The Piano Teacher peers into the life of an extremely strict, well-respected piano teacher with a deeply disturbed psyche. The cold, bizarre story about sado-masochism in both emotional and physical terms features a superb performance from French actress Isabelle Huppert.
The poster for the film goes a long way toward encapsulating its central theme. A man and woman are passionately kissing in a white-tiled restroom, but their love seems so tortured that, on their knees, they look to be in pain. This discomfort prevails throughout the film.
The Piano Teacher opens to reveal the title character, Erika Kohut's, tangled love-hate relationship with her domineering mother (Annie Girardot). The two share a bed despite the fact that the daughter is already well into her 30s. Erika is a piano professor and Schubert scholar at the famous Vienna Conservatory and is well-known for her severe, almost insulting instruction of her students.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CMPC
In the evenings, however, she is a frequent visitor of pornography video shops and goes to the drive-in cinema to spy on lovers making out in cars, finding a desperate avenue for her desire. More severely, she is sometimes drawn to self-mutilation with a razor.
One day, a bright, angelic young man named Walter Klemmer, attracted by her cold, mysterious exterior, wants to enter Erika's world. She rejects his tender emotional pursuit and tortures him both psychologically and physically with a series of disturbing sex games. "Don't be surprised. I've had this desire to be beaten-up for years," she tells him. Ultimately she gives in to his love, only to find that Walter, equally disturbed, violently and sadistically lashes back at her.
Austrian director Michael Haneke's adept hand reveals the the enormous tension between the two mutually attracted people. This tension begins with Erika bringing up an uncomfortable subject, quoting T.W. Adorno on Schubert, Schumann and the relationship between art and madness. Although she rejects him initially, she begins to stalk him and is later touched by his piano playing. Her jealousy is easily aroused when she sees him flirting with a young piano student. When they ultimately find each other's arms, however, it is hard for the two extreme people to love "normally."
Haneke cleverly avoids a psychoanalytical explanation of Erika's morbidity, which is a focus of Elfriede Jelinek's novel of the same title. Instead, he uses close-ups to detail each of her emotional states. Woven through these scenes is the graceful music of Bach and Schubert, heard filling every corridor of the stately and stern conservatory. We slowly see the contrast between the ugliness of the human psyche and the beauty of the art which it can create, all coming together in Erika Kohut.
Isabelle Huppert has given life to the role of Erika Kohut. After seeing the film, it's difficult to imagine another actress playing the part. A raging undercurrent of emotion is easily seen beneath Huppert's frigid gaze. She seems an evil little girl with shockingly extreme conduct. A scene in which she silently puts broken pieces of glass in her student's pocket is one of the film's most poweful moments.
The Piano Teacher only falters near the end, when Walter drastically transforms into a violent man and the relationship is reversed. The narrative here is rushed and weakened as a result. Despite this, The Piano Teacher is deserving of the Cannes Jury's Grand Prize, as are its leading players for the Best Actor and Best Actress prizes.
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