A stellar Gothic romance set in 19th century New Zealand.
This has to be one of my all-time favourite films so I was guaranteed to enjoy the memories oA stellar Gothic romance set in 19th century New Zealand.
This has to be one of my all-time favourite films so I was guaranteed to enjoy the memories of the film, but I missed the superb accompanying Michael Nyman soundtrack and accompanying visual imagery which make it such a fantastic film, notwithstanding some excellent acting.
The screenplay feels almost bland by comparison missing the dank, dark, tropical feel of the native bush setting; the noise of the native fauna so foreign to the Scottish immigrants, Ada accompanied by her daughter, Flora, who is essentially a mail order bride to Alasdair Stewart, a run-holder and early settler. He is accompanied by Baines, a trader, translator and general fixer who is able to converse in "te reo"▪︎ as well as members of a local Maori tribe largely only conversant in their own language and covered in a variety of "moko"•
Ada is mute but has perfect hearing and has come accompanied with a Broadbent baby grand piano, which she plays with exquisite ability. Flora, her 10 year old illegitimate daughter, is her mother's mouth-piece and interpreter.
The dialogue is notable for the extensive use of "te reo" which gives an air of authenticity to both its time-frame but also the cocky, insouciant indigenous language in comparison to the stilted, diffident English spoken by the immigrants.
Soon, a love triangle develops which immerses the adult participants with emotion, violence and tragedy interwoven through early settler experiences and indigenous conflicts.
Throughout this, the piano features heavily both as a prop, a tool and a weapon. Also it allows the use of music to express language and emotion. Necessarily lacking this expression diminished the screenplay somewhat but allowed the focus to remain on the spoken dialogue, which is somewhat reduced by having one mute actor!
Oh, what superlatives do I reach for when describing a book that so enriched my heart and mind, that I wept on finA marvelous memoir of a real mensch.
Oh, what superlatives do I reach for when describing a book that so enriched my heart and mind, that I wept on finishing? That I slowly savoured the last few pages, realising that my state of blissfulness was coming to an end. That the author is no longer living, to weave his magic on the shores of the literary pantheon. But he leaves his mark as "a book' that he wished to be in childhood, the one covered with an image of a young lad reading a book lying on a verdant bed, with another book as his pillow.