Slapback Guitar Records

Michael Haneke‘s La Pianiste is disturbingly enthralling cinema (much better than the sometimes slow Caché) though I’m not sure that this isn’t mostly b/c of the (always) incredible performance of Isabelle Huppert. It’s based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Player) by Elfriede Jelinek, which was the 2004 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Isabelle Huppert is simply the most talented French actess today and everything I’ve seen her in has been excellent.

You know, a lot of people may scratch their heads trying to understand Erika Kohut (Huppert’s character) but to me it’s simple and can be summed up in two words: mommy monster. Her relationship with her mother (and the lack of a father who went insane early in her childhood) is what made her unstable. You can plainly see their relationship as emotional (and often physical) S&M so Erika’s issues are no surprise. You really feel for her situation by the end – a person tortured by demons they didn’t knowingly create. She simply wants love but over the top of this simple wish is a lot of built up psychological baggage that sadly will probably never be waded through enough to get to the core.

Oh – and apparently like Caché this film also has some sort of sociopolitical context also but as usual I can do without this level. The psychological is always mirrored in the sociological so what’s the point of THIS point? The butterfly flapping it’s wings is always more fascinating than the hurricane for me anyway b/c it’s the source or cause. Psychologists always understand sociology b/c one creates the other – but sociologist frequently have no idea about psychology – seems kind of silly doesn’t it?

Regardless, I highly recommend this film!