The Piano (Movie) Is Not A Love Story, It's A Story About Child Abuse


 

Hi Dragonflies,

**Warning Spoilers Ahead**


On Saturday night I watched a New Zealand film with my husband. It's an old movie. I was intrigued about a woman's love for her piano driving her in this story but I was also saddened and shocked that this movie was not just described as a love story but also a great love story. I initially felt bad for the main character who was mute. It was hard to follow at times but I quickly realised that this woman often put her needs and desires above her own child's. She allowed a man to touch her so that she could play her piano somehow he ended up with. I didn't understand how he obtained it as I was under the impression it was left on the beach. 

The focus was often on the husband (who convinced the woman to enter a loveless arranged marriage) the Mother who was mute and the other man whom she was having an affair with. The poor child got pushed in the middle of the chaotic situation. The mother would also talk to her child like she was an adult and the child ended up seeing her Mother have sex with another man. She then told her Mother's husband and he chased her down trying to violently rape her while her child was playing nearby. It's like these adults didn't even see the child around. It was horrific.

Then the mother gives her daughter a love note for her lover and pressures her to give it to the man even though she doesn't want to. Instead, she gives it to the husband who then proceeds to cut off the womans finger in front of her child and then gives the finger to her mother's lover. When she does the lover shakes the daughter's anger and finally a Maori woman comforts the child. I won't spoil the ending as I am just writing about what this child has to witness and how she is used and abused by all the adults involved in this self-involved chaos.

The so-called love story is just sex. They don't get to know each other, they just have an intense sexual affair and claim to 'love' each other. The lover doesn't even compliment the woman on her piano playing just on her looks. I don't see how this was a love story. It was a story of three selfish adults who used and abused a child in pursuit of their self-interests. Whoever called this a love story should not be allowed to be around children.

I was left not caring about the mother's so-called 'love story' and felt deeply concerned for the child and how the child was represented in the story. She was treated as an accessory and there was no consequence for the adult's actions in this story. I think it's good to debunk some movies that claim to be romantic because not only do a lot of people get the wrong idea about love and romance from films, but it's even worse when that falsehood that the movie is endorsing is also mistreating children in the process. I was the child accessory in a false love story too and I think directors and screenwriters need to be mindful of their influence and how they inspire the public. You don't want to inspire someone to get into a toxic relationship that is just as bad for the adult as it is for the child. You want to inspire romance that positively affects the individuals in love and those around them.

We need to discourage the "When I am with you the whole world disappears" mindset because true love is what connects us and makes the world go round. If your experiencing what you think is love and it doesn't connect you more positively to the world then it's lust, not love.

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