Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 4.0
Music isn't always the food of love...
Well, I finally got the chance to see the movie which won Isabelle Huppert Best Actress at Cannes, the movie which David Lame and his not so merry band of God Botherers tried to stop from being screened in NZ (without them having seen it). Lo, they have turned this movie into a decent sized hit as a result. THE PIANO TEACHER is actually the best SPCS publicized movie I've seen to date. Brilliantly directed by Michael Heneke, who scripted from Elfiede Jelinek's novel.Huppert plays Professor Erika Kohut; a cold, brutal, seemingly prudent piano teacher at a prestious music academy. But behind her icy facade lies an obsession with pornography and sadomasochistic sex. When a gifted young piano student (Benoit Magimel) comes under Erika's tutelage, he doesn't play to her impossibly high standards and as a result bears the brunt of her wrath but he soon finds himself falling in love with the professor who just seems to enjoy playing mind games with him. Though unknown to him Erika is gradually losing control under the influence of her domineering mother.THE PIANO TEACHER is exceptionally well photographed with a complex structure and a brilliant perfomance from Huppert (In fact you easily forget she IS just an actress playing a part).There are some rather grim scenes including plenty of S&M;, a funny drive-in theatre peeing scene and Erika putting broken glass in a girls coat pocket. I'm not sure if this will get a DVD release in NZ, but it deserves to. THE PIANO TEACHER is a masterwork that commands a wide audience, and it was probably only because of its content that it was overlooked by the Academy. One of the best movies I've seen recently.