Review of The Piano Teacher (2001) by Everett J — 17 Mar 2008

[i]The Piano Teacher.

[/i]dir. Michael Haneke.

The Predator and the prey. Two equally necessary elements that serpentine in the desires of those who exist outside the strict, pedestrian confines of normative sexual culture. In this film, Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) teaches piano with a rigid, almost caustic application. She's cruel and cunning and consumed with a longing that no single person has yet actualized. She knows what she wants out of love and has created an elaborate setup to ensure that she gets it on her terms. When she meets a young man named Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel) she suspects there is something in him that will bring out these latent and heretofore hidden tendencies. However, his intentions are strictly rudimentary. He is incapable of providing the exact type of stimulus that Erika requires in her quest to be loved.

Haneke explores the psychology of masochism unflinchingly. He clearly articulates the fact that in sadomasochistic relationships, it is the bottom, or masochist who calls the shots. Erika is a woman who loathes feeling out of control. She lives with a snooping Mother and even sleeps in the same bedroom with her. Her freedom and privacy is disrupted by this woman who simply will not allow her to merely go about her business without any undue prying. It is this relationship that initially confines Erika. Yet it is not the kind of binding she seeks. Simply, she wants to be subjected to various humiliations within the construct of a loving, healthy relationship. Walter obsesses over her and deliberately seeks her out to be his teacher. When she first hears him play she appears indifferent but the flushing of her cheeks and her eyes tell a different story. Walter follows her into the ladies room and boldly jumps over the railing into her stall. She gets him off and promises him there will be more if he adheres to the list of demands she has concocted for just such a situation. When Walter reads what she has in mind he is typically horrified. He is sickened by her proposal and leaves in a huff.

Walter simply lacks imagination. He is limited by his schoolboy fantasies about what love is. His interests are standard and he is unwilling to expand on his limitations. Yet, he is charged when he is around Erika. He desires her and wants to be inside her but she won't let him in the typical way. His frustration eventually leads to a confrontation at Erika's house. She lets him in and he turns ugly immediately. He slaps her face twice and she realizes this isn't what she had in mind at all. He locks her mother in her room and proceeds to have sex with Erika as she remains inert, not changing the expression on her face. It is merely an extreme outcome inextricably linked with the desire to be beaten, bound and gagged, and treated with grave disdain. She's not in control in this circumstance because the event took place outside of her carefully constructed dictum that she fully expected her proper lover to comply with. She is not fully ready to accept the ramifications of her definition of pleasure as it applies to actual experience.

Overall, this film creates a fine, delicate portrait of control as related to nuances of desire. The music throughout the film elicits various moods that are played with and expanded upon as need be. In many ways this is a film about the seductive qualities of certain music and how they often inspire or create certain avenues for love. In Erika's case, she is seduced by Walter's music and is subsequently opened up to the possibility of letting herself be pursued by him. However, her strict regulations and specific instructions prove too foreign for Walter and end up revolting him. His reaction proves to be anger because his simple desire is frustrated by someone he cannot effectively control or understand. He is incapable of playing any game where he is commanded to act in a specific way especially at the pleasure of another. Yet this is precisely what Erika's sexuality requires of anyone who might fancy getting through to her in a most intimate manner. But to her it is not merely a game. It is a way of reaching through the mere machinations of erotic play toward transcendence and something entirely less tangible. She's on a quest to be driven through pain to a more succinct form of pleasure. This is her definition of love.