The Piano
I just watched The Piano. It was beautiful and intense. Basically the story is about a mute woman, Ada, who goes to New Zealand in an arranged marriage. The only way she communicates is through her beloved piano -- which, incidentally, her new husband isn't willing to lug through the marshes to their home. The movie is absolutely overflowing with symbolism -- New Zealand as the 'wilderness,' the 'rebirth' scene, the importance of strings, etc. There's a lot of similarities between this and Chopin's The Awakening and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (though in a good way), and the movie touches on everything from colonization to marriage to communication to repression to feminism. The performances were really amazing, especially from Holly Hunter since she didn't even speak a word. Also, the movie manages to turn most of your expectations upside down by the end. So yeah. Glad I watched this, even though it was very draining.