Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 5.0
the exalted plane of art and the sad refrain of one life
Isabelle Huppert is in one great movie after another. A couple of years ago she played the mysterious and apparently selfless wife of a famus composer in Claude Chabrol's Merci Pour Le Chocolat. This time she plays a piano teacher in yet another role filled with subtlety and mystery. The role is in many ways reminiscent of the earlier one as Huppert reveals clues to her characters troubled psyche with odd and disturbing actions which offer a sharp contrast to her calm and collected exterior. She does much of her acting with the same expression which makes her one of the most interesting performers to watch for what she conceals with each performance is what fascinates and keeps us attentive. The performance Huppert gives as the piano teacher is a disturbing one for beneath her reserved exterior and her very high reputation seethe the passions of an unhappy woman. Whether her mother has caused her daughter to grow into the person she has become or not is perhaps a matter for debate. It appears the mother is over protective but then as the story progresses one sees the mother has good reason to be over protective. Huppert's piano teacher loves her mother it seems but also wants to torture her mother. For her students the piano teacher wastes no time with feelings it seems but again the performance is subtle and layered and offers clues that perhaps she does care for them in her way. It is possible to interpret some of her actions in more than one way. Ultimately we find it is only she herself she wants to humiliate/torture as we see her act out in various circumstances-- most notably in her actions toward a young student who has an infatuation with her-- her own self-degradation. Frame to frame the story is exquisitely shot and told. The music is used to incredible effect. In one particularly fabulous scene the director allows the high plane of music of a previous scene to follow Huppert into the next scene where she enters another plane,one that is not high.