selfishness that is portrayed indicates that she has the power to care for her own mental and physical health. It shows that she prioritises herself over anyone else and this is a key component of what it means to be a feminist.
The scene above occurs after he finds out about the key and now, he has truly been cracked and has lost his utopian sense of chivalry and kindness. We see him now yelling and screaming out of anger and spite and once again, Ada shows no emotions. He is begging for sympathy, some kind of hint that she actually cares for him and that he means more to her, but in the end, he gets nothing. He is so hurt by this incident he cries out, “I trusted you […] why do you make me hate you, we could be happy, you make me angry”. Here we almost feel sympathetic for him that although trying his best to keep his wife happy she leaves him with nothing.
Well, how does this show power? Well revisiting the introduction of mine, I wrote that Ada had the ambition to have it all, and well, it’s true. She has art in the sense of her piano, she has sex in the sense of Baines and in the sense of love, it's not your typical fairy tale romance, live happily ever after story. Rather she preys off love and uses their jealously to strip them of their powers, indirectly giving her strength.
In conclusion, after stating all these topics we must now make a conclusion on whether the film is indeed feminist or not. Well let's revisit all the topics, in regard to art, people might argue at the facts that her power does not stem from her piano and rather that is just her personality, a feisty and easily angered women and I must agree, but in my opinion, the piano accompanies this thought and translates this into strength. Another argument that can be made about sex is that she has to choose between two rapists, and she chose the one with a more sculpted body, how would take make sense to be classified as feminist. Well, it might be true that her choices were not the best, feminism rather puts forward the notation that women are able to have the same rights as men, and in this case, she has the right to choose, why does she have to listen to someone else’s opinion, rather she chooses what she values most. The last argument would be that how does preying on the jealously of others portray Ada as feminist as isn’t the point of feminism again, to be on an even platform as men. Well in the case of Ada she is not dehumanising them, it was rather a wake-up call for the men to realise how they actually treat women whether they realise it or not. With these final rebuttals,x I’d say that yes, The Piano, is indeed feminist.
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