FILM ESSAY
DISCUSS THE WAYS IN WHICH THE Jane Campion DIRECTOR OF The Piano
MANIPULATES AUDIENCE RESPONSE TO CHARACTERS AND TO WHAT EFFECT
In the feature film The Piano, directed by Jane Campion, characterization of Baines and
Stewart is shown through effective use of camera angle manipulation, the natural New
Zealand landscape and the use of soft and hard lighting. Baines and Stewart are
supporting characters of protagonist Ada, and their relationship with her show the
audience their personality and their values for people through the situations they
encounter with her. The Piano, set in New Zealand, portrays life of early English settlers
in the Victorian period. The blend of New Zealand and the English culture, the different
environment has shown the audience Ada, Baines and Stewart’s contrasting
personalities by their adaptation to New Zealand. Through Baines and Stewart, Campion
is communicating that bringing the English culture, values and traditions shown through
Stewart, does not work. On the other hand, Baines has immersed himself in Maori
culture and has shown contentment by working with the natural setting, speaking Maori
and interacting with the local Maori people which adapting with the setting will benefit
more than changing the setting.
Campion introduces Baines; the man that eventually becomes Ada’s lover, with the
image of rough-hewn demeanor, Maori face tattooed man at first may seem threatening.
Campion cleverly manipulates Baines’s costume by conveying an image of rugged,
simplistic and rough look to evoke the dirty and disrespectful feelings towards Baines.
Baines’s image is used to portray the hardship of the environment where his
adaptability to the environment is welcomed. However, Stewart is dressed in a clean
Victorian polished outfit reflects his English values and his inability to let go of his
English values to adapt to the environment. His dressing code manipulates the
audience’s reaction and evokes a comfortable and stable atmosphere because the
audience will most likely recognize the English dressing code and it is well accepted.
Baines is a contrast with Stewart, Ada’s husband, with the appearance of an English
colonized gentleman. Campion introduces Baines and Stewart as friends and has
deliberately shown the contrast of personality through their attitude towards Ada,
which the film thematically parallels with their attitudes towards the local Maori and
New Zealand. Stewart is a standard colonial in everything he does, while Baines is more
understanding, sensitive and adaptable. When they first meet Ada, their different
responses mark them out: Stewart says she looks ‘stunted’, Baines says that she looks
‘tired’. Baines can see Ada’s passion; Stewart lacks the fancy and imagination to notice.
He has a lack of verbal articulateness and instead acts to show his feelings to Ada.
Stewart’s uncooperative behavior with the local Maori is shown through his inability to
adapt to the environment shown through his strict English colonial wear. His
awkwardness to relate to New Zealand is reflected in his relationship with Ada,
awkward and disconnected. Campion manipulates us to feel this way about Stewart
because she wants to show that passion and purposeful acts such as Baines’s effort to
learn Maori and respect what Maori held as sacred has allowed Baines to be in harmony
with New Zealand and Maori community compared to Stewart and his traditional
English ways. This therefore has allowed Baines to be comfortable and clearly
communicate his desires watch Ada show her passion through her piano and eventually
wanting her sexually. In numerous scenes where Baines is naked and dusting and
caressing the piano, the piano acts as an extension of Ada, Campion establishes a
poetically potent equivalence between the piano keys and Ada’s fingers. As we begin to
differentiate the difference between Stewart and Baines, the audience has begun to
appreciate Baines for his relationship with Ada and New Zealand. Campion’s effective
way to manipulate Baines’s dialogue and his costume to reflect unity with New Zealand
has led the audience to become more comfortable with him as he is comfortable with
himself by building strong foundations with Ada and New Zealand.
As the audience watches Baines and Ada’s relationship grow through Baines’s bargain
with Ada, for her piano, she must prostitute herself, ‘one visit for every key’, the
audience see the satisfaction both lovers bring out of each other and their cooperation
with each other for their own benefit. He gives the piano back because he doesn’t want
her demeaning herself. This is shown in Baines’s dialogue ‘The arrangement in making
you a whore and me wretched.’ Campion has effectively used lighting to show the
security and harmonious interaction these two lovers had with each other in Baines’s
hut. Ada has found comfort and warmth there, even though it was uncomfortable at first.
In their interactions, the piano is always highlighted, Campion’s purpose for highlighting
the piano is to show Ada’s freedom to show her identity and Baines’s acceptance of her
identity and this reflects their cooperative relationship. At this stage, the audience will
support this relationship because Ada has found an equal relationship that is nonexistent in the Victorian era and Campion has effectively challenges societal norms. In
Baines’s reaction shot to Ada, his face is continuously lit with full-face lighting, which the
audience interprets as his openness and honesty. However Campion also plays with
dark lighting and shadows when Baines show his authority over Ada when he demands
his desires of Ada, when Baines say to Ada ‘undo your dress’, he is shadowed by soft
dark lighting which shows his authority over Ada’s vulnerability or lack of power and
portrays Baines as villainous. With his full demand for Ada, ‘Ada, I’m unhappy, ‘cause I
want you. ‘Cause my mind has seized on you and can think of nothing else. This is why
I’ve suffered’, Baines justifies his acts of mistreating Ada as reasons to have Ada’s
presence, he states his want for Ada clearly as he can identify himself with his
surroundings and therefore is sure in his character and what he wants. The audience
would react with sympathy with Baines’s and his heart for Ada because what he is
feeling is his true emotions and his desire for Ada is so strong that he is willing to let her
go with her piano if that truly makes her happy.
Stewart cannot appreciate Ada and he is plainly colonial in his treatment of both women
and ‘lesser’ colonized people. He has no understanding or wish to learn. He is
continually buying land considered sacred by the Maori; he sold his wife’s piano for
land. ‘What do they do with it?’ he asks of their land; ‘How do they know it’s theirs?’ His
interactions with Ada is forceful and is all an ‘act’ as his responses does not come
naturally but forcefully. Campion has manipulated Stewart’s actions commendably as
the audiences will response negatively with his fake acts and further resent Stewart
with his harsh and inappropriate treatment of Ada. Compared to scenes with Ada and
Baines, Stewart’s face is always in the shadow which suggest Stewart as a villain and
creates a moody and uncomfortable atmosphere and this reflects in the his dialogue
with Ada, where it reflects his forceful personality ‘we are a family now, we all make
sacrifices and so will you’. From this the audience can understand that Stewart is not a
bad man and provides with Ada and her daughter need however the lack of connection
and communication between them means that she cannot make herself give the
relationship a real go; thus it is domed from the beginning. The generous space in the
background of the frame around Stewart in his house and the space in the foreground
filled with bushes and trees in outdoors situations reflects his lack of connection with
other people and lack of closeness in his relationship with other characters especially
Ada, and reinforces his lack of adaptation with the environment. The rules of civilized
behavior, the Victorian colonial pomposity has led to Stewart to where he is, an outsider
of Ada’s world.
In conclusion, Campion has effectively used film techniques of appearances, visual
images, dialogue and relationship with the local Maori and Ada to manipulate audience’s
response to Baines and Stewart. Through their relationship with Ada, the audience can
reflect the personalities of both characters and evaluate why Baines and Ada’s
relationship has flourished compared to Ada and Stewart’s gone relationship. The
differences between Baines and Stewart’s character suggest that all is not as it seems on
the surface. Baines’s rugged and tattooed face suggest that he is not the type of man one
would fall in love with but as he ‘listens’ to Ada and has a deeply caring and sensitive
side to him eventually makes us see him differently. Ada’s decision to develop and
sustain her relationship with Baines reinforces the audience positive feelings towards
Baines and Baines and Ada’s relationship together. The Piano’s positive ending for
Baines emphasizes Campion’s skillful manipulation for audience response for Baines as
a character.