While I've enjoyed most of what I've seen from Haneke so far, my appreciation of his films mainly boils down to enjoying them more on a technical level rather than an emotional level (Cache and The White Ribbon have their moments though), so I was definitely not expecting this film to resonate with me as much as it did.
My initial takeaway was how well Huppert communicates the sexual repression and loneliness of her character. Erika's mother is domineering and expects perfection from her (interestingly enough, this behavior has strong parallels with her teaching style), yet she's unable to meet her high expectations. Since Erika has likely spent her entire life with her mother, her repression comes out in the form of porn addiction, paraphilia, and sadomasochism. With minimal contacts outside of work though, her tendencies turn out unfulfilled all too often, so there's no place for her to direct them but inwards. This leads to some disturbing set pieces of her urinating outside a car where a couple are making love and cutting her vagina with a razor. They tell you all there is to know about why she grows to latch onto Walter and demand so much from him.
Speaking of which, the love-making scenes between Erika and Walter are disturbing for reasons including but not limited to the paraphilic and sadomasochistic aspects of them. One thing which stood out to me is how Erik and Walter pursue their relationship at the expense of other people. The first half scratched the surface of this with the aforementioned urinating scene, but the second half shows the sheer lengths which the two of them go to satisfy their tendencies. Leaving a bathroom door wide open during a love-making session and having sex while Walter's hockey team members are right in the other room represent the lower end of extremity with this aspect. A more disturbing scene is a climactic scene of Walter forcing Erika's Mom into her bedroom so he can make love with Erika. Though Erika was clearly in a state of hesitancy at that point in the film, it's worth noting how she doesn't protest or speak up against Walter's rough treatment of her Mom at all. The most disturbing scene though is when Erika causes one of her students to cut her hand on broken glass for socializing with Walter. Though she clearly displayed a hard personality with her students prior to that, it's still a shocking moment, albeit one which feels true to her character.
What gave me the most anxiety though was how their hesitancy to commit to their sadomasochistic relationship gave a sense of escalation to the film. Erika and Walter are never on the same page on how to proceed with their relationship. Initially, Erika is the one eager to go along with it while Walter is hesitant. But then Walter begins to take Erika's role while she takes his, thus keeping an impasse between the pair. The frustration this causes them adds a sense of escalation to their relationship and gives the sense the film is building to something where either one of them or someone around them will be hurt. What we do get as a culmination may come off as abrupt, but the ambiguity it left gave me a couple disturbing outcomes to ponder over.
Overall, this is definitely my favorite Haneke film by a long shot and, given how well I responded to it, I'm tempted to revisit some of his other films to see if I'll warm up some more to them.
My initial takeaway was how well Huppert communicates the sexual repression and loneliness of her character. Erika's mother is domineering and expects perfection from her (interestingly enough, this behavior has strong parallels with her teaching style), yet she's unable to meet her high expectations. Since Erika has likely spent her entire life with her mother, her repression comes out in the form of porn addiction, paraphilia, and sadomasochism. With minimal contacts outside of work though, her tendencies turn out unfulfilled all too often, so there's no place for her to direct them but inwards. This leads to some disturbing set pieces of her urinating outside a car where a couple are making love and cutting her vagina with a razor. They tell you all there is to know about why she grows to latch onto Walter and demand so much from him.
Speaking of which, the love-making scenes between Erika and Walter are disturbing for reasons including but not limited to the paraphilic and sadomasochistic aspects of them. One thing which stood out to me is how Erik and Walter pursue their relationship at the expense of other people. The first half scratched the surface of this with the aforementioned urinating scene, but the second half shows the sheer lengths which the two of them go to satisfy their tendencies. Leaving a bathroom door wide open during a love-making session and having sex while Walter's hockey team members are right in the other room represent the lower end of extremity with this aspect. A more disturbing scene is a climactic scene of Walter forcing Erika's Mom into her bedroom so he can make love with Erika. Though Erika was clearly in a state of hesitancy at that point in the film, it's worth noting how she doesn't protest or speak up against Walter's rough treatment of her Mom at all. The most disturbing scene though is when Erika causes one of her students to cut her hand on broken glass for socializing with Walter. Though she clearly displayed a hard personality with her students prior to that, it's still a shocking moment, albeit one which feels true to her character.
What gave me the most anxiety though was how their hesitancy to commit to their sadomasochistic relationship gave a sense of escalation to the film. Erika and Walter are never on the same page on how to proceed with their relationship. Initially, Erika is the one eager to go along with it while Walter is hesitant. But then Walter begins to take Erika's role while she takes his, thus keeping an impasse between the pair. The frustration this causes them adds a sense of escalation to their relationship and gives the sense the film is building to something where either one of them or someone around them will be hurt. What we do get as a culmination may come off as abrupt, but the ambiguity it left gave me a couple disturbing outcomes to ponder over.
Overall, this is definitely my favorite Haneke film by a long shot and, given how well I responded to it, I'm tempted to revisit some of his other films to see if I'll warm up some more to them.