another month gone by, are you closer to heaven?
La Pianiste (2001). Nik and I are agreed that this is the most disturbing film either of us has ever seen. I had read a review that suggested it was a cute S&M love story, so we took the trouble to rent it from Netflix rather than Blockbuster, because Blockbuster is owned by Christians and cut it to an R-rated version by removing scenes like (for instance) the part where she mutilates herself in the bathtub. Turns out it's not cute; it's harrowing. It's shaped like a knife. It tapers to a point. Certainly it's the best film I've seen since In the Bedroom (probably it's better), but afterward all I wanted to do was rent some movie with cheesy, romanticized, completely unrealistic sex scenes so I could forget how this movie beats you around the head with what it's actually like. Nik had the Food Network recorded on his TiVo, so we ended up watching this cooking show on how to make coleslaw and watched them grate cabbages for a half hour and then we were able to sleep.
