FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

70 Transition and Transformation
Hester, too, is associated with this light from the beginning of the story. A key
example is the scene where a source of light off screen – the hidden mirror,
reflecting the sun – casts its reflection in screen space, but without being noticed
by the passers-by of the story other than precisely as a reflection. The light in
this scene has a second effect: that of awakening the caged bird, which then
starts to sing in the dancing light, followed by a harsh remark by the stinging
Mistress Hibbins: “Hester Prynne’s bird singing on the Lord’s Day! What is Boston
coming to?” 19 As the bird flees, Hester chooses to try to capture it instead of
obeying the command of the church bells, which will lead to her later conviction
as sinner. The image of the bells function as a stern contrast to the freedom she
enjoys for a short moment in the forest. Roth-Lindberg writes:
As she follows the bird, she seems, in a dissolve to the bell tower, to be running right
through and away from the commanding bells. And when she has reached the deep
forest, which in the book and even more so in the film, is the space of love and forbidden
acts, she all of a sudden melts into the landscape through a long shot, transformative
through light and movement. 20
Only as the bells stop, Hester realizes that her hair has been left loose, and she
hastily tries to pull it together under her bonnet before entering the church.
Now, the forest all of a sudden looks darker, as the dark shadow of Puritanism
been cast upon it. When the pastor later follows Hester home after her punishment,
a soft light again seems to flood down on her. He is shown looking back
at her from behind a bush, as if the contact with Hester had already made him
part of nature, of the force that will eventually conquer him.
In the next scene, the pastor walks in the forest in pious meditation, and Hester,
like the other women, has washed her underwear – which according to the
Puritan regulations “are immodest though necessary/They must be washed in
secret & hidden from masculine eyes”. On meeting the pastor, Hester first tries
to hide her “guilty” secret, but on his orders, she shows the garment hidden
behind her back. He is embarrassed and tries to rush away, but she follows him
and begs him to talk to her about her sins. As they walk they seem to come
deeper into the forest, the natural, lyrical landscape, where the sunlight is soft –
a central chapter in the novel, which takes place in the forest, is entitled “A
Flood of Sunshine” –but merciful shadows also allow for a freedom from the
sharp, pitiless light of the Puritan community which seeks to penetrate into
every angle of life.
The forests in the film strongly resemble those of the painter, Jean-Honoré
Fragonard (1732-1806), whose lines seem to trail playfully through his pictorial
compositions. They stand in contrast to the images of the community which in
turn resemble paintings such as Rembrandt van Rijn’s(1606-1669) The Syndics of
the Clothmakers Guild or Frans Hals’ (c. 1580-1666) Regents of the St Elizabeth Hos-