Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 1.0
Sexual Perversity in Vienna
It's hard to say what this film is about. The plot has been repeated by others. In summary, the piano teacher follows her sexual fantasies down a path that leads to her destruction. It is as others have said a disturbing film, but for me this is not a compliment. There is little in the film worth taking away. The teacher herself is not especially interesting. She is abusive, mean-spirited, aggressive and destructive as a teacher. She maims one of her charges because the young girl dares to smile at the teacher's new sex toy, a young stud who has convinced himself, unconvincingly, that he loves his tyrant teacher. She is not just perverse; she is criminally insane. Her mother, who is every bit as sick and twisted, is a sexual voyeur and tormentor who exploits her daughter's bizarre sexual predilections which include porn shop cruising, drive-in movie peeping, and self-mutilation. Once she gets her hands on her new charge, she presents him in writing with a list of perverse demands. The handsome boy realizes that he is dealing with a sicko and runs for the hills. She stabs herself. I got little out of watching this mess. Who's to know what it all means or what the author intended. I came up with the idea that this "World" is meant to be "Vienna," Europe's literal or symbolic music capital, a city of beautiful music and the birthplace of Hitler and the author, even though Paris has been used as the film's setting by the director. These two "sides" of Europe seem to coexist, according to the author, but we are given no hint as to what one is meant to do with this knowledge.