'Stealla Bruzzi writes of the complex sensual and sexual relationship of both costume and body in The Piano. Under Campion's direction, the camera subverts the scopophilic gaze from the male subject creating instead an interrelationship between an active female subject and the feminine sense of touch. Bruzzi evaluates the unconventional portrayal of the female heroine, Ada, as instating a female subjectivity.' (p.xii)
Previously published in Screen 36.3 (Autumn 1995).