Tuesday 10 April 2012

"It's being aware of what it means to lose oneself, before being completely abandoned."

             When Black Swan came out a couple of years back, there were a number of films whose names were thrown about a lot as the inspiration behind it. One of which was Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher. I had heard about how intense and crazy it was and after watching Funny Games, I was a bit hesitant to watch this. But it is a film that has completely won me over.



              Erika Kohut is a piano teacher in her late thirties or early forties who still lives with her overbearing mother. They even sleep on the same bed. So constrained in life, Erika seeks out pleasure in quite unconventional and eyebrow-raising ways, especially for a woman. Her sexual repression seemingly finds an outlet when a handsome young student, Walter Klemmer, starts fancying her. But her desperate desires are too much for anyone to handle, including herself, and soon things get ugly.

            The Black Swan connection for this film is that of a professional artist who lives life under immense control only to find herself being driven mad by it. While Black Swan shows this in melodramatic and surreal ways, The Piano Teacher is real and quite despondent. As intense a film as it was, and though there were some scenes in it which made me very uncomfortable, at the end of it all I could feel was extreme sympathy for this miserable woman.


              The biggest reason of course why I felt so much for her was the incredible performance by Isabelle Huppert. The whole film is practically driven by just her face. There are entire scenes only focusing on her expressions- they don't seem to change, still they tell everything. It is fascinating. The restraint, the madness, the aloofness, the despair are all apparent on her face, though I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they were singular shots. For example the scene where Walter tries out for her piano class and plays one of her favourite composers Schubert, the camera is pointed only at her and we can feel how the controlled indifference turns into plain agony for her, as she is so swept away by it. Yet to someone who would have casually glanced at her, they would not have noticed a thing. But on the flipside of it, there are many scenes showing the deviated things she does and in them she is completely emotionless, which scares us and also makes us think what could have possibly impelled someone to do such things.

            The other two primary cast members are Benoît Magimel, who plays Walter and Annie Girardot, who plays Erika's mother. Walter at first seems like just another cocky kid who thinks it will be cool to date an older female, but the change in his character due to Erika's ludicrous demands is shocking and makes him unique. Magimel does an excellent job of showing both the lightness and the darkness of his character. Girardot as the Mother has gone on to join my list of mothers-from-hell alongside the likes of Margaret White. Erika has some unspeakable history with her. Her mother constantly rebukes her and both of them keep hurting each other, physically and mentally, but still they stay together, though it's not love that is keeping them together; one cannot help but think it is something sinister instead. Girardot too is very good. 


            Apart from the cast, the other reason why this film amazed me the way it did was because it felt so authentic. Not in a way that everyone is sexually perverted and has kinky wishes, but that there is a true possibility of someone sitting next to me, who I think is normal, may very well be into questionable stuff. It almost doesn't feel like a film, but a true insight into a very desperate and sick person's life. What made me realise this was one little thing- when Erika starts keeping her hair open after her first tryst with Walter. I mean yes she has a plethora of very serious problems, but it is the most basic of things any woman would do when she wants to be admired. I thought a touch of something like that was truly incredulous. Then there is the way Walter first follows her, trying to be charming, and it made me think that it could have been an absolutely conventional relationship between the two. The truth obviously only comes out behind closed doors, just as it does in people's lives. 

            The way it is made also helps in this. All the music is actual music being performed in the film. There are no coincidental meetings or circumstances like how they happen in fiction; everything that happens was inevitable as Erika foreshadowed early on, the appearance of Walter just proved to be a catalyst. It is a frightening thought and ultimately what made me feel sorry for, instead of being repulsed by, the truly unfortunate Erika. 


             Coming to writing and directing, after watching a film as self-conscious as Funny Games, I did not expect something like The Piano Teacher from Haneke. It is based on a novel of the same name by Elfriede Jelinek. As I wrote above, I thought it was really honest, almost brutally so. He is known to be a daring director, and this was a really undaunted effort. I liked the fact that it doesn't try to shock us, but instead tries to make us feel the intensity of things that Erika goes through. Also he added another layer to it, a student of Erika's whose life practically mirrors her own, and it makes one think about the actions that Erika takes against her are actually for whose harm or benefit. The film made me reflect a lot about what all can the lack of control drive people into doing. Even educated and sophisticated women like Erika can do things one will find savage and immoral. Conversely the power of control in the hands of people like the Mother or Walter towards the end of the film, can also be very reprehensible. It is a fantastic film and the fact that it won Grand Prix at the Cannes along with best actress and actor prizes for Huppert and Magimel is not at all surprising.


             This is definitely not a review I could blabber on and on in. It is a difficult and divisive film, one that I admired a lot though I don't know how many people will feel the same way about it. Also it is not for everyone, but if you can look past certain things, it is a sad story about what happens when one is oppressed beyond a limit, and how the repercussions can often be horrific.



17 comments:

  1. I haven't seen The Piano Teacher and from what you say in your review I think I would have to be in a certain frame of mind before I did watch it.
    Watching it was obviously rewarding for you, so hopefully reading your article will convince some other people to give it a try, maybe I'll be one of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You do need to be in a certain frame of mind, or at least be willing to go the lengths.
      Try it out sometime, you may like it.

      Delete
  2. This review is so great! Like seriously. Really great.

    I didn't really like this film all that much, though. I guess the immature part in me was going 'this is so weird'. But it was just that sort of movie where I wished it would just end, because I thought it kept going around in circles and it started annoying the hell out of me. That's just me, though - I'll probably watch it in a few years and appreciate it a bit more.

    Isabelle Huppert was AMAZING, though. And I do appreciate how well it was made. It was just the story that did nothing for me.

    But yeah, this review is great great great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Stevee!

      Man I thought I was immature. I am immature in other stuff, don't worry. I think you will appreciate it better in a few years. You are in fact damn mature for your age.

      She is pretty amazing.

      Thanks, thanks, thanks! :D

      Delete
  3. I've been hearing a lot of things about this movie and I was intrigued before, but not, after your simple, effective and very good review, I HAVE to see it- it looks like my type of movie. Putting it on my list for this week! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yaay! Job done. I think you will like it too :D

      Delete
  4. Fantastic, well-written review of one of my favourite films. I honestly believe Huppert's performance is the greatest acting performance I've ever seen, and probably will ever see.

    Haneke is my all-time favourite director, so if you're wondering what to see next, might I recommend Code Unknown and Cache, two brilliant films I also love that I think you will too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much.
      I think Huppert's performance has definitely gone on my list of the best I have ever seen.

      I will check out those films. Thanks for the suggestions and thank you for commenting :)

      Delete
  5. Fantastic review! It is one of my all time favorite movies and I feel like it's one this films that requires special sensitivity towards cinema in order to appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!
      It is a very sensitive film. I really do appreciate it very much.

      Delete
  6. Superbly written review! You've certainly "upped the standards" like you promised.... Another filmon my list for the summer...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Nivu! I am trying :P
      Yes... it's very different but give it a go.

      Delete
  7. I love this movie. I would disagree on her desires being "questionable" tho(Or what i think you mean by questionable, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong). This is mainly because there are people who are into and practice BDSM without it destroying there lives. I think Erika just went about dealing with it in the wrong way, and that is what caused it to backfire on her.

    I

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's funny you picked up on "questionable" because originally I wrote 'Who am I to think what is questionable anyway?' Over here it purely means unconventional. I removed the question because then I thought the tone would have changed and become about what all I think of BDSM and women practicing their sexuality and stuff, which was a part of the film, but not the part that stood out for me. I just wrote about the aspect of it which touched me the most.

      I think Erika was into just the idea of it but when it became real, it wasn't her thing. And yes it backfired badly.

      Thank you for commenting :)

      Delete
  8. Great choice! I haven't watched Haneke much, but I know enough to know he's worth watching. The description of the plot sounds like a version of Damage with a female lead, honestly; men and women alike have ruined their lives through some combo of oppression and acting out. Maybe this film is hitting some of the same themes, but non-supernatural, as Carrie?

    I do an "arthouse movie cleanse" every quarter. It helps me get past music video editing and impossibly attractive characters or stupendous story devices. It also reminds me that some films really mean to be absorbed and thought about. My next marathon will have The Piano Teacher on it, as well as The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Sounds like the both belong in the same viewing block.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah he's totally worth watching. I read the synopsis of Damage, it's not that similar. But yes, it's definitely about oppression and acting out.

      Arthouse movie cleanse sounds good. Yes I guess they do belong together. I hope you like it Thaddeus :)

      Delete
    2. I hope so too, Nikhat (?)

      Delete