accidental feminist

the piano teacher= i swear the emperor is naked May 20, 2007

I know, I know; Ebert loved it, Cannes loved it, the Village Voice loved it (although they hated “Five Towns”, so what do they know?), but I just wasn’t impressed. Maybe with the acting, okay. Maybe if I had read the book I’d have a little more context (some of the linking threads that might have ended up on the cutting room floor that might have made the film cohere, or even make some sense). The whole film reminded me of the improv adage never to play a crazy person because it just undermines anything you say or do, and the entire reality of the world you’re creating on stage. Okay, she’s a spinster who’s into S&M, okay, okay she goes to drive-ins and watches the couples making out in the cars, okay she collects bondage toys and stored them under her bed, okay, she rolls over in bed and starts making out with her mom…no, wait! What?! I mean, really, WTF!?!? When does a film go from being an honest portrait of the untold story of the lives of the brilliant and sexually aberrant to being, well, just something the author just dreamed up in his own aberrant mind (which he has a right to, but which cannot be considered art simply because it is strange)?

Basically, this film was every stereotype people (read: I) resent about French films. Inaccessible, pretentious (watch Huppert’s interview if you believe me not), and overindulgent (how many 45 second shots of a person watching another person play the piano am I expected to watch?). For a more favorable review of a not dissimilar film, see my earlier comments on “Henry and June”. Really, I’m not completely full of bile.