In Jane Campion’s 1993 Gothic romance, a mute Scottish woman and single mother named Ada (Holly Hunter) arrives in 1850s New Zealand for an arranged marriage to Sam Neill’s priggish, domineering landowner. Ada recoils from his touch, but warms more to that of a retired whaler (Harvey Keitel) – although theirs is not so much a love match as it is a sexual bartering to reclaim her piano, Ada’s main instrument of communication and the true object of her ardor. Hunter won an Oscar for her silent, forceful performance, as did a young Anna Paquin (playing her sprite daughter) and Campion for her original screenplay. Academy rules disqualified Michael Nyman’s work for incorporating some preexisting folk music, but it’s an unforgettable score – dark and dreamy and insistent. – Kimberley Jones
