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The Piano Teacher (Unrated Edition) | Year: 2001 Classification: Foreign Film - French Directed: - Michael Haneke Actors/Actresses: - Isabelle Huppert - Annie Girardot It stays with you for days I saw this film in Paris last October. Director, Michael Haneke has delivered an incredibly powerful film based on a controversial Austrian novel. Isabelle Huppert plays Erika, a brilliant piano professor at a college in Vienna. At work she is respected among her peers and indimidating to her students. At home, she lives with her tyrant mother (Annie Girardot). Erika and her mother have an emotionally abusive co-dependent relationship to the point where they share the same bedroom. Erika's sex life consists of eerie visits to porno shops and sadistic self-mutilation. When one of her students (Benoit Magimel) attempts to seduce her, she agrees but on HER terms. A family film this is not. There are some very disturbing scenes of emotional and physical abuse. But as difficult as the subject matter is, it does help the viewer to understand the psyche of a woman who has been denied happiness all her life. Isabelle Huppert is fantastic in a very difficult role. Her performance of the tortured Erika is the only time, I've seen a character so disturbed and cruel who I found pity in and wanted to see succeed. Forget the Oscar nominations, this is the best female performance of the year! Annie Girardot and Benoit Magimel are wonderful and very convincing in their roles as well. Lastly, the director, Michael Haneke. I've never seen any of his previous work but few directors have the ability to take complete control of my attention and keep it long after their film is over. Haneke is one of the very few who did. "La Pianiste" is a masterpiece, I recommend it to anyone who has an appreciation for European cinema. HANEKE RULES!!!!..... o.m.g! this film is absolutely brilliant!__the intensity, the actors, music, directing...<BR>MICHAEL HANEKE's style is a little like a combination of kubrick and gaspar noe. i honestly don't know if haneke's adaptation is faithful to Elfriede Jelinek's novel "the piano teacher".<BR>however, this film is so intense, so captivating..(and even funny)... plot:<BR>erika kohut is a middle aged piano teacher of the vienna music conservatory who is still living with her possessif mother.<BR>she appears to be normal.<BR>however, she is a sadomasochrist.She watches porn while sniffing used condoms,cuts herself with razor blades and..well..you get the picture.<BR>she's a sadistic loner. she does not want to be loved,but humiliated and tortured.<BR>Walter, is her admirant student.<BR>he is fascinated and he adores her.<BR>what follows next, is their strange relationship.<BR>in short , Humiliation is part of the menu.... i think this film was rated nc17, but i'm not sure..anyway,do not bring any children with you!!<BR>some scenes are really extreme!..apart from that,on a technical level, this film is perfect. ISABELLE HUPPERT is not acting in this film, she's living her part.<BR>she is incomparable.<BR>defenitly the best actress of 2002<BR>even the brilliant Naomi watts (of mulholland drive), is no match to huppert. BENOIT MAGIMEL and annie girardot, are also Really, impressive!!<BR>there are no false notes. the conclusion of the film is sudden and imprevisible.<BR>(like in every haneke films) SUGGESTIONS: michael haneke's "CODE UNKNOWN" with juliette binoche._ FUNNY GAMES (made in 1997) _ BENNY'S VIDEO (made in 1992) _ and THE CASTLE (made in 1997). Huppert All the Way Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is a fortyish piano teacher with deeply repressed sexual feelings. She lives with her mother (Annie Girardot), a controlling, oppressive woman, and deals with her erotic longings through voyeurism, visits to sex shops and self mutiliation. She still sleeps with her mother. The film largely takes place at the conservatory where she teaches and at the apartment she shares with her mother. Huppert in an excellent on-disc interview says Erika longs to be loved but is frightened of seduction. She treats her students coldly but is drawn to one who is vain and handsome, and played by Benoit Magimel. The rest is the story of her creating and accepting a masochistic relationship with the young man that spirals down into her own psycho-sexual collapse. This movie won't be everyone's choice for an evening with the kids. It's a serious, disturbing film for adults that looks grimly at repressed feelings and emotional self destruction. For the grownups, it might put you off sado-masochism for a few days. It's a first-rate film. Isabelle Huppert is one of my favorite actors. Like Depardieu, she has no apparent screen vanity; she'll do what it takes for the role. She also has the rare ability to express deep, unsettling feelings with an absolute economy of expression. She is incredible in this film. I'm happy to have the disc, but to tell you the truth I'm not sure how many more times I'll watch it. The DVD transfer is excellent, the audio is first rate, and the English subtitles are easy to follow. Buy The Piano Teacher at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Piano Teacher Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Piano Teacher This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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