What’s the first thing a couple of film scholars do when they come to New Zealand? Go to the beach, of course. But not just any beach. The stretch of sand in question is the black, wave-tormented north end of Karekare, west of Auckland where Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin and a baby grand landed in Jane Campion’s colonial-era bodice-ripper.
There they are, Professor David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, on the blog they maintain at www.davidbordwell.net There’s even a cover-shot of the script, held up in front of the distinctive ridgeline, cineastes’ cyberproof that they really were there.