Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 4.0
Loneliness & Sexual Perversity make for disturbing bedfellows
First let me put on the record, Isabelle Huppert gives a dynamite performance which is both disturbing, and ultimately very sad .I had first seen her in the movie "Ma Mare", which was also great. "The Piano Teacher" is a hard film to watch as the subject matter is quite disturbing. It is not the Café Latte S&M; of pretty young twenty-somethings exploring their boundaries here; it delves into the true nature of sexual perversity.Loneliness is a terrible burden to bear and part of the strength of the film is that the director never reduces Huppert to a freak show. Her pain is apparent even though she is at many times a fairly odious (and occasionally downright psychopathic character) Hints of what has led her to this situation are given, the unhealthy co-dependant relationship she has with her mother, the perfectionism and driven nature that pervades her working life, madness in the family. In the end it doesn't really matter how it came about as it is an examination of a person in that state and how they fall apart both emotionally and mentally that is being examined here. There are many scenes which stayed in my mind long after the film ended: 2 particular scenes stood out for me:The scene both embarrassing, horrific and also incredibly sad as the young student reads with disgust a letter Huppert has written to him in front of her detailing her sadomasochistic fantasies that she harbors. We are torn between horrors at the graphic nature of the degradation she fetishists and feel sorry for the horrible and humiliating rejection she receives at the hands of the young student.Also the gut wrenching final scene, the act of self mutilation and look of madness and despair on her face, the director has captured the despair and horror of so much of human existence.An important film to see but don't expect to be uplifted!