The Piano Teacher (2001)

There are some fairly unnerving strands in this drama that make for uncomfortable viewing at times. “Erika” (Isabelle Huppert) is a rather uncharismatic music professor, still living and sleeping with her mother (Annie Girardot) who finds herself being pursued by the handsome young pianist “Walter“ (Benoît Magimel). Ostensibly, he wants her to guide him through the vagaries of Schubert, but is clearly much more fascinated with her than with her prowess as a teacher. Initially, she dislikes him. She considers she has little to teach this confident, borderline arrogant, young man but he persists. Meantime, we learn a little of this woman’s own personality, of her compromised self-esteem, peccadilloes, and of her innate sexual frustrations so whilst some of what comes next is shocking, it’s not so very surprising. Not for the viewer, at any rate, but for the young “Walter”, well he can’t quite decide if he’s repelled or ensnared - or both. Huppert delivers an understated yet masterly performance here as she exposes the vulnerability of a woman lauded for her musical talents but almost entirely under-appreciated as an human being. Magimel also brings something insecure and susceptible to his own role as her conduct simultaneously inspires and corrupts his own. It asks quite a few questions about the more visceral elements of human behaviour. Boundaries that, or ought to, seem set fast soon dissolve amidst emotionally and/hormonally-charged scenarios, but then can reset themselves as if someone had flicked a switch off, then back on again. The denouement is fittingly inconclusive - riddled with exasperation, indifference and what I thought was a fairly ghastly assessment of just how empty her shell of a life could be, and it’s provocative stuff about what drives us to crave acceptance, attention and love and the lengths we will go to procure them.