Product: La Pianiste (Original French Version)
Rating: 5.0
Brutally Brilliant
"The Piano Teacher" is one of the most affecting films I've seen in a long time. It is spare and cruel, and really has no resolution which often drives moviegoers crazy; I thought it was masterful. I saw it over a week ago and I'm still thinking about it, which speaks to how powerful it is. I won't go into plot details - you should see it yourself! But I found none of its explicitness gratuitous in the least. I thought it was a very honest portrait of the pain and anger of an individual. I wouldn't really say it was about sadomasochism, because I think it's much deeper than that. It's exposing, in a painfully raw way, the torment of a particular person. I imagine this film will resound with two kinds of people - cinephiles focused on the artistry of the film and those who identify, on a personal level, with pain. For those, Isabelle Huppert expresses more truth in the movement of an eyebrow than in just about anything else I've seen. If you know what you're getting into, "The Piano Teacher" can be an amazing experience.