My Favourite Movies

The Piano Teacher

Ouch. After watching this movie that's the only word that comes to mind for me. The Piano Teacher (or La Pianiste, as this is a French movie) seems like a usual love story from all the trailers and the poster. The poster and the marketing shows a strict piano teacher falling for one of her students and it all seems very cliche, but the film turns out to be completely unpredictable. You may not expect it, but the film aims to hurt and toy with your emotions. And it works.

Written and Directed by the infamous Michael Haneke who is known for directing unpleasant and harsh films, his style completely thrives with the atmosphere of the movie. Everything about this film looks as if real time and effort was put into it which is the biggest compliment I can give a film.

Let's go to the acting, wow, it is fantastic. Isabelle Huppert truly outdoes herself and even if you don't like the concept of the film, see it just for her acting. Even though Isabelle Huppert is phenomenal, all the other actors in the film hold up their performances including a french actor called Benoit Megimel. All the characters in the film could easily come off as generic but the way they are so naturally put into the story, and the way they are acted gives the impression that they are fresh and new.

The music in the film is perfectly cheated as obviously not every note can be played live when shooting different takes and what not, but it's unnoticable. One of the things I've noticed about all his films is that he doesn't like to use sound where other directors would. For instance in an intense scene another director might add intense music in the backround or add effects to amplify the tone of the film, but the scenes in The Piano Teacher speak for themselves and would be ruined if music was added in.

While not everyone will agree with the film's message or what it's trying to imply, I'd at least like to think that it would be appreciated for touching daring subjects. With the last scene dividing a lot of people, I guess It's up to your own mind to react and make a judgement based on the kind of person you are. For me, I absolutely love the ending and it wraps the movie up in a way that wouldn't work for a lot of films.

Also the film has pretty heavy bizarre sexual themes, so just be open to the idea that a lot of the movie surrounds that...  be mature. In the end I absolutely love this hugely powerful film and It's the perfect realism movie. You'll probably feel like shit after this movie but that's intentional, not all movies are happy.