Although "The Piano Teacher" is a French film with dialogue in French, it is set in Austria, based on a novel by an Austrian writer (Elfriede Jelinek) and directed by an Austrian-born director, Michael Haneke. The original French title of this film was "La Pianiste" which literally means "The Pianist", as does Jelinek's title "Die Klavierspielerin". This title was not, however, used in English, doubtless to avoid confusion with Roman Polanski's film of that name.
The main character is Erika Kohut, a professional pianist and a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory. Outwardly Erika is a reserved, repressed and puritanical individual. Although she is already in her forties she still lives at home with her elderly, domineering mother; the two even share the same bed. We never see Erika's g father but learn that he is incarcerated in a psychiatric asylum. There is, however, a hidden side to her personality, first revealed when we see her acting as a Peeping Tom, spying on courting couples at a drive-in cinema. More of this hidden side is revealed when Erika begins a sexual relationship with a good-looking young pupil, Walter Klemmer. Although Walter is physically attracted to his teacher, he is repelled by her sadomasochistic tendencies, which leads to a curious love-hate relationship growing up between them.
Erika's speciality as a pianist is Schumann and Schubert; Schubert's music plays a particularly important part in the film. This struck me as very appropriate, as his music has always struck me, like that of Mozart, as being full of emotion but hiding it behind a veil of reserve, in contrast to the much more openly emotional and Romantic music of slightly later composers such as Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. I felt, however, that the film rather pandered to the Hollywood myth of Schubert as a shy, ugly little man who poured into his music all the emotions he could not express in life; in reality he seems to have been a successful womaniser, even though he was far from handsome.
Isabelle Huppert is often compelling, and Annie Girardot is also good as Erika's witch-like mother, but this is not a film I cared for. In what is supposedly a character study far too much is left unexplained, such as the incident in which Erika deliberately injures one of her female students by putting broken glass in her coat pocket. In the violent sexual encounters between Erika and Walter it is never made clear whether he is abusing her or merely pandering to her masochistic tendencies. Haneke (who acted as scriptwriter as well as director) might think that this distinction does not matter, but I felt that it was very relevant to an understanding of Erika's character.
"The Piano Teacher" seems to have been intended as a dark, disturbing psychological study, but I found that it did not do much to explain Erika's behaviour except in terms of that old get-out "sexual repression"; there are doubtless many people who are sexually repressed, but most of them do not behave in the same way as Erika, who appears to be verging on the criminally insane. "The Piano Teacher" may be dark and disturbing, but it disturbs us to no good purpose and hides little of substance beneath its darkness. Having been greatly impressed by Haneke's more recent "The White Ribbon", I was very disappointed by this film. 4/10
The main character is Erika Kohut, a professional pianist and a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory. Outwardly Erika is a reserved, repressed and puritanical individual. Although she is already in her forties she still lives at home with her elderly, domineering mother; the two even share the same bed. We never see Erika's g father but learn that he is incarcerated in a psychiatric asylum. There is, however, a hidden side to her personality, first revealed when we see her acting as a Peeping Tom, spying on courting couples at a drive-in cinema. More of this hidden side is revealed when Erika begins a sexual relationship with a good-looking young pupil, Walter Klemmer. Although Walter is physically attracted to his teacher, he is repelled by her sadomasochistic tendencies, which leads to a curious love-hate relationship growing up between them.
Erika's speciality as a pianist is Schumann and Schubert; Schubert's music plays a particularly important part in the film. This struck me as very appropriate, as his music has always struck me, like that of Mozart, as being full of emotion but hiding it behind a veil of reserve, in contrast to the much more openly emotional and Romantic music of slightly later composers such as Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. I felt, however, that the film rather pandered to the Hollywood myth of Schubert as a shy, ugly little man who poured into his music all the emotions he could not express in life; in reality he seems to have been a successful womaniser, even though he was far from handsome.
Isabelle Huppert is often compelling, and Annie Girardot is also good as Erika's witch-like mother, but this is not a film I cared for. In what is supposedly a character study far too much is left unexplained, such as the incident in which Erika deliberately injures one of her female students by putting broken glass in her coat pocket. In the violent sexual encounters between Erika and Walter it is never made clear whether he is abusing her or merely pandering to her masochistic tendencies. Haneke (who acted as scriptwriter as well as director) might think that this distinction does not matter, but I felt that it was very relevant to an understanding of Erika's character.
"The Piano Teacher" seems to have been intended as a dark, disturbing psychological study, but I found that it did not do much to explain Erika's behaviour except in terms of that old get-out "sexual repression"; there are doubtless many people who are sexually repressed, but most of them do not behave in the same way as Erika, who appears to be verging on the criminally insane. "The Piano Teacher" may be dark and disturbing, but it disturbs us to no good purpose and hides little of substance beneath its darkness. Having been greatly impressed by Haneke's more recent "The White Ribbon", I was very disappointed by this film. 4/10