For my film history class, we watched "The Piano" by Jane Campion. I first saw this movie when it came out in the early 90's, and it was interesting to watch it again years later. Here are some interesting observations I had:

1. When I first saw this movie, I hated the husband. This time around I was very sympathetic to the husband. It takes two to make a marriage fail and both Ada and her husband made mistakes.

2. The sexual game that Ada and Harvey Keitel played was sensous and erotic. Previously, I thought the game was demeaning and nasty, and now I'm like "hmmm, interesting and very sexy."

3. Still thinking after all these years, "is it worth wrecking your marriage so you can have sex with Harvey Keitel?"

4. Ada's daughter was so cruel and I never really got until the second viewing years later, that the little girl probably felt abandoned by Ada. The daughter had her mother all to herself before going to New Zealand, and now she had to share her with Harvey Keitel. The daughter didn't mind the Sam Neil character because he never made demands on Ada's time, but with Harvey Keitel, Ada ignored the daughter.

5. The Harvey Keitel character really loved Holly Hunter's character Ada. Back then I thought it was romantic, and now I think "okay, so he's not the best looking guy in the world, his bum is decent and all but the rest of him including those tatoos on his face are annoying, but you know maybe all that really matters is the fact that he really loved her and was smart enough to get that the piano really mattered to her."

6. I used to love the ending of "The Piano", even though friends argued passionately at the time that the movie should have ended with Ada committing suicide with the piano. My friends said "The Piano" had a Hollywood happy ending. I told them I would've hated the movie if it ended with a suicide, because I love Hollywood happy endings. Now, I can go either way. I still love the happy ending with Ada and Harvey Keitel ending up together, but I now see merit in a suicide ending.