The Age of Commercialism

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Haneke's adaptation of austriac Nobel Winner novelist Elfriede Jelinek will inevitably leave an impression on you be it a good one or not. The film follows piano teacher Erika Kohut, a middle aged woman who is torn between her abusive, possessive mother's expectations and her own personal desires. This,however changes when she meets Walter Klemmer, a young and extremely competitive music enthusiast who takes an interest on her. From them on you see Erika slowly leaving her confortable zone of power as a strict and harsh piano teacher to a place of complete vulnerability as she shows her most inner hidden desires to Klemmer. From the beautiful soundtrack,sometimes accompanied by real playing by the lead actors, to the ambiguous commentary on male-female sexual power relations,the breath-taking acting done by lead Isabelle Huppert,the gut punching, stomach turning climax and ending segments;La Pianiste not only makes justice to Elfriede's novel but also in some ways surpasses it.

This film tells the story of a female piano teacher who has perverse fantasies towards her young student.The piano teacher seems like an ordinary woman, until her dark side is introduced. It is provocative and at times even disturbing. The scene in the video club is quite a shock to me. Then, the story builds on and goes even further. Yet, the ending is a great surprise. It is a provocative, disturbing and engaging film.

'The Piano Teacher' is a brutal exploration and analysis of a woman's fetishes and sexual urges. Erika is an anti-hero, she is not someone who evokes complete empathy, but the complexity of character makes her extremely interesting to analyse and interpret. Right from the very first scene Haneke establishes a very abusive relationship between Erika and her mother. The mother(who is never given a name to add to her persona) is an immensely overbearing woman who still has a huge hold and influence on the life of the middle-aged Erika. It is also hinted at that her father underwent mental disintegration which may have also had an impact on Erika's mental state during her formative years. It is slowly revealed that the sexual repression that Erika has had to live under due to her mother, has resulted in her developing various sexual fetishes like voyeurism which range from some interesting habits like frequenting porn stores to some absolutely disturbing habits like self-mutilations. She sees these somewhat twisted sexual fetishes as her way to defy the restrictions placed on her by her mother. However this narrow attitude of viewing sex as a means to defy her mother instead of a way to make love made her build a wall around her making her distant and immune to the possibility of developing any feelings for someone.'The Piano Teacher' for me revolves around the concept of control. Erika never had complete control over her life. Her sexual voyeurism and fetishes were her way to take some control back. Along with this she also overbearingly controlled the performances of her students which at times involved full-fledged intimidation. As soon as she starts developing feelings for Walter, we see her feel uneasy, very flustered and tentative. This is because opening up to him and revealing her complete self(along with her fetishes) to someone would involve giving away the bit of control that she wants. The dynamic between Erika and Walter in its progression and in the way the control shifts from one character to another, feels natural and considering the climax of the film, very believable due to the inherent risks that were always going to appear from Erika's point of view.Haneke doesn't engage in too much flashy camera like he did in 'Code Unknown' with the numerous long shots. The long unbroken shots are here too, but they are used sparingly for crucial scenes. Haneke uses a lot of subtlety in the way he treats the characters and the sensitive subjects with some examples of genuinely brilliant staging and direction of potentially risky scenes. Another thing that Haneke focuses on is close-ups and reaction shots of Isabelle Huppert, which brings me to Huppert's performance. This freaking woman has the ability to convey 25 different emotions with one single look or a subtle raising of the eyebrow or a subtle chuckle. She has the skill to be commanding as well as vulnerable at any moment and Haneke makes use of this with the close-ups and extended shots where the camera just rests on her face. This film will certainly not be as effective without that central performance. Benoît Magimel and Annie Girardot deserve admiration for their performances too.This is not a film for everyone. But the complexity of the characters and Haneke's uninhibited and piercing treatment of sexuality, control and power make this film worth a strong recommendation.

Seeking emotional protection from our disturbed, corrupt, violent world, I tried to take refuge in Michael Haneke films; in his poetic and philosophical view and deep analysis of human complexities. I could compare his world viewpoints to Ingmar Bergman, a filmmaker which I would always enjoy being sunk in his creative world. I immensely admire Haneke 's recent film "Amour"; a film which would invite the spectators to take journey into the core of the matters and to the dark maze of human soul. It's said that through insanity, humans would sometimes find sanity, truth, love and empathy.I recently watched The White Ribbon and The Piano Teacher. My predication was that these films were somehow prophetic reflections of a new rise of totalitarian era. A suffocating new historical period!Yes, they indeed, are!I found both movies the White Ribbon and The Piano Teacher disturbing. Learning about these violent realities, the audience would need to get away from the harshness and be surrounded by the beauty of nature, serene environment, and splendor dreams. To deal with reality we need dreams! The Piano Teacher reflects the outlook of 80s, 90s and early 2000s where the notion of sexuality was dominant.