Filipe Manuel Neto
9
By Filipe Manuel Neto
**A great movie.**
For me, this is one of the great films of 1993. The story is not pretty, and we could almost call it “love in times of mud”, not only because of the continuous rain and the amount of mud on the set, but mainly because of the rudeness and brutality of the male characters. However, the film is very good, it's engaging, captivating and really deserves to be brought back these days. Winner of three Oscars (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay), I believe it just didn't win more due to fierce competition from "Schindler's List". The film also won the prestigious Palme d'Or for Jane Campion in Cannes.
Set in the mid-19th century, the film begins with the marriage by proxy of Ada, a young, single mother, to a middle-class farmer settled in New Zealand. The British colony was still developing, there is a tense relationship between the whites and the native Maori, and Ada's new husband is trying to buy more land on the island. We never understand what he does or what he intends to use them for, and the film ignores these details and focuses on the couple's relationship. Ada is mute, but she has a special affection for her piano and plays very well. However, the new husband is not happy about it: the piano is large, it is heavy and the journey to his house is long, which is why he leaves the piano on the beach and ends up selling it to George Baines, an illiterate who, in a rather indecent proposal, allows Ada to play it on the condition that they become sexually involved, under the guise of alleged piano lessons. However, they end up falling in love and this will shake up Ada's marriage.
This film is really the most beautiful work of Jane Campion, who brilliantly assures the direction and the script. Ada is a character we easily sympathize with, and Flora, her daughter (the name is never mentioned in the film), is endearingly tender and naive. It's the way they hold us that supports the entire film. The melodrama, for me, is like the weakest part of the film: in addition to Ada marrying a brutal and indigestible husband, she ends up falling in love with a man who is equally unpleasant and who starts by taking advantage of a situation to satisfy his own sex needs and an unbelievable passion. Today, I think it would be very difficult for Campion to present a story like that without being shot in the public square by the most wary feminists.
The cast deserves an applause. Holly Hunter gives us the performance of her career playing Ada. Moving, suffering and unhappy, the actress managed to give her a strong personality and a great deal of obstinacy. Anna Paquin, still extremely young, is beautiful in her role and the way she plays with Hunter is truly touching. Due to her innocence and innate sense of justice, her character protects her mother, but, at the right moments, condemns her for her untimely and thoughtless attitudes. Sam Neill is effective and very good in the role of Ada's husband. The actor manages to make his character detestable. Harvey Keitel is also very good in the role of Baines, and it was a surprise for me, since I tend to associate him more with action or thriller roles.
Technically, the film has an epic, melodramatic feel that instills depth, which was nice to feel. There are certain moments where it feels like the film is doing some self-importance, but I handled that well. The cinematography is truly excellent, and is beautifully shot. The filming locations were well-chosen, and shows us a wild and inhospitable side of New Zealand, a place that, for many of us, is unknown and arouses curiosity. I didn't know, for example, that it was such a rainy place, but that makes sense, considering the location and the mountainous topography. A word of praise, also, for the costumes, very historically accurate. Finally, a word for the grandiose soundtrack, based naturally on piano, and composed by Michael Nyman.
