You'd be forgiven for finding Harvey Keitel's Baines in the Piano an off-putting cad for his command of Holly Hunter and the reclamation of her piano. I originally saw this without subtitles for Ada's signing or the Māori translations so I thought we were supposed to interpret what was being said via actions alone. On streaming, they give you the subtitles, which helps. Without them, it's more ambiguous as to what Ada is trying to achieve. Baines and Ada are far more complex characters than we're led to believe.
What she commands is power over the two men in her life, and what she will do for her beloved piano. What she suffers through is her husband's vile expectations, not Baines demands of her. The respect he shows the piano and the eroticism depicted in him cleaning it while completely naked expresses his desire of her, not necessarily a want to defile her. He appreciates the importance of the piano while Alisdair fails in his understanding, as much as her former lover and father of her child did, a man who was her piano teacher and whom she thought she could command with her thoughts.
And she's taken with Baines, she commands him through her expressions via her face, her body and her music. She won't simply yield. The daughter Flora is too innocent to understand the bargain made, or the affection developed by Ada that even Baines fails to see. Given to Alisdair without her consent, Ada has so little control, as much as he fails to command respect from the traditional landowners. His dispute they even have right to the land is an obvious attack on colonialism. Baines has taken time to befriend and assimilate, Alisdair meanwhile refuses and cannot bridge a gap between him and the Māori. Baines is his go between but they are not friends, particularly for how quickly Baines falls for Ada. What could've come across as a crass depiction of a man sexually controlling a woman is handled better in Campion's hands as a relationship between two strong people mutually falling in love. Even Ada beating Baines for refusing her doesn't feel like a romance novel cliche but a genuine expression of passion and love from Ada, for how dare he deny her now?
The matter of infidelity in movies is usually hinged on the one being cheated on as undeserving of the protagonist's affection, either through indifference or abuse. Ada giving herself to Baines even with Alisdair finding out, is purely her choice, a compensation for the choices stolen from her as a woman and property of her father. Baines lives in the wild and thus becomes her freedom from the repressed marriage she's been forced into. Baines gives her back her voice and speaks for her when it comes time to take her piano home.
Alisdair trying to win her over in his awkward way is unbecoming, and when he tries to steal affection from Ada, it's depicted as a genuine assault on her. He takes the land for petty prices and viciously exacts revenge on Ada for her refusal to cease seeing Baines. Before then, she has to trick Baines with a show of loyalty via affection that he cannot accept because of his own repressed desires, and in the end her muteness drives him mad enough to relinquish her, but by then she's disfigured. Her own sexual energy is so intimidating to him he can't accept it, he can't interpret her bizarre behaviour, even if some of it is faked for a ruse. Flora aids in some deception because she is commanded by Ada, but plays parent over Ada's misbehaviour with Baines, though it's hardly her fault Alisdair becomes violent in the end. Even the women in Alisdair's life see her as a strange creature whose playing is somewhat tawdry and not proper like theirs, a commentary on the repression of women through the command of how they must present themselves in society. Any woman seen to act in contrast to this makes them as equally uncomfortable.
What is represented in all this is sacrifice and forced ownership, and what cannot come between a woman and her passions. A woman who won't even scream when faced with disfigurement from a man wielding an axe at her piano.
Weirdly Isabelle Huppert was considered for Ada's role and even went as far as having test shots taken, regretful she didn't fight Hunter for the role, who was already a passionate piano player. This is only weird for the fact Huppert eventually played a sexually repressed woman in the Piano Teacher.
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