Posted by feitheachd on Sat 8 Aug 09, 11:23 PM to feitheachd's blog.
I've just watched The Piano Teacher.
Dancing around Haneke's usual lingering shots caressing nothing in particular, there was a very interesting story about the destructive power of obsessions - how their grip on the individual can drag them blindly downwards and how their baleful influence can seep into every interaction with every other human.
William Blake said: “Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled”.
Typical Blake – giving a clue, but leaving it just ambiguous enough.
I wonder, are uncontrolled passions ever positive?
Certainly they are intrinsically selfish, they are brain blinkers which leave us unconcerned with the needs of others – others who end up being treated as a mere delivery system. In the Piano Teacher, the title character writes a letter in which she sets out precisely what she wants her chosen delivery system to do to her. She has no thoughts for his morals, for his own more prosaic desires, she just wants and she wants so much.
Passions and obsessions are wonderful – they are the spices of experience, but they can only thrive positively if they are controlled and shared positively.
I always give Blake the benefit of the doubt; so, I believe that it's not that my passions are weak; it's just that I am strong enough and aware enough to control them.
