Michael Haneke has a knack for creating odd or even disturbing scenes or characters out of the most mundane situations and this is on full display in The Piano Teacher. Anchored by Issabelle Huppert, a very competent support cast who hold their own and wonderful classical music (Schubert's iconic piano number from Barry Lyndon makes a return among other melodious pieces) this film explores the dark recesses of Erika's mind, her struggle with loneliness and her unconventional desires. Erika is forty years old and lives with her domineering and controlling mother. She is an overtly strict, harsh piano teacher but behind this persona lies a vulnerable woman who is so sexually repressed that it has given rise to her odd and unconventional sexual needs. Erika's sexual desires are perhaps the weirdest I have ever seen in film, she's into BDSM, humiliation, voyeurism and even self mutilation, she's definitely a very perverse character which is brought up later on as well. Through all this, we can often lose sight of the fact that even Erika longs for and deserves happiness but she will go about it her own self destructive way. When a new far younger student Walter enters her life she tries to push him away but they eventually start a romance. Walter wants to have a traditional romantic relationship but Erika wants her needs fulfilled by a session of rape and humiliation, it's interesting that she desires the pain and humiliation when she inflicts the same on her students, her desire to be on the receiving side of these emotions makes the viewer always trying to decipher Erika, what's really going on in her head?
Review of The Piano Teacher
