Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 2.0
JUST YOUR AVERAGE PIANO TEACHER....
Hardly. Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is one of the highest regarded and sought after classical piano instructors around. She's held in very high esteem at the conservatory where she teaches. She holds private lessons and does recitals. She's prim, proper and brutally strict with her students. She also cruises porno shops, watches the porn videos (graphically displayed and the only skin in this film) and peeps in lovers' parked cars at the drive-in where she gets so turned on she urinates. She also cuts her vagina with a razor when frustrated. She lives with her aged harridan mother (Annie Girardot) who pushes her daughter to achieve so hard that it results in mama bashing. Then along comes stud-puppy/jock/wanna-be piano whiz Walter (Benoit Magimel) who starts hitting on Erika right and left until she caves in (in a bathroom) and reveals her inability to have normal sex which frustrates the heck out of Walter. But he professes to love her and agrees to whatever she wants. Sort of. She writes a letter telling him what she wants. The utter degradation she desires in that letter made me wonder, dear Lord---how many "dark sides" does this woman have? She wants to be tied up, slapped around, beaten, sexually humiliated, gagged---the list goes on and on. Walter is repulsed. No dice, Erika. She follows him and begs for his forgiveness and then promptly throws up when he complies to her demands for impromptu oral sex. He throws her out in disgust. Then he comes begging back in the middle of the night, claiming she's bewitched his brain with her "sickness". He locks Mama in the bedroom, brutally beats and kicks Erika and rapes her. He says in effect, "Isn't this what you wanted?" What a cad. He even gets away with it. But the ending is what really threw me. I felt like I was the one needing a good slap. The performances in this film are excellent. Especially Huppert. But I can't believe she let the director get away with that ending. It just left me empty and mad that I watched it. The character of Walter is disgusting. Erika is no less pathetic---she's extremely sick and even puts broken glass in a promising but scared student's coat pocket so she'll slice up her hand and can't play. And gets away with it! I don't know who I could recommend this film to. It's played so dreadfully serious---even the scene where Erika tries to have sex with her mother. All I can say is, if you've read what I've written here and you still want to see it, then go for it. But if you're the least bit hesitant, stay away from it. It's that disturbing and unbelievable.