Review of The Piano Teacher (2001) by Pj P — 07 Feb 2010

I never had piano lessons, so I have no way of knowing whether those of Walter Kremmer are typical or not. Mais, alors, the French probably do things differently anyway. Tom, the hero of de battre mon cÅ?ur s'est arrêté certainly appeared to have had a less complicated relationship with his piano teacher, but then, she was Chinese. Or perhaps itâ??s a Schubert thing.

Anyway, the point is Walter, when you discover that the recently-met woman you fancy like mad, is actually as cracked as King Georgeâ??s teapot (and you may recognise the voice of experience here), you run away. You do not, I mean not, have a wank under her window, lock her old mum in her bedroom, and beat her up. Her father is a long-term patient in a lunatic asylum, her mother tries to watch her every movement and destroys her clothes when she misbehaves. She puts broken glass in the pocket of a promising, if nervous pupil. It is time to run away, not catch the waft of loonidom on the breeze, and sink into it.

Given the unusual nature of the characters involved in this performance, Isabelle Huppert as Erika Kohut, the teacher and Benoît Magimel as Walter are bloody brilliant, and won the best actor and best actress awards at the 2001 Cannes. The film itself got the Grand Prix and Annie Girardot the best supporting actress award for playing the mother. So why am I not happy with this film? Itâ??s a good film I accept. I think itâ??s just somewhere one likes some sort of rapport with at least one of the main characters - just something to hang on to. If you do have this rapport with them, well, Iâ??ll be watching out for you.