Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 5.0
Deserves to be considered a classic
Like all of Haneke's films, the less you know going in the better, so I'm not going to discuss the plot. You probably already know that it's about a sexually, uh...different...piano teacher portrayed by Isabelle Huppert with astonishing and heart-breaking power, and really, that's all you need at this point. Don't read the plot synopsis above, as it gives away absolutely everything--really, I think Amazon needs to take it down immediately.Although this film might not be for everyone (particularly the squeamish or the faint of heart), it's an astonishingly powerful work of art. A lot of "art" movies are boring, perhaps because they are inaccessible; I can't think of anyone who could sit through this one bored. You can think about this movie on the surface or you can keep plumbing its thematic depths, to very worthwhile results. Aside from the obvious themes in the film, such as madness and sexual repression, the break between high art and popular culture, and sexual/romantic politics, I consider this an important feminist and even neomarxist film (insofar as the film is a criticism of capitalist society)--don't believe me? Google Adorno's essay "The Culture Industry" and see how closely his ideas are paralleled in the film. But this isn't just me being pretentious, Haneke has Erika drop Adorno's name in casual conversation in the second scene of the film; and of course, Elfriede Jelinek, Noble Prize in Literature winner in 2004 (a scandalous win that shook up the stuffy old academy) is a feminist writer, so we know to look for these themes. Other themes include: voyeurism (especially yours, the viewer...Haneke is definitely trying to punish you for your prurient search for titillation disguised as high art--we're all guilty of it!), parent-child relationships and stage parents, and on an intriguing level, the nature of love, and how it's perverted by capitalist society.Sound like too much for one film? It's not! This one will profoundly shock you, leave you thinking about it for days. I've been thinking about it for months now, and only slowly did many of the ideas in the film become clear.That's the great thing about Haneke; he can weave a lot of different concepts into a film which still works as a film--I can't say you'll have fun, but you will definitely NOT be bored.