Piano Teacher DVD

 Has Cannes come to this?
Firstly let me say that the DVD picture and sound were fine. But the film was a disappointment for a Cannes winner. One can only suppose the judges were afraid of being branded fuddy-duddy or out of the scene or something. The obsession is barely out-of-the-ordinary; the characters are so overplayed that they might have walked in from silent cinema. The credits annoyingly chop up some decent music every half a minute well into the film. Add some gratuitous porn and a bit of blood (she's a nasty piano teacher really), some lugubriously slow cinematography (they must have had masses of spare celluloid to use up) and...way-hayy, you have a Cannes winner. This one definitely goes on the "exchange" pile. Artsy? Pretentious, in my view. Good if you suffer insomnia. Having said all that there's some nice piano playing and for once the characters actually seem to be playing. We don't cut from a transported face to a pair of close up hands as usual when stars can't play. Nifty synchronisation if they can't.
Submitted by Ivor C (Sussex England) 
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 Isabelle Huppert nails it.
Isabelle Huppert delivers a most satisfying performance. She alone is enough reason to purchase this DVD. But not the only one.
Submitted by lajr (Spfld., Ill. USA) 
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 Startling and outrageous, a tense masterpiece
The film is a about a cold piano teacher of the middle aged spinster variety (Huppert) who harbours sadomasochistic tendancies which are never explored until her relationship with one of her pupils (Magimel). This tense pschological drama centres around her repressed sexual ideas, cruelty, self mutilation, and control of all things within her narrow life. Her piano students, her mother and her relationships. As the liaison with Magimel develops her instincts emerge and presage the fall of Magimel to her level. In his descent from decency, he moves from victim to victimiser from abused to abuser. Thereafter the film explores her realisations. Her creations her monster and her culpability. Upon these she reflects, and perhaps blames the straight jacket of her earlier years training for the repressions that have led to her demise. The end is climatic and without forgiveness.
Submitted by a reviewer (Croydon, London)
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