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After the benchmark-setting double whammy of Funny Games and Code Unknown, the new Haneke should arrive almost bullet-proofed of flaws. Yet what he has composed is exactly what you'd least expect from the master of the unexpected, a horrifically disfigured piece of cinema with occasional moments of greatness. The problem is not with the shock instances that populate the film and make you cringe, squirm and, unfortunately for many members in my auditorium, bray with laughter, for these are handled with Haneke's established clinical and single minded expertise. It is the lengthy and unrevealing remainder that these scenes are structured around which let the mouth-covering nastiness down.
The character study of a cold, talented piano teacher, played by Isabelle Huppert, makes a fatal mistake in assuming the audience really will figure out what motivates her character from merely her extreme actions and difficult situation. Huppert often seems to have the emotional register of Schwarzenegger's Terminator, merely proceeding from each abnormal, intimate incident with the pre-programmed detachment of that killing machine. This, combined with Haneke's non-judgemental direction, strands an equally uninvolved viewer. Perhaps reading the award-winning book that the film was based upon would shed some much needed light unto the events and characters, but this shouldn't be necessary in a good adaptation.
What the film does achieve early on is squandered in the overlong running time. Annie Girardot puts in a restrained yet devious turn as Huppert's foreboding mother but this cornerstone part is played for inappropriate laughs when the film reaches it dark conclusion. Similarly, Benoit Magimel does strong work as the young virtuoso who becomes smitten then repulsed by his teacher, but this is left in tatters when the plot starts swinging his character from one extreme to the other. Also to its credit those shock value moments are expertly handled. The DIY female circumcision and drive-in relief scenes have an intensity equal to the aftermath of the first murder in Funny Games or slaughter of the cows in Code Unknown. Yet despite every perverse act Huppert is made to perform, there is no continuity between them. If the causes for her behaviour were psychological then surely she would enjoy the ritual of a particular act. Instead we are left with catalogue of horrid activities, that would rival the cheapie Brazilian exploiter, Jose Mojica Marins' Awakening the Beast, in it's attempt to break as many taboos as possible. Personal fascination and audience expectations drove Marins in his filming of fetishes. If Haneke's motives are similar then why did the audience I watched the film with leave with such a silent, head scratching briskness?
Reviewed by Bob Carroll
Reader comments about The Piano Teacher
Ayse Dilek Simsek (dileksimsek@hotmail.com) writes:
Once I thougt that life was so stable that sudden changes never happens..This didn't worry me ever,cause I was living it that way.And trying to find my way of understanding the outcomes of the happening things-sometimes with surprise..If living was stable,as it seemed to be, how the little changes affected human beings? Well, the answer is in the film...
Luis Arturo Vargas (luisverve@postmaster.co.uk) writes:
SHOCKING!!
shocking!!
I don't want to say enything else, just please watch this flick..
Angela (Email address withheld) writes:
The PIano Teacher is a shockingly wonderful pieace of Art!
Curt Forest (Email address withheld) writes:
This is by far and away quite the worst film I have ever seen in my brief life.
Liz (Twinkle_uk@hotmail.com) writes:
Beautiful yet evil the juxaposition in this film is wikedly learing. Maybe a master piece or have things all been taken just too far in this shocking tale.
Erasmus Napier (Email address withheld) writes:
Do NOT agree - it's not random, it's human - and remember, limits exist, but are arbitrary: it's not, as Camus pointed out, that they'd never be surpassed, but that those that surpassed them would suffer nemesis.
Ask any classically-trained musician - they'll tell you that, as a study of sacrifice and discipline in pursuit of artistic goals, and as a horrifically detailed study of a person whose sense of self and consequently of limits is, at best, skewed, it's painfully close to the bone.
Sure, it's not hysterical, it's not melodramatic - it's barely even dramatic - but the fact that even at that darkest hour, when he finally accedes to her submission fantasy, there is still room for bathos and pathos, speaks volumes for Haneke's humanity.
Try again...
Bob Carroll (pozzi@postmaster.co.uk) writes:
I asked two of my friends who are classically trained musicians and while they are willing to devote their total time and energy to developing their talents to the highest degree, neither ever felt the urge to disfigure another human being's hand. One of them once cheated on her boyfriend, but I don't think this equals sniffing used tissues in a porno cinema.
Nice Camus reference though, Erasmus.
Conor Thomas (Email address withheld) writes:
that is some fucked up shit. I had no idea what to think about that film, really. I suppose that is excellent though in a way that the film illicits such extreme responses, i will say to others go and see it but i probably won't ever watch it again myself.
Funny games... (Email address withheld) writes:
"The piano teacher" is the best movie i have seen in a very long time. Such a wide perspective of psychology so tightly packaged. Hanekes direction is so assured. The tension he creates in every image is amazing. The choices he makes are so brave and so unconventional. He is so true to the characters and the story he refuses to take the easy way out. Haneke sure walks a fine line with this material, but where others have failed, he has succeeded. This is the one movie that shouldnt be accused of using shock tactics. The portrait of the piano taecher is so moving, one feels such empathy for her inspite some of her "evil" actions. Haneke doesnt tell us how to feel about her, one has to come to his/her own conclusion.
Im only touching the subject somewhat superficially here to make the simple point that YOU HAVE TO GO SEE THIS MOVIE. You may hate it, but it wont leave you without a reaction.
L.Sandek (St.Deq@verizon.net) writes:
The merits of this piece of the film or that might or might not be debatable but taken in its entirety it is a powerful work. And Huppert's performance is hypnotic, a thing of beauty.
Erasmus Napier Redux (Email address withheld) writes:
Having just seen Funny Games... fantastisch, also.
Simone de Beauvoir (Email address withheld) writes:
Isabelle Huppert is not just an actress, she is a medium through which a character comes through. At no point in the film did I think she was "acting." It was as though, during the two some odd hours it lasted, she simply was Erika Kahut.
All I can say is that she is totally compelling and the film is one of the most exceptional works of art I've ever seen in my life.
Nicholas (Email address withheld) writes:
The subject is definately not for those who are narrow minded or living in their own world. If you are adventerous enough to explore or to find out more about how different each one of us are, then this film is for you.
Superb acting,story told in a straight forward manner.
charlimaar (charlimaar@hotmail.com) writes:
This film the piano teacher returns to a theme that sems to pervade so much of french literature and cinema....the depravity of humankind.
Sometimes it seems like the storyline is outof this world, more like a classical Greek tragedy than a film. If you liked this film, I would recommend reading something by Michel Houellebeq. Similar critique on modern society.
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