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The Piano Teacher [La Pianiste] (Haneke, 2001)
IMDB Link
Compared to this film, “Secretary” was Disney’s version of BDSM. In “The Piano Teacher”, there are hints of the same underlying fantasies and urges but they are presented in a darker, less gratifying, and in a more abusive manner.
The piano teacher of the title is Erika (Isabelle Huppert), an icy, dominating, cruel, emotionless teacher that seems to get her inspiration for verbally abusing her students from her mother, whom she lives with and is emotionally manipulated by. Erika des not seem to have a good life, and even though she is respected by both the music scene and her students, she herself does not seem to have much of a life. It is music and mother and nothing else.
Almost nothing else. Behind her icy exterior, seems to be bottled up sexuality and strong urge. She is unable in manifesting these normally, so instead she watches porn in adult shops and smells dried cum. She uses a blade to cut her vagina. And she watches teenagers having sex in drive-ins while she urinates beside the car.
But that part of her is hidden away. To people around her, like handsome, talented, young student, Walter (Benoît Magimel), Erika remains musically skilled and smart. Walter is charming and likable, and he becomes interested in Erika. The film never fully explains the reason why Walter wants Erika, but I think it is because Walter desires something a bit more different than beautiful young girls which he probably has already been with. Erika is different.
But more different than he expected. Erika taunts him sexually, tries to control him, and then gives him instructions on the need to be abused by him. This troubles Walter, repulses him, but at the same time, confuses his feelings towards her. Both follow a path they neither are familiar with nor know exactly what they want out of. Erika is damaged and in turn, I think, damages Walter.
There are arguments about a crucial scene in the end that audiences wonder if Walter raped Erika. If you watch the movie, ask yourself this instead, did ERIKA rape Walter?
4/5
Fritz the Cat (Bakshi, 1972)
IMDB Link
Early 1970’s cartoon that will be better to write about than watch. Cats representing white people, pigs being cops, crows being blacks, and so on. Every character is a caricature of a late sixties group. And there are lots of drug use and sex.
It is possible that “Fritz the Cat” broke some boundaries. And high fives for the Cat for doing that. But sometimes the only good thing about breaking boundaries is that better talent can follow. Because “Fritz the Cat” is a bad animated film. I don’t care how edgy and controversial it was, as a feature, it is almost rubbish.
There is no structure in the story, the humor falls flat, and the flow of the animation is bad. Everything feels wrong, the timings for the jokes are always wrong, the dialogue delivery seems unprofessional, and I think I can continue with these complaints, but the main point is that, aside from the film being the first America X-Rated animation, it is not worth watching. Worth remembering, but not viewing.
2/5
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Scott, 2009)
IMDB Link
I did not expect the movie to be any good, and it did not surprise me. I only watched it because I wanted to go to the movies with my friends, and there was nothing else that they wanted to watch. Not that they were overly excited over this either, but it seemed like an acceptable movie for my friends who are more of the mainstream audience.
It had John Travolta and Denzel Washington and both of them are on the mainstream audiences’ good list. The trailers also promised some quick paced action, and that was good for them too.
I was hoping that it would at least be average, and I think by the end of it not only was I disappointed, but so were they. Even mainstream crowd pleasers need skill, and the mainstream audience is not as stupid as people think they are.
Travolta hijacks a train, holds the passenger hostage, and asks for ten million dollars. On the other side is good black guy Washington who is the only one Travolta talks to. All the makings of possibilities of lots of tense good guy-bad guy conversations, but the conversation is not that good, and not only does it bore us, but it also seems to bore the director, because he sometimes spices up the movie with fast paced cuts and unnecessary explosions. The inclusion of explosions is funny almost because he blows things up in the most unlikely scenes. It is like he read the script and had no idea where to include the explosions, and was like, “What do I do!! What do I do!!”. Cops have to take the ransom money to the subway, and there are no bad guys in the way, but Tony Scott wants there to be some kind of action so much that he has the cops have like a billion accidents on the way.
Also, Travolta, whom I find usually awesome, is shitty here.
2/5