the piano teacher

Though debated as an art form, cinema can do more than just entertain as it can harness raw emotions to solicit reactions ranging from elation to fear. If one looks hard enough, cinematic avenues beyond the mainstream present themselves and the art that one seeks can quickly distort and ultimately disturb the viewer. From personal experience, one key scene in Gaspar Noe’s ‘IRREVERSIBLE’ (2002) caused me to exit the theatre as I dry wretched; Srđan Spasojević’s ‘A SERBIAN FILM’ (2010) prompted severe insomnia for over two days; Pascal Laugier’s ‘MARTYRS’ (2008) rendered me incapable of eating for a day, whilst the less said about Pier Pasolini’s ‘SALO’ aka ‘120 DAYS OF SODOM’ (1975) or Takashi Miike’s ‘AUDITION’ (1999), the better. Pragmatists will critique such reactions asserting the fictionalized stories as ‘It’s only a movie’ but these are often the same people who may blatantly avoid such alternative genres, rendering their […]

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