The Piano Teacher

Isabelle Huppert is nothing if not a bold actress as she is clearly the focal point of this film which few besides Michael Haneke would dare attempt. Huppert is a cold, domineering piano teacher which a fetish for Schubert (among other things) and she lives with her annoyingly domineering mother (they sleep in the same bed). Her cruelty is expressed when she insults one of her male students when she catches him in porn store, which she herself was visiting, and then later when she places broken shards of glass in the coat pocket on one her more promising pupils. The one of her pupils falls in love with her. She initially resists, but soon gives in, though not as you might expect. For that matter little happens in this film that you might expect. She writes him a letter explaining what is "permissable" for him to do to her, and her rather detailed sado-masochistic account repels him (as it probably will much of the audience). It seems to me that her cold, emotionless exterior hides her secret perverse, masochist sexual desires, which seem to disguise her deep desire to be loved. Huppert, as I mentioned before, is bold and often brilliant, but Haneke's direction seems too calculated to me. He is often overbearing in his restraint and some scenes end up feeling as unnatural as others are masterful. Then, once again, he doesn't end it on a note that makes you run singing through the hills, but it probably shouldn't anyway.