The Use of Symbolism in the Film "The Piano"

458 Words1 Page

Screen and Visual images are important in the film; The Piano directed by Jane Campion. The screen and visual images are represented by Motifs. They are related to the dominating characters which makes them important.

Firstly, Fingers as signifiers. The films very first image is a point-of-view shot looking through Ada's fingers as if they frame her world. They are signifiers of expressiveness. Ada is mute and her fingers are her tools of communication. She communicates using sign language with her fingers. Ada also uses her fingers to play the piano. Without her fingers, Ada would not be able to continue with her passion. Fingers are the chosen means of her affectionate sex play when she caresses her husband, and Baine's fingers a hole in her stocking. It is a finger cut off by Stewart with his axe, and then sent to Baine's as her message (so literally becoming language) instead of the piano key she wanted to send.

Ada's elective mutism has made her fingers fluent, like those of some blind people. Her fingers have a triple fluency; in her signing, in her ardent playing and in ...

Show More
Related

  • Symbolism And Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1243 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kate Chopin's The Awakening is full of symbolism such as birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are symbols with an extremely significant meaning.

    Read More

  • Love is Close at Hand: The Age of Innocence

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    Referred to as his family's "strong right hand", Newland's composure slips and shatters over the course of the film as he becomes increasingly obsessed with Countess Olenska and the allure of her forbidden touch. The camera plays close attention to hands, reinforcing the rigidity and frigid decorum that pervade the film, offering the notion of touch as an escape from the pedantic lifestyle of upper-class New York. Ultimately, the simplicity of hands becomes the essence of life, love, and happiness, in a film saturated with customs, pageantry and pomp.

    Read More

  • Through Deaf Eyes Documentary Analysis

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like all schools at the time, Deaf schools were separated into black deaf schools and white deaf schools. For the next 40 years the black and white deaf communities flourished separately. The signs and cultures changed and some things became unique to each culture. When segregation ended and black deaf students were allowed into white deaf schools they noticed something was different. All the students used sign language but their signs, or manner of signing, was different. The deaf white students used only a few signs, fingerspelling a majority of the time, whereas deaf black students used signs a majority of the time. In the film, Carolyn McCaskill said that she felt “humiliated” when the white students would point out that her signing was different than theirs, it made her feel as though her signing was “inferior.” Black people do have their own way of signing, tending to use even more body expression than white signers. For instance, while white signers may sign “girl” black signers will get their head into it, signing “girl” like “yeah girl”. As Carolyn said, “that’s just the black way of

    Read More

  • Collaborative Processes Between Directors and Composers

    2054 Words  | 5 Pages

    To fully understand the relationship between a filmmaker and a composer, it is helpful to take a closer look at the filmmaker’s position towards music in film in general; these can of course differ substantially from one director to another. It seems, one must think, that the complete narrative and emotive potential of film music is not yet fully recognized and appreciated in many film produc...

    Read More

  • Dark Romantics Use of Symbolism

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is considered evil? Is a person truly ever evil? If so, what leads into walking down this path? Could it possibly be a life-alternating event or influence from another outside force? Anti-transcendentalists believed in this presence of evil in humanity and that it was predominant in the lives of individuals. Anti-transcendentalists were the opposite of transcendentalists in terms of their overall views on life. Transcendentalists believed in the good or in other words, positive outlooks in life. Dark Romantics as anti-transcendentalists were sometimes referred to as being extremely popular during the mid-1800’s. This saw the rise of many prominent anti-transcendentalist’s writers, not just in America but abroad. Dark Romantics used symbolism in their literary works to show the prevalence of evil in society contrary to transcendentalist’s beliefs.

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men - Symbolism

    473 Words  | 1 Pages

    The central element of this novella is its symbolism. This novella has plenty of symbolical forms, such as people, creed, and some of the animals. Candy has several terms of symbolism, for example his disability is a symbol of the migrant workers who are just literally forgotten about, they are forgotten when they are no use to the owners. Candy’s dog is a symbol of a life only for advantage to others Lennie also for shadows this, he is belittled of his mind but enormously commented for his strength. Also he is compelled to lie about the fight he had with Curley, this is a symbol of typical male society in the, “Depression era”.

    Read More

  • Pycho: Movie Analysis: Film Analysis Of Psyo

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Just about everyone can voice their opinions on a film that viewed as we all do after leaving the theatre. It may be found to be useful when a friend or individual is interested in seeing the film themselves. However, I believe the only way that you could understand a film is by analyzing the film beyond the average person. When one begins to analyze they begin to develop an understanding of the film and may grow to love the film. The director Hitchcock is a fairly well known director. He has directed many different films from Vertigo to Psycho that are found to be popular with the viewers. In this paper I am going to analyze certain elements that spoke out to me during the film. Those elements that spoke to me the most during the film was the lighting techniques, camera movement, and symbols.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Setting and Symbols in "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.

    Read More

  • Marie Jean Of The Deaf Community

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both of Philip’s parents attended oral schools. Her father later learned signed through his friends who were active signers. Her mother learned sign language when she met her father at age 18. By the time Marie was born, her mother, age 22, did not sign fluently. When Marie was old enough to go to school her parents endeavored to send her to Clarke School for the Deaf, a very famous oral school. Here she was rejected because she knew how to sign.

    Read More

  • The Power of Symbolism

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    A symbol is any “‘object, act, event, quality, or relation which serves as a vehicle for conception’” (230). Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians by Barbara Myerhoff is a very intricate text which involves numerous aspects of symbolism. Myerhoff not only applies a much deeper meaning to deer, maize, and peyote, but she also uses these objects as a representation of divine beings and spirits. The deer, maize, and peyote are very powerful entities but together they form the deer-maize-peyote complex, which is central to the Huichol life. The unification of these disparate objects can be easily understood once they are analyzed on three different levels: exegetical, operational, and positional.

    Read More

  • Music's Relationship to Emotional Cognition

    2107 Words  | 5 Pages

    Music can decipher a narrative event by indicating a perspective. To unify a set of diverse images and provide rhythmic and formal continuity and momentum, a film’s structure is more often than not, directly articulated by a musical structure. Music can assist the dialogue and visuals of film and often is inaudible (e.g. music is meant to be heard unconsciously, not consciously). Music has been used by directors to reinforce or strengthen certain weak scenes in film and then on the other hand when music is not needed to reinforce a scene

    Read More

  • Distinctive Visuals in Run Lola Run

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, the distinctive visual techniques employed by the composer provide a vehicle for the respondent to understand the ideas and themes prompted by people and their experiences. Tykwer’s film, Run Lola Run demonstrates the effect of the distinctive visual in Lola’s exploration of the themes of chance and time, whilst Mackellar’s poem ‘My Country’ provides the audience with an evocative experience of the Australian environment.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    strong on her own. Specifically, how to be independant and gain control of her own

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Symbolism In 'The Glass Castle'

    517 Words  | 2 Pages

    When analyzing the symbolism in the Glass Castle it would only be appropriate to start with the major symbol: The Glass Castle. The Glass Castle represents hope and a bright future. The fact that Rex Walls never achieved the goal of building his dream house shows how deeply he needed to overcome his alcoholism and paranoia. Even though the glass is unstable, it symbolizes how Rex Walls wanted an unrealizable lifestyle. It was a lifestyle that could fall apart at any moment. The other symbols that represent Jeanette’s transition into adulthood are fire, The Joshua Tree, and independence.

    Read More

  • The Use of Sound in Coppola’s The Conversation

    2672 Words  | 6 Pages

    As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.

    Read More

More about The Use of Symbolism in the Film "The Piano"

Open Document