Hui Xinshe Ma Bingjie
Elfried Jellinek is an unusual woman. She is a well-known Austrian left-wing and feminist writer. Her work has been controversial for exposing the morbid distortions of human nature, and has been criticized by conservatives. , Which caused fierce controversy within feminism. Jelinek is active in literary, political and social movements, and her personal style is as distinctive as her works.
Elfried Jelinek
"The Piano Teacher" is an autobiographical work by Jelinek. In 2001, Michael Hanek put it on the screen in the form of video on the basis of completely respecting the original novel. The cruel situation of the patriarchal society, both novels and movies are well-deserved masterpieces.
Michael Haneke "Piano Teacher" movie poster
01
Mother's oppression of Erica
The heroine Erica in the movie is the incarnation of Jelinek. The mother in the film cultivated Erica as a musical genius since she was a child. Erica spends all her time playing the piano. Her mother manages everything except piano performance. Erica, who is nearly 40 years old, sleeps with her mother. On a bed, the clothes you wear every day and the time you go home must be controlled by your mother. Her mother erected numerous fences around Erica. Men and friends were not allowed to enter this territory. Erica was never allowed to deal with outsiders who had nothing to do with playing music.
Erica fights with her mother over buying new clothes
Beauvoir once stated that for the mother, the child is both the other and the second self. The mother can enjoy the absolute superiority that a man enjoys in front of a woman to her daughter. Erica's mother is a typical masochistic mother described by Beauvoir in "Second Sex". She is a victim of a patriarchal society. She can't get rid of the situation of the object herself, so she wants to draw her daughter into it. In the abyss of sex, let my daughter suffer with her. The old mother will have jealousy and hatred towards her young daughter, because compared with her own sad fate, her daughter may go out to have fun with her lover, so she wants to lock her at home and watch her. She was allowed to associate with men, she was not allowed to dress up, ridiculed and humiliated her, the mother wanted to spill all the grudges of life on her daughter.
As a child under strict control of a mother, "sex" is of course a forbidden zone. Erika, who has mature sexual organs, is never allowed to make boyfriends. The novel describes that the mother does not allow her daughter to masturbate. Erica's body is hidden and neglected. She has never touched her body. Freud believes that libido can be sublimated to the impulse of artistic creation. Because Erica's libido has been depressed for a long time and cannot be converted into the driving force for artistic creation, this is why Erica has not been able to obtain music. The reason for greater achievement.
But the more the flesh is suppressed, the more intense and distorted the curiosity and desire for flesh. Erica will watch adult pornography secretly. She looks at the bodies of those girls like a man, but she never touches, only watches. She imagines her own body by looking at other people's bodies. She will run to the parking lot to peek and listen to the movements and sounds of Yehe's men and women during intercourse. "She can only watch. She is her own taboo, without the touch of her hands." (Elfried Jelinek, "Piano Teacher") Erica carries a razor with her, and she often cuts her private parts with the razor. , This not only satisfies her urge to be abused, but also obtains sexual pleasure.
The film shows the scene of Erica visiting a small porn store
The novel also describes that Erica lived in the country with her mother and grandmother as a child. Cousin came to the countryside to play in the summer. He was free to joke with the girls, run in the fields, and swim in the lake, while Erica could only play the piano in the room upstairs. Erica’s behavior is bound everywhere, but Erica has been very subjective since she was a child. She often deliberately played the wrong notes and deliberately made loud music to harass neighbors around her to express her silent resistance. Her mother did not allow her to wear beautiful clothes, and she always warned her that she was not beautiful. When Erica saw her little partner wearing new beautiful clothes, she would steal her partner’s clothes and cut it with scissors quietly. She used this An immoral "desire for destruction" expresses their resistance.
02
The fierce music competition system oppresses Erica
The film shows a scene of a music exam. A girl closes the door and is sobbing. The students are crowded at the door waiting for their results. These reflect the fierce competition in Vienna as the capital of music.
The girl student Anna is the epitome of Erica's youth. Anna's mother has high hopes for Anna like Erica's mother. Anna always cringes and lowers her head. She has to practice piano for at least 8 hours a day and perform indoor concerts. The rehearsal scene was so nervous that he dared not perform on stage, which reflected the morbid distortion of people caused by the fierce competition system.
Schoolgirl Anna and Anna's mother
Erica was born in a countryman and her family is in a tight situation. This can be seen from the beginning of the film that her mother blamed Erica for spending money on a discounted dress. It can be seen that Erica finally became a professor at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. Competitive pressure. Playing the piano has exhausted all of Erica's energy. Her life has nothing but playing the piano. Now her music performance career will not improve. She will always be a professional music teacher.
The beginning of the film shows Erica’s working status with three piano performances. Among the students that Erica leads, there are few who are really interested in music. Most of them barely learn this piano at the request of their parents. With piano talent, few students can truly penetrate into the spiritual world of Beethoven and Bach. Erica leaned against the window, looking out the window hopelessly, listening to the students playing Bach, which she would never understand; between private teaching, Erica ate a sandwich to wrap her belly, and then began the next class every day. This goes over and over again. Erica's life is full of boring and death without joy and passion, she has a musty smell on her body, and she can only wait quietly for the death of her life. Erica's life is a victim of a fierce competitive system.
But even under the pressure of her mother's high-pressure control and the fierce competition system of the patriarchal society, Erica still withstood all kinds of pressure and became a very subjective woman. Erica can support herself and her mother in Vienna with her strong professional ability, without relying on any man, and without the help of relatives and friends. When she walks, she always raises her head high, her eyes are firm, and she never minds the eyes and evaluations of others.
It can also be seen from Erica's teaching that Erica has a very deep understanding of the spirit behind classical music. For example, when she instructed Anna to play Schubert's "Winter Journey" suite, the music sang: "What about this? They used to have fun." Erica said: "It is the ironic and complacent bourgeois stubbornness..." Ha Neck selected Schubert's "Winter Journey" suite 17th "Village" and 20th "Road Sign" in the film soundtrack to express Erica's spiritual world.
Erica is completely different from the common female objects in the patriarchal society. She has a strong subjectivity, and the problem she faces is "sexual subjectivity". In the patriarchal society, women are placed in the context of objects. Even if they have subjective desires, they are often treated as sexual objects in sexual intercourse, and their bodies are lusted and eroticized. Erica wants to establish "sex subjectivity", which is particularly prominent in her four-time sex game with Walter. Haneke vividly showed us "what is sex politics" through these four sex games.
Walter, a 20-year-old male college student with blond hair and blue eyes, a wealthy family and a talent for music, began to pursue Erica feverishly after hearing Erica play the piano at an indoor concert. Walter is a successful male subject in the patriarchal society. He loves the works of American writer Norman Mailer, and the male protagonist in Mailer's novels is precisely the extreme representative of maintaining the sexual hierarchy and male privilege. Although Walter does admire Erica's musical talents, his love for Erica is mainly frivolous and carnal. He wanted to seize the time to enjoy the pleasure of the flesh while Erica's charm still existed, and when Erica got his hands, he quickly turned to other beautiful young girls. Walter also believes that Erica has only a spiritual life and has not enjoyed the happiness of the world. He will help Erica to regain the lost time, and he will bring Erica to the world for pleasure. "We want to regain the lost time... We are all flesh and blood..." Deep down in Erica's heart, she has always longed for a man to walk into his heart. Walter's tall and handsome appearance and good musical talent made Erica fall in love with the male student in front of him.
Kate Millett pointed out in the book "Sexual Politics" that in a patriarchal society, men play a dominant role in social life and women play the role of submissive. This is also reflected in sexual behavior. Men are attackers in sexual behaviors, while women have to serve men obediently. Sexual intercourse postures often show the subject and object roles of both sexes in sexual behavior. The active/passive role of both sexes in sexual behavior is a more secret power mechanism used by the patriarchal society to regulate women. Erica is radical in that she does not want to be regarded as a sexual object. She wants to obtain equal status with men in sexual behavior, and she wants to acquire sexual subjectivity in sexual intercourse. I will show the four "sex games" between Erica and Walter in four scenes.
03
Four sex games between Erica and Walter
(1) Toilet
① Seeing that the prey was about to arrive, Walter couldn’t wait to kiss and pet Erica
② Erica stopped Walter uncharacteristically, and took out Walter's penis to help him masturbate.
[When I first saw this episode, I was very confused. I thought Erica was very sick. Because what we usually see in movies is men touching women's breasts, men squeeze women with their lower body. In fact, Erica’s behavior is precisely to play the offensive role originally reserved for men in sex]
③ Walter couldn't restrain her sexual impulse, and wanted to press Erica under her body and ejaculate into Erica's body.
④ Erica pushed him away and said, "If you don't stop, I'll go." Walter obeyed the order, and Erica continued to help Walter masturbate. Erica still has the upper hand in sex.
⑤ When Erica helped Walter reach a climax quickly, Erica suddenly stopped her action. She told Walter: "Now I don't want to touch it... I will write down my desires and what you should do." Dang Ai When Rika said, "Now I don't want to touch it (the penis)", she was quite shocked when giving orders to men. In the past, such behaviors were imposed by men on women.
⑥ Walter’s response to this is: "Your behavior is morbid... You should know what you can do and what you can’t do with men." Here is the essence of patriarchal society through Walter’s mouth. Women want Obey and serve men.
⑦ Erica warned Walter: "If you don't obey, I won't see you again." Under the strong carnal drive, Walter obeyed Erica's order. Erica opened the toilet door in a retaliatory way, and Walter stood upright at the toilet door with a bare penis. In the novel, it is described that the toilet door is facing the corridor, and someone may break in at any time. Erica told Walter in a victorious gesture: "Now you can put it away. You will receive my order by letter."
In the toilet scene, Erica (woman) gives orders to men during sex, and successfully plays the role of initiative in sex.
(2) Erica’s home
From this scene, we can see that Erica's dress has changed. Erica began to wear warm-toned clothes, with curly hair, a red hat on her head, and her face carefully decorated with cosmetics. In this scene, Erica told Walter her strong desire for abuse through a letter. Erica wanted to try a sadomasochistic sex with Walter. Her letter wrote:
"If I beg, please tie up tighter, at least two or three holes in the belt, the tighter the better."
"Then I used the old stockings I prepared and stuffed it into my mouth so that I couldn't make a sound."
"Next please cover my eyes, sit on top of me, punch my abdomen, make me stick out my tongue and lick your ass"
"If I resist your orders, please hit me"
"Ask me why I didn't ask for help from my mother, why didn't I resist, it made me feel completely helpless"
The so-called sadomasochism is a kind of sexual activity that links sexual pleasure and pain, that is, sexual activity that obtains sexual pleasure through pain. The pain here includes both physical pain (pain caused by whipping, etc.) and mental pain (humiliation, torture, etc.). Erica is the battered party in the sadomasochistic behavior. This letter conveys the core characteristics of sadomasochism: 1. Voluntary. To conclude a sadomasochistic relationship with Walter, Erica must first seek Walter's consent. Modern forms of sadomasochism are voluntary actions by both parties. Once one person is not voluntary, the nature of the relationship changes. It will be the relationship between the abuser and the victim. 2. The two parties make an agreement on role play, plot scenes, and activity content before sex.
How to explain Erica’s masochistic tendency? I try to interpret from several aspects. Li Yinhe wrote in "The Subculture of Sadomasochism": “One element of the mutually voluntary sadomasochistic relationship is the relationship of domination and submission in the power structure.” (1) In Erica’s masochistic tendency, there are not only contradictions. The painful desire, and the desire to be dominated and succumbed. Erica (a woman) has no power over the world. In the family, she is controlled by her mother. In society, she is subject to male authority. The only thing she can control is her body. She hurts her body. To use her only power and vent her abuse through self-masturbation and resist the oppression of the patriarchal society.
Generally speaking, in a patriarchal society, men are treated as subjects. Men use their penises to contact their sexual partners. He himself plays an offensive role in sexual intercourse. For him, the female body is a prey. In sexual intercourse, men always Did not lose their initiative. In the patriarchal society, because a woman is treated as an object, she is the prey of a man in sexual intercourse, which makes her play a passive role in sex. Sadism/masochism in a sadomasochistic relationship is an extreme manifestation of the traditional gender model. The man is the abuser and the woman is the abuser. Because sadomasochism is an agreement reached by both parties voluntarily, sadomasochism itself has a performance character, and there is a dialectic in sadomasochism. By voluntarily tormenting herself, Erica becomes the master of the sexual relationship. Although Te was an abuser, he became a slave in a sexual relationship because he had to obey Erica's orders. Erica's subjectivity is very strong. She is unwilling to be treated as prey (pure meat) in sexual behavior. She uses the passivity in the masochistic-transsexual relationship as her initiative to establish her sexual subjectivity. "Accept his abuse, through voluntarily tormenting herself, and finally overcome her own sense of powerlessness." (2) Through sadomasochism, what Erica finally desires is to build a mutual dominance in sex with Walter The relationship between the objects.
In addition, as Li Yinhe said in the book, sadomasochism is also a desire for interpersonal relationships and a way to avoid loneliness. If a person is hurting and suffering, then she will not feel lonely, because the abuser is absolute to the abused. This is also an expression of Erica's desire for Walter's intense love.
In this letter written by Erica, there is another interesting point. Erica wrote in the letter: "Please tie my hands and feet back and lock it in the room next to my mother. She is close but not reachable." I think this The details can be understood in this way. By showing her tortured and humiliated situation, Erica implies that her mother has been oppressed by her mother for many years. The oppression of her mother is the same as when she was beaten and kicked by Walter. She has been succumbing. The one who is oppressed, the mother is also an oppressor to her.
However, Walter couldn't understand Erica's masochistic tendencies and refused to cooperate with Erica's request. He felt that Erica was a patient and left Erica's house by pushing the door. "You are sick, and now you are making me sick." Walter's response attributed the "sadomaniac" to sexual perversions. In fact, Foucault explained that sadomasochism is not a kind of sexual perversion, and that sadomasochism is only related to happiness. The sadomasochist just chooses the happy way of sadomasochism, rather than being born with this desire.
Erica fell on her mother and wept at night. She loved Walter very much, but Walter refused to try sadomasochistic behavior and rejected her.
(3) Ice hockey rink lounge
Erica couldn't restrain the turbulent emotions in her heart. The next day, she went to the ice hockey rink to find Walter and asked for peace. Erica lay on the ground in the posture of a submissive, letting Walter press her on top of her. In this one-time contact, Walter took the upper position, and Erica was pressed by Walter, and Valdant put his penis into Erica's mouth. Erica couldn't help vomiting, Walter said, no one had ever vomited before. Walter actually said that a man's penis symbolizes power and glory, and no woman can humiliate the penis. Erica’s vomiting behavior reflects that Erica’s subjectivity is very strong, and she cannot tolerate a passive position in sex.
(4) Erica’s home
That night, Walter ran to Erica's house and raped Erica. Walter punched and kicked Erica. At this time, he was the real abuser in the sexual act. He sexually assaulted Erica, which was no longer SM behavior. Walter pressed Erica under his body and kept kissing Erica. Erica did not respond, lying on the ground like a dead body, expressing her resistance. Even in this violent act, Erica has never physically succumbed to anyone.
Walter told Erica before he left: "I hope you don't make the matter public. I think about you. You can't insult a man like this, absolutely can't. You know that love is no big deal."
This passage is very interesting. There are three meanings expressed in a short line of words: One is, "I hope you don't make this matter public, I am thinking about you." This refers to the humiliation of slut that is common in the patriarchal society. If women report rape, public opinion will only condemn women for failing to protect themselves or even deliberately seduce men. What's more, in the teacher-student relationship between Erica and Walter, once Erica says that she was raped by a male student, public opinion will only be more unfavorable to Erica; and the influence of public opinion on men is very serious. Lightly, after a while, people will forget the history of a man's love for flowers, but public opinion will imprint a woman for life.
The second is, "You can't insult a man like this, absolutely can't." This point reveals the rules of patriarchal society. Men play a dominant role in sex, and women are obedient. If women want to subvert this set of sex politics, they will inevitably suffer The patriarchal society has more severe punishments.
The third is, "You know that love is no big deal". This sentence echoes what Erica once told Walter "The foundation of love is actually ridiculous." The same sentence, different people say, the meaning expressed is very different. When Erica tells Walter that "the foundation of love is ridiculous", it also means that love is nothing more than a physical relationship. However, as a woman, Erica is difficult to achieve "sex separation" because she has not undergone the secondary alienation described by Lacan. "Erica verbally said that this is just a physical relationship, but she loves Walter deeply in her heart. However, when Walter said, "You know that love is not a big deal", love is nothing more than carnal desire; men can truly achieve sexual separation due to what Lacan called secondary alienation; even if Walter and Erica have a physical relationship , He can really do not love Erica.
The film shows the hidden power relationship in the sexual behavior of the two sexes through the four-time sex game between Erica and Walter, and exposes the true situation of the inequality of power between men and women in a patriarchal society. At the end of the film, Erica suffered a lot of damage and went to Walter with a dagger, only to find that Walter seemed to have never happened before, relaxed and happy. Erica picked up the knife and stabbed herself, opened the door and walked out of the music hall. Many people ask, why did Erica stab herself with a knife? As I explained earlier, in a patriarchal society, a woman does not have any power. If she wants to fight alone against this society, she will eventually be hit more ruthlessly by the patriarch. What is left of her? She has everything. No, she can only use her only power by hurting her body to resist the oppression of the patriarchal society. But as stubborn as Erica, even if she stabbed herself with a knife, she would never give in to patriarchy.
View more about The Piano Teacher reviews
