Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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The next morning, Malfred wastes no time in dispelling the gloom by opening the
blinds to let in the light. After unpacking her belongings, she determinedly cleans to
dispel the dust and grime and make the house her home. However, the objects in the
house, particularly the old medicine bottles in the bathroom, conspire against her to
bring back unpleasant memories and she finds herself thinking back to her mother’s last
days. Her mother’s oppression of Malfred is suggested visually by a memory of her
grasping Malfred’s hand. The sequence ends with the menacing sounds of the murky
water going down the plughole and Malfred sitting looking out the window. The side-
lighting of this shot, and the scarf Malfred is wearing around her head, is a composition
that suggests very strongly the influence of Ward’s art-school training.
The following scene of Malfred painting by the beach has already been discussed in
some detail in Chapter One, but it is worth noting that once again, the scene revolves
around the contrast between civilization - represented by Malfred in her straw hat and
polka-dotted dress, with her delicate water-colour brushes and paints - and the
wilderness, represented by the menacing black rocks and the unrestrained power of the
waves crashing against the shore. Roger Horrocks points out that while “this scene has
no exact precedent in the novel”, it makes use of the medium of the moving image
brilliantly and economically to convey the central issues of the book 410 . His detailed
analysis identifies a “pattern of paired POV shots” which initially “encourages us to
identify with Malfred” in her dissatisfaction at her attempts to capture the landscape.
As the scene draws to a close, however, the film exploits the mobility of the camera and
utilizes “complex changes of framing” to emphasize Malfred’s “loss of the controlling
viewpoint”. 411
The representation of the landscape in this scene has resonances with the Romantic
Sublime. The movement of the camera closer and closer to the oncoming waves creates
a sense of the sea as powerful, menacing and awe-inspiring. As discussed in Chapter
One, the Romantic Sublime is linked with the notion of inner vision, the external vision
of the sublime landscape generating in the viewer an inner vision, but although Malfred
is trying to “see for the first time” - as indicated by the extreme close-up on her eyes -
she realizes that she is inadequate to the task. Nicholas Reid makes the point that “Her
civilized art cannot cope with the violence of the sea, the moaning of the wind. She
410 Horrocks, "To Postulate a Ready and an Understanding Reader," 140.
411 Horrocks, "To Postulate a Ready and an Understanding Reader," 142.