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The Piano Teacher
on DVD (2001)
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| Starring: |
Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoit Magimel, Susanne Lothar, Cornelia Kondgen, Udo Samel, Anna Sigalevitch, Thomas Weinhappel |
| Director: |
Michael Haneke |
| Studio: |
ARTIFICIAL EYE |
| Run time: |
129 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
Eclectic Mix, 1001 Movies YMSBYD Part 10, Foreign Language Gems, Dark films about death, life and our eternal pessimism., Films to see before you live |
| Genres: |
Drama, World Cinema |
| Languages: |
French |
| Subtitles: |
English |
| Released: |
27/05/2002
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Brief synopsis of The Piano Teacher
Erika (Isabelle Huppert) teaches classical piano in a cold and often abrasive style. Approaching middle age, Erika lives with her doting mother (Annie Girardot) and still sleeps in the same bed with her. Erika's social life consists of occasionally sneaking away to a peep show where she secretly comes into contact with perverse passion, often using the discarded trash of previous customers. Her beautiful piano playing seduces youthful Walter (Benoit Magimel), who then takes the instructor's advanced class. Walter reveals his desire during a class session. Erika reacts curiously, presenting a long list of cruel, humiliating sexual acts she would like him to perform on her. Meanwhile, the teacher also torments a talented student (Anna Sigalevitch) who is already plagued by her own fears.
Michael Haneke (CODE UNKNOWN) directed this unflinching allegorical tale of cruelty. The film caused a stir at the Cannes Film Festival where it was controversial not only for its subject matter, but also because it won multiple awards there--the Grand Prize and acting awards for both Huppert and Magimel--despite leaving many audience members outraged. Based on a novel by Elfriede Jelinek, the film features numerous classical piano sonatas banged out in an aggressive style.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
After the furore surrounding Funny Games, director Michael Haneke and controversy became synonymous and this grim, award-winning drama won't alter that perception. Isabelle Huppert plays the middle-aged tutor who lives at home with a possessive mother in spite of her morbid interest in voyeurism and pornography. No surprise then that the relationship she starts with talented but wayward student Benoît Magimel is a dark and disturbing one. Haneke's adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek's powerful novel is as much an indictment of modern Austria as a study of the female struggle to make a cultural, political or sexual impact. Yet, for all its thematic fidelity, this often overwrought melodrama falters because of the increasing implausibility of the plot and the problems the two leads have with conveying their anguish. In the end, Huppert's impassivity in the face of degradation and despair relies utterly on her impeccable acting technique, which sadly exposes Magimel's inability to put across his character's terrifying transformation.
Time Out
Haneke's adaptation of a novel by Elfriede Jelinek may be shot, edited and performed rather more conventionally than...
Read more on www.timeout.com
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