Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher takes a wild dive into the world of sexual desire with frustrating passions and disturbing events. Erika is a cruel and obsessive piano teacher at a Vienna conservatory. She lives with her mother who is very hard on her and appears to have sheltered her away all her life. She says, “no one must surpass you” and things of that nature. A young piano-playing engineering student is drawn to her at a recital when he hears her play a piece from Bach. He even rudely interrupts one of her classes to tell her of his wish to apply for her master class. Walter rejects his engineering studies and devoted himself to piano, placing him in Erika’s master class, despite her vote against him in a school council. Erika watches and listens to a couple having intercourse at a drive-in movie for her own pleasure and gets caught, causing her to run away. After walking out of a piano rehearsal, frustrated and displeased with a student named Anna’s playing, she crushes up glass with her shoes and secretly puts the pieces into Anna’s coat, cutting up her hand. Walter follows Erika to the bathroom where they begin to kiss, but before things go further, she rudely interrupts the eroticism, torturing Walter. Erika soon writes a letter to Walter, explaining to him all of her sexual desires and her wishes to be tied up and beaten during sex. Walter is disgusted and the two have another failed attempt when Erika goes to see Walter at hockey practice, and vomits on the floor when the two are about to make love on the locker room floor. She tells him he must be patient. Walter follows her desires from the letter and comes to her apartment, locks the mother in a closet, hits and kicks Erika and proceeds to have sex with her on the floor. She remains lifeless and emotionless. Erika sees Walter at a recital days later and he acts like nothing happened and treats her like a teacher. She stabs herself in the chest with a knife and leaves the recital, before she is supposed to play.
The film shows the results of a woman that has been sheltered her whole life. She has devoted her entire life to piano and teaching. She does not know how to love someone. The only person she loves is her mother, who is actually heavily responsible for making Erika the way she is. She is cold and unable to show any real affection or sentimentality. All those years of love a sexual deprivation, on top of an overbearing mother, have resulted in Erika slowly loosing her sanity and chances to feel like a normal person. She is frustrated and now that a young man who claims he is love as found her, she doesn’t know how to react or feel.
This film is also about desire and passion. Erika has a passion for piano playing almost to an insane level, but she is unable to successfully exhibit her passions for the love of others, especially Walter. Before she puts the broken shards of glass in Anna’s coat pocket, Erika is disturbed by the words being sung by one of her students during rehearsal. The lyrics speak of desire being similar to wondering aimlessly through the wilderness. Erika relates to the song deeply and has a slight emotional breakdown causing her temper to rise and her irrational behavior to become dangerous.
The Piano Teacher appears to be poorly shot. The quality of the film is low, making the action on the screen look like it should be a soap opera or documentary, rather than a serious drama. The shot composition and style of filming and editing is nothing that hasn’t been done for. The actors give great performances however, and make it obvious that the audience’s attention should be on them, rather than the soundtrack or cinematography. The storyline is wild, shocking, and disturbing at times. It leaves the viewer in a state of depression thinking, “are there really people out there like that?”(Erika). This movie alone proves that French Cinema can be dark and extremely experimental.
The film shows the results of a woman that has been sheltered her whole life. She has devoted her entire life to piano and teaching. She does not know how to love someone. The only person she loves is her mother, who is actually heavily responsible for making Erika the way she is. She is cold and unable to show any real affection or sentimentality. All those years of love a sexual deprivation, on top of an overbearing mother, have resulted in Erika slowly loosing her sanity and chances to feel like a normal person. She is frustrated and now that a young man who claims he is love as found her, she doesn’t know how to react or feel.
This film is also about desire and passion. Erika has a passion for piano playing almost to an insane level, but she is unable to successfully exhibit her passions for the love of others, especially Walter. Before she puts the broken shards of glass in Anna’s coat pocket, Erika is disturbed by the words being sung by one of her students during rehearsal. The lyrics speak of desire being similar to wondering aimlessly through the wilderness. Erika relates to the song deeply and has a slight emotional breakdown causing her temper to rise and her irrational behavior to become dangerous.
The Piano Teacher appears to be poorly shot. The quality of the film is low, making the action on the screen look like it should be a soap opera or documentary, rather than a serious drama. The shot composition and style of filming and editing is nothing that hasn’t been done for. The actors give great performances however, and make it obvious that the audience’s attention should be on them, rather than the soundtrack or cinematography. The storyline is wild, shocking, and disturbing at times. It leaves the viewer in a state of depression thinking, “are there really people out there like that?”(Erika). This movie alone proves that French Cinema can be dark and extremely experimental.
