"Piano Lesson" is Jane Campion's famous work and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993, making her the first female director in history to receive this honor.
From a female moviegoer, I can only say that Campion is too insightful and has a good grasp of female psychology, and the advantages of female directors are fully exerted. She knew what would open the heart of a sexually ignorant woman.
In the piano lessons, the gentle strokes and the skin touches from the shallow to the deep, Ada's nerves were teased and teased, and the seeds of sexual desire began to sprout and grow.
Whether it's Baines hiding under Ada's wide skirt and sucking her genitals, or a sex scene in which the two are intertwined, there are no women's coquettish gasps or men's rough thrusts. Compared with other films, it is extremely rare. From beginning to end, it is ambiguous, gentle and delicate.
The surging erotic tension injects powerful magic into the image, but it is not vulgar and erotic.
And Baines has always held a respectful attitude towards Ada. He had the conditions to rape her directly, but he chose to exchange his body for the piano—let her play his beloved piano and let him show his courtship. Even the number of keys changed was obeying Ada.
So, I can fully understand why Ada fell in love with Baines, not the superficial "sex before love", but the feeling of love through sex. Whether a man loves you or not can be fully reflected by sex, and a woman can fully perceive it. Not just sex, this man listens to her and understands her.
Later, the sexually awakened Ada became more and more thirsty for sex. When she slept at night, she regarded her daughter as Baines, and her hands wandered uncontrollably on her. Touching her husband's body but refusing to let him touch her is contrary to the traditional female image. Campion dares to liberate "femininity" and is not trapped in the so-called ethics.
Campion, on the other hand, dared to expose and offend the patriarchy. She cares more about the cage in which women are imprisoned.
Her husband is secular, selfish, jealous, and hypocritical. He doesn't understand the importance of the piano to Ada at all, he doesn't understand Ada's spiritual world, and he doesn't regard Ada as a person with an independent personality.
In a patriarchal society, women who are no longer sexually repressed and are loyal to themselves in love pay the price of broken fingers and rape by their husbands. Campion dismantled and visualized the violence suffered by women in a patriarchal society, and I felt anger and sadness spontaneously arise in my heart.
After her fingers were chopped off, Ada's face was muddy, her eyes were calm and determined, "At this moment, she is defying the entire patriarchy by defying pain", and the silent resistance burst out. At the same time, Campion is "declaring war" on the entire patriarchy .
Ada did not go to the bottom of the sea with the piano, but began to practice speaking and integrate into the society, just because Campion did not intend to portray the image of a "perfect woman" who died spiritually. Why can't an ordinary woman choose love and life?
In this film, Campion not only shows the slenderness and sensitivity unique to female directors, but also shows her perseverance and arrogance not limited by gender. And one of the characteristics of the brief film is that it has too much stamina. I couldn't sleep at night after watching it last night, and I remember it for a long time...
All in all, I really like this movie, the script, photography, soundtrack, acting, and thematic expression are all impeccable.
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