The Piano - The Womb Tomb

The ending of The Piano is one of my favorites. I've always had a fascination with innocent morbidness and Piano's ending is a perfect example. The tonal build up to the provocative ending shot is so deliberate and handled with care. The build-up begins with a close-up shot of Ada's new metal finger pressing a piano key as she explains that Baines has fashioned her a new metal finger and gleefully states that she's "quite the town freak." Campion primes the audience with a little morbidness with the form of Ada's extremely apparent artificial finger being attached to her organic stump. The stump itself is a harrowing reminder to the audience of the horrific trauma Ada endured to receive it, so in turn, it makes the metal finger tip look a bit more quaint in comparison.

As Ada continues her monologue, the audience learns that she's decided to try to start speaking again, but that she finds her articulation so embarrassing that she puts a veil over her face while doing so. Ada still suffers anxiety to speak. However, the audience is so happy that Ada is moving forward that we observe her isolating herself with the veil as endearing and a healthy coping mechanism that works just for her and her childlike logic. The scene cuts to her practicing her speech as she runs her finger along the wall and doesn't visually see Baines sneak in her hand's path. He is deliberately quiet so he can surprise her as if he's playing a game. Ada's hand realizes what blocks her path and she smiles. Baines then lifts the veil off her face like a groom would at a wedding and kisses her lips, and then her nose, then both her cheeks, then her forehead. The kissing exudes a tenderness that straddles the line between innocent and erotic. The audience is happy for Ada.

And then the shot immediately cuts to the piano underwater, as Ada says, "I think about my piano in its ocean grave..." and slowly but surely the camera pans back for the audience to see Ada's drowned corpse tied it. The piano music is gone, there's no sound but the muffled waves above and Ada's voice over. Ada talks about how she fantasizes about the stillness and quiet, how it's enough to lull her to sleep when she's restless. The shot remains firm on the piano and Ada's body, letting the audience experience it with her. The audience might find themselves enchanted by the serenity of it too if there wasn't a niggling part reminding us that this would have been the outcome had she been successful in her suicide. Ada ends with, "It is a strange lullaby, but it is mine," and the audience can't help but agree with her.

Ada's lullaby death very much mirrors a mother's womb (the piano also belong to her mother), with the rope serving as the umbilical cord. The tranquility of the womb is unlike any other. Her lullaby can be especially empathetic to people who have also been suicidal. Suicidal people often don't look forward to the act of killing themselves, but rather the peace that comes after it.