MovieChat Forums > La pianiste (2001) Discussion > Yall are too nice

Yall are too nice

posted 10 years ago by blacknyellowsquid
3 replies | jump to latest

Okay I didn't read every thread on here. But the few I did, it seems like people are overly sympathetic to Erika. The mom thing clearly had put her in a psychological trap after someone years, which genuinely sucks. And the mom was always undermining her worth. The beginning scene when she goes to her bed and we see that is all but right up against her mom's...no privacy, no personal space....that scene super creeped me out.

But come on. Okay, Walter got freaked out after reading her overly graphic, perverse, letter of sexual wishes. Boohoo. He was actually correct in saying she needed mental help. Anyway, but...yes the end was bad...however, I'm not convinced he really knew where that line was between rape or not either. I know, shoot me! But he WAS doing what her letter said, after all. She was playing with fire, and it backfired (lol). I wasn't even convinced that SHE was totally against it either. It was hard to tell. But he didn't go about it good. He was definitely angry that she had put those thoughts in his mind, and they were arousing him, so he was spiteful.

Right so he hurt her...bad....yes.

BUT hold up. Separately, what she did to that poor girl playing the Schubert piece was nothing short of EVIL. Why are people glossing over that? Not saying that means she deserves sexual brutality. BUT...she was not just some poor confused, misunderstood victim in the whole movie. She sadistically, callously and cruelly mauled her already-unhappy student's hand because she wasn't playing her stupid Schubert how she wanted. And don't try to be like "oh but in the long run she was helping her improve her left hand playing." No. The girl and the family trusted her and she mutilated her and didn't bat an eyelid.

Just don't forget that lol.

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

Yall might want to take Psychology 101.

Near the end of "The Heiress," the 1949 Hollywood adaptation of Henry James' "Washington Square," Aunt Lavinia asks Catherine -- who has been emotionally/psychologically battered by her bitter, sadistic father thruout her life -- how she (Catherine) can be so cruel (to a suitor who wounded her and is trying again). And Catherine replies that she can be very cruel because she "[has] been taught by masters."

Which means: Just as people speak the language they were taught, they behave as they have been taught ( = they behave as they have been treated, unless they make a conscious effort to change thru therapy, and most people don't). So Erika is simply treating some as poisonously as she has been treated by her mother. (It's worth noting that most of her harm is self-harm, which makes her a somewhat more responsible citizen than those who typically/frequently abuse or bully others, engage in road rage, shriek at salespersons, etc.)

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] Zombie55 8 years ago

I think one of the film's points is that often there are no simply good or bad people in the world and everyone is formed by their environment and upbringing and often it is the case of damaged people doing damage to others.

The greatest trick the Devil has ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist!

[–] the_spiral 8 years ago

I don't think viewers are meant to fully hate OR feel fully sympathetic toward any of the characters? They're complex. Erika is a monster with some very strange pathologies, but she's also a pitiable figure since her "normal" ability to connect with others has clearly been warped by a lifetime of abuse, neglect and repression. Walter is an idiot with issues of his own who follows his d!ck into some truly disgusting situations but you also feel sorry for him at some level. As unbalanced as these characters are, they seem to act on blind impulse and don't really want or deserve their eventual fates. The only true innocent in the story is the young girl whose hand Erika mutilates.

Overall I think Haneke is a great directors. He has a gift for writing characters/scenarios that are profoundly shocking and off-putting, but just as deeply human and comprehensible on an emotional level.