The Piano Teacher

"The Piano Teacher"

A disturbing film.

Like so many french films and stories that feature sexually inhibited women (Belle Du Jour, Romance, Anatomy of Hell, Story of O), they invariably end in tragedy. The woman must, by the status quo, kill herself and thus annihilate her desire. Because she is a woman and not a man, she is denying herself and society of being sexual and procreating, thus in the end she is punished. The woman is filled with such self-loathing she can't stand it anymore.

The Piano Teacher is no different in punishing women for their foolish hysteria, and because they didn't dare sleep with a man, they must now suffer eternal damnation.

I must say I am quite tired of watching these films that eerily represent my own life.

In this film, the woman, Erika, lives with her over-obsessive mother who is constantly calling her on the phone to ask where she is. Erika, who is probably over thirty-years-old, still sleeps with her mother (her father is in a mental institution), and has never married or even dated another man.

She gets her outlet by going to porn shops, watching films where women are sucking men's dicks and fishes out discarded condoms to sniff while she watches.

It turns out, Erika has some secret fetishes.

In the bathroom, she cuts her genitals with a razor. The movie doesn't imply if she is doing this for some sick pleasure or if she is secretly punishing herself. Either way, it's disturbing to watch.

Erika, still clueless about what she wants sexually, also gets her kicks by spying on teens having sex in a car while watching a movie. She pisses next to a car (the movie doesn't say if this sexually arouses her or not) and is seen then runs away.

The mother is also very disturbing. For some reason (again the movie doesn't say why), she makes her daughter sleep with her. The mother is very insecure, constantly calling her daughter and hounding her about what she's doing and where she's been. She throws out her daughter's "tawdry" clothes and chastises her for anything pretty she buys. Toward the end of the film, Erika tearfully exclaims, "I want you...", and proceeds to jump onto her mother in a sexual manner, to which her mother is horrified (as are the viewers, I'm sure!).

She meets an over-zealous student who (surprise, surprise) has developed quite a crush on her. The boy is a cocky brat who is over-confident and is absolutely positive that his piano teacher, Erika is absolutely mad over him. He tries to seduce her.

She plays a cat-and-mouse game with her student before he confronts her, in her house, with her mother ever-watching close-by.

She has him read a letter she has written for him. In it, she mentions a bunch of "sick" things she wants him to do to her. He is disgusted and runs away from her.

For some strange reason (the movie doesn't say why) she goes after him, claiming she loves him.

Is she really in love or is she just going insane? There are several hints in the movie that suggest this, Erika even mentions a piece of piano music to the boy student, saying that the composer wrote it just before he lost his mind. As usual, the boy is totally clueless to her hints and tries to impress her by playing the music.

He eventually follows her back to the house, claiming she has made him obsessed and proceeds to enact the details of the "sick" letter she wrote: locking her mother up, and brutally beating Erika. He fucks her then leaves her there.

The next day Erika goes to the recital with her mother.

At the recital, the stupid boy pretends he doesn't see the bruises he put on her and he runs up the stairs with his friends quipping, "Can't wait to see you play".

She gets out a knife she has hidden in her purse, stabs herself in the chest then briskly walks out of the recital hall.

End of movie.

Wasn't that cheerful?

I have a problem with this movie.

Not because of the content or the sexual violence (I don't like violence against women), but because it's so WRONG. Let me explain...

The woman character allows herself to be punished, both mentally, physically and then sexually. She is severely inhibited, still sleeps with her mother (for crying out loud!), can't communicate her feelings or even acknowledge what she wants emotionally or sexually. She wields a powerful commanding presence as a piano teacher, yet uses it vindictively against the students because she sees their talent as a threat, going so far as to put glass in her pupil's coat so they can't play at the recital after the pupil cuts her hand from the glass.

All the while, Erika herself is suffering from self-mutilation (cuts her genitals with a razor), and no one knows what she's doing. Her own mother mistakes the blood leaking from between her legs as menstrual blood and is disgusted with her. She lets herself be manipulated by a boy, allowing obsession to form without any control and trusts him enough to reveal her secret desires to him, sick as they are.

In fact, the real problem is, what she wants isn't that sick. There are plenty of people who get their kicks in abnormal ways, if only because they can't have a real relationship. What makes her predicament so abnormal is the way she is going about it. If all she wanted was some weird sex, she could just hire someone to fulfill her needs. However, she doesn't just want weird sex: being subjugated, beaten, humiliated, left alone. The real question is why she wants those things. She feels guilt, her mother heaps guilt upon guilt on her. The one time Erika goes out to get her kicks, she comes home to her mother who tells her, "You're father died this afternoon". Talk about a mood killer! There's really no one else she can turn to.

Along comes a stupid boy, claiming to love her but he too is of no use to her. He dumps her after he finally gets to fuck her. But instead of taking the knife she has hidden and sticking it into his chest, she takes the pain on herself and pushes the blade through her chest.

What is it with the French and filling women with such self-loathing? Is it politically motivated? If women hate themselves so much, they won't run for President? I don't think France has had a woman President (neither has America!) and it shows in their films. But even their term for sex, "The Little Death" is filled with dark intent. Little Death for who? Do women have to die every time they have sex? How horrible!

All in all, it's a depressing two-hour film. I only got the film because I thought there would be kink in it but I was sorely disappointed.