I'm Bored With Piano Teaching How Do I Get My Mojo Back

3 /10

An interesting portrait of an angry, repressed and borderline lady....but who would want to watch it other than a therapist?!

"La Pianiste" is not a film for everyone. Although the film garnered some awards at Cannes and other film festivals, it is more a film festival sort of film than a mainstream film the average person would watch and enjoy. This is not necessarily a complaint...more an observation about the plot, style and characters in this film. It simply is a movie that would be off-putting to most viewers. After all, the leading character is unlikable and an emotional basket case--not the sort of person folks would want to see on a date night at the theater! Again...this is NOT a complaint. I mention this because you might want to think twice before watching the film. The other reason is that the movie has some very graphic moments...such as some very graphic sex scenes as well as scenes where the leading lady is genitally mutilating herself (fortunately this is not nearly so graphic). Yes, this lady with a Borderline Personality cuts on her genitals because of her many emotional problems...so this isn't exactly "Singing in the Rain" or "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"!

When the film begins, you see Erika (Isabelle Huppert) going through her daily routine as a piano teacher. You also see her engage in some very dysfunctional interactions with her emotionally abusive and sick mother (with whom she lives) as well as Erika going to sex shops and drive-in movie theaters to watch folks make love! Clearly she's not a happy person, though in every interaction you see, she's also caustic, cruel and nasty...the sort of person you'd never hope to meet. Most psychotherapists would likely diagnose her with a Borderline Personality--especially in light of her self-harm (cutting) and antisocial behaviors. Most others would avoid her like the plague.

Despite Erika being a thoroughly unlikable and pathetic person, a very talented young pianist, Walter (Benoît Magimel) is inexplicably attracted to her. She never gives him any indication she's interested. In fact, she does a lot to push him away by insulting him and his talent. Yet, despite all this, he arranges for her to become his teacher, as he wants to use this to get closer to her. Clearly Walter has a few issues of his own and this is not a typical romance film!

This film is a tough one for viewers. While the portrait of Erika is very interesting and well done in many ways, making her so difficult to like seriously compromises the watchability of the film. In other words, if you strongly dislike a protagonist in a movie, how likely are you to continue watching it? You feel a bit sorry for her...but mostly you dislike her and would never want to associate with someone this nasty (such as when she pours broken glass into a woman's coat or berates her for having diarrhea). I think making her more pathetic and sad as opposed to cruel would have improved the film's watchability tremendously...though it might have been a less interesting psychological portrait.

Technically, this film is well made and the acting is good. But it's also about a much fun to watch as war atrocities....making it a film more for elitists than the average person.

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8 /10

Powerful and shocking with a superb lead performance

Warning: Spoilers

The Piano Teacher is not an easy watch and is not going to be everybody's cup of tea. I for one found it a powerful and sometimes beautiful film. I will admit the first half is better than the second however. The second half does take a nosedive in plausibility particularly a really awkward moment where Erika takes out her sexual frustrations onto her own mother, while the first half is absolutely fascinating. The Piano Teacher is very well made, bleak and somewhat cold in colour palette but at the same time sumptuous. The cinematography is splendid, as is Michael Haneke's sure-handed direction. The music is outstanding, Schubert's music- Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Schoenberg and what sounded like Bach in the two pianos-playing sequence- is the most frequent and it is deliciously lyrical though the repetition of Im Dorfe- the one with the growling-sounding bass line- is likely to haunt your mind. I also have to say the piano playing is amazing, some of the best I have ever heard. The script has its very thoughtful moments in the piano teaching sequences and the letter scene actually is revealing about Erika's sexually frustrated and somewhat warped state of mind. The sex scenes though do have some lines that are likely to make you go "um, okay", the worst offender being the penis-related one in the bathroom sex scene.

The story is interesting in life as a piano teacher and how the pieces are interpreted and has some genuinely disturbing moments primarily Erika cutting herself, Erika's attack inflicted by Walter and the rape scene. The ending is interpretative and on the abrupt side but was a clever and fitting to end the film. The characters are not easy to empathise with, the main character especially is very cold while Walter is somewhat relateable until his terrifying change in character. The performances are really great. Isabelle Huppert is incredible in a difficult(both in character and how she relates to the audience)role with eyes and delivery that tell a huge amount. Benoit Magimal is a charmer in the first half, and once Walter is repulsed by the letter his change in character does manage to terrify. Annie Giradot is perfect as the stuffy mother figure, and the rest of the cast give good performances if not quite up to the standard set by the three leads.

Overall, powerful, beautiful and shocking, not perfect but very effective. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox

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7 /10

Isabelle Huppert damaged

Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) has a volatile home life with her combative mother leading to violence at times. Erika has disturbing sexual tendencies such as porn shop visits, self-mutilations, and voyeurism. She's a piano professor at a conservatory. She's hard on her students especially the fragile Anna Schober. Walter Klemmer is a new student at the conservatory despite her objection. He's taken with her and she eventually lets him into her sexually disturbed world.

Isabelle Huppert has such great screen presence. She's great at playing damaged, vulnerable, and cold. It's not the most fun watch. There are a couple of really weird scenes. Her relationship with her mother is outrageous. This is an interesting character study of a troubled woman.

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8 /10

Disturbing to Say the Least

This is my second experience with a film by Haneke, We have an incredibly intense, repressed character, played by Isabel Huppert. She lives with her mother and they involve themselves in a love/hate relationship. As a piano teacher she is a cruel taskmaster. It is obvious that she is sought after despite her almost sadistic vent. When she is not at work she visits a sex shop and watches pornography. She also goes to drive-in movies and peeks into cars at couples having sex. She is likewise, self-abusive. She is not unlike a fascist state in her demeanor. She meets a young, incredibly talented piano student who wants to be in her master class. There is sexual tension here. He begins to lust after her. She is cold but attractive, although at times her very being seems somewhat beyond her years. He really loves her and we know that somehow these two will meet in some way. He plays hockey and there is a kind of male testosterone thing going on. She has a stilted view of sexuality. He has the more traditional view, being on the make and wanting things to be consensual. This movie contains some of the sickest scenes I've seen. There is one scene in a public toilet where things get quite deranged. I have couple more Haneke films to see soon. They are certainly thought provoking.

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9 /10

Love Hurts – A Weird Tale of Repressed Sexuality

In Vienna, Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) is a sick single forty years old piano teacher of the music conservatory. She lives alone with her dominative mother and due to her repressed sexuality, she self-mutilates her sex, visits porno shops in the nights looking for peep-shows and has a weird and abnormal behavior regarding sex. In a recital, Erika is introduced to Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel), an young student of engineering and excellent pianist, and he falls in love with her. Their perverted affair destabilizes the fragile emotional control of Erika. This weird tale of repressed sexuality of a woman has magnificent performances of Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, very well supported by Annie Girardort. The beginning of the story is amazing and Isabelle Huppert has one of the best performances of her stunning career, I even dare to say that it is one of her best roles. Although recommended only to specific audiences, this complex and sick love story is an excellent film. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and the Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek won the 2004 Nobel Prize in literature two days ago. The direction of Michael Haneke is precise and sharp as usual. If 'Le Pianist' were an American movie, it would probably be among the IMDb Top 250. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'A Professora de Piano' (The Piano Teacher')

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5 /10

The Piano Teacher

Warning: Spoilers

This French film was previously listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title made it obvious what the leading character was, but I didn't know anything about the plot, it did sound very interesting, directed by Michael Haneke (Funny Games, The White Ribbon, Amour). Basically, in Vienna, Erika Kohut (Elle's Isabelle Huppert) is a middle-aged piano professor at a music conservatory who lives with her domineering elderly mother (Annie Girardot), while her father was living in psychiatric asylum and has recently died. Despite her professional demeanour and secure nature, Erika is lonely and is sexually repressed. Erika often satisfies her cravings with voyeurism, renting pornographic films, having sadomasochistic fetishes and mutilates herself, cutting herself on intimate parts of the body. Dr. George Blonskij (Udo Samel) and his wife Gerda (Cornelia Köndgen) host a recital, there Erika meets young aspiring engineer Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel), he also plays piano and admires her skill in classical music. The two appreciate composers like Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert, and he wants to apply to conservatory to be her pupil. His audition impresses the other professors, Erika is visibly moved, but votes against him; citing his divergent interpretation, and questioning his motivations. Despite this, Walter is admitted as Erika's pupil. Meanwhile, Anna Schober (Anna Sigalevitch) is a pupil struggling with anxiety and being pushed by her ambitious mother (Susanne Lothar). Erika witnesses Anna and Walter socialising, angry she slips broken shards of a drinking glass into one of Anna's coat pockets. Anna injures her right hand, ruining her chance to play at the forthcoming jubilee concert. Walter pursues Erika into the toilet immediately after she secretly injured Anna. Walter passionately kisses Erika, and she responds by repeatedly humiliating and frustrating him. She proceeds to give him a handjob, but abruptly stops when he does not abide by her orders. She also performs fellatio on him, but again stops when he does not listen to her. She tells him she will write him a letter regarding their next meeting. Later at the conservatory, Erika pretends to be sympathetic towards Anna's mother, saying only she can substitute for Anna in the upcoming school concert at such short notice. Walter is increasingly insistent wanting a sexual relationship with Erika, but she is only willing if he will satisfy her masochistic fantasies. She gives him the letter listing acts she will consent to, but he is repulsed by it. She later meets him to apologise, and the two engage in a sexual encounter in a small room. But Erika is unable to finish and vomits after Walter attempts to penetrate her. Later that night, Walter arrives at Erika's apartment and follows an act as described in her letter. He locks her mother away in her bedroom before proceeding to beat and rape Erika. The next day, Erika brings a kitchen knife to the concert where she is scheduled to substitute for Anna. Walter arrives in high spirits with his family, and flippantly greets her. Moments before the concert is about to begin, a distraught Erika stabs herself in the shoulder with the kitchen knife and exits the concert hall into the street. Also starring Thomas Weinhappel as Baritone. Huppert gives a terrific performance as the professional with secret violent sexual fetishes, it obviously has the controversial material and melodrama, and is dark and disturbing most of the time, but you can appreciate it for celebrating great music as well, it is odd, grim and perhaps implausible, but an interesting drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language. Worth watching!

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7 /10

Getting It Off Your Chest.

Warning: Spoilers

It's a very fine character study for the first half, even if a bit obvious. Isabelle Huppert runs with the ball. She's a distinguished professor of music in Paris. Students compete for admission to her Master Class in piano.

I'm not sure why. She's evidently an inspiring teacher. She obviously loves music. But, my God, is she demanding. And stern and distant and icy. Her hair is severely swept back and she never smiles. She has no sense of humor, no role distance, and her ordinary social graces are no better than perfunctory. You get a feeling that if she stared at you too long you'd turn into an ice sculpture than only faintly resembled your original self.

I had judged -- from the DVD case cover, showing her struggling in a kiss with a younger man while kneeling on a bathroom floor -- that this was going to be a sort of "Lolita" with the genders reversed, some kind of pathetic tragedy. Beautiful sexual interludes with softly billowing curtains and scented candles, ending with a funeral in the rain.

But, no. It's pretty good. As for the performances, we have the central figure of the middle-aged spinster Huppert, locked into her frigid respectability. And then there is Annie Girardot as her disputatious and domineering mother, Girardot who was a sexy presence all over the screen in the 1960s, now become a magnificent wreck. The passing years do that to everyone except me. I seem to grow more youthfully radiant with every passing day. Benoît Magimel is tall, muscular, handsome, and a talented if flippant pianist in her class, but if at first he's an ardent admirer, maybe a little too ardent, he becomes a cipher.

Well, we know ahead of time that Huppert is going to bust loose. She has to, otherwise we have a pretty dreary film experience ahead of us. And she does bust loose, but not in ways anyone might expect. She's utterly sexless until she boldly walks into some sort of porno shop, rents a booth, and watches skin flicks without any expression. Then she picks up a discarded tissue from the floor and holds it against her nose. A little twisted, if you ask me. And not just that, but she perches on the rim of her bath tub, spreads her legs, reaches up into her crotch, fiddles around and winces. Okay. We're all adults so we think we know what's up. But then she withdraws her hand and we see that it's holding a razor blade, and we notice a trickle of blood running into the tub. This is many leagues away from soft core porn.

The first half ends with her responding to Magimel's protestations of love but again not in the way we might expect. She deliberately arouses Magimel physically on that bathroom floor but leaves him hanging, exiting with an expression of disdain. Later, despite her mother's strenuous objections she takes Magimel into her bedroom. She "takes" him; she doesn't "invite" him. And she makes him read aloud the terms of her agreement with him before they engage in any hanky panky. She wants to be blindfolded, slapped, tied up really tight, and made to rim him. That's -- how you say? -- degoutant.

That's about the half-way point. After that the movie more or less collapses and throws logic and character to the winds. Magimel, after reading her list of demands, calls her "pathetic" and "sick". He tells her she needs treatment. Then he stalks out of the bedroom, offended, revolted. Any normal kid his age would try to talk her down, negotiate with her. "How about if we eliminate Demand Number Five?", or something. But his change in attitude is instantaneous and resolute.

It gets worse. He barges into her apartment in the middle of the night, locks the howling mother in her room, and begins slapping and kicking Huppert around on the floor before more or less raping her almost lifeless body in its blood-splashed nightgown. She lies there numb while he makes some stupid remarks about this being what she wanted. Then he leaves her flat. I won't give away the climactic scene.

That first half is very good, though, partly because there are some satisfying snatches of classical music -- Bach and some others but most Schubert. Some of today's younger audiences might expect to be intimidated, bored, or both -- but would they be right? That same demographic swallowed painlessly through a number of Stanley Kubrick's movies that featured both Strausses plus Beethoven. Not to mention "Amadeus." And, throughout, both Huppert and Girardot are unimpeachable.

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5 /10

a few notches below the usual Michael Haneke production

Michael Haneke is one of the most innovative filmmakers of these last years and he must be given credit to take contemporary cinema in new territories. In a handful of films all disturbing which shatter our consciences and with a recognizable trademark, he created his own universe, a formidable one in which it is dangerous to venture. Like the greatest auteur, Haneke has his set of themes. Most of his films revolve around the alienation of the individual in the current western world in which comfort and modernity can lead him to the loss of his identity, even his physical or psychological destruction ("der Siebente Kontinente" 1989 "Benny's Video" 1992). The way violence has become a common feature in everyday life in an insensible society ("Funny Games" 1997), absence of love and communication in a God-forsaken world are also recurrent witnesses which run throughout Haneke's work. It seems that his latest opus, "Caché" (2005) is his most accomplished movie. It was a triumph on all levels and I have only read virtually unanimously glowing critics. It also garnered a bucketful of prizes and awards in Europe. Four years earlier, awards also rained on "la Pianiste" which like "Caché" received paeans of praise... maybe wrongly from my own standpoint. Derived from a novel, I do not think that it is on a par with Haneke's previous works. It's a let-down after a so far immaculate career.

Coming after the fragmented "Code Inconnu: Récits Incomplets De Divers Voyages" (2000) which encompassed nearly all Haneke's quoted obsessions, "la Pianiste" is a return to a more accessible, linear form like "Funny Games" but once again not for all tastes given the murky even grisly contents of the film. But it's not necessarily a better one. A reading of the synopsis lets see why the director was highly interested with his topic: a 45 year-old maid who is a piano teacher and who lives under under her possessive mother's thumb. She only finds as a way out to flee from her sultry household the outings in peep-shows and porn cinemas. The Austrian director studied psychology in Wien in the sixties so it seemed that the story of this neurotic upper-class person was tailor-made for him. It was apparently a perilous task to render this novel on the screen because from Haneke's own words, several passages came within pornography. But fortunately, these passages are very subdued when they are transfered on the screen.

Haneke remains faithful to his hallmarks. Although his devotees will have perhaps noticed that his obsessions, here take a back seat except maybe in the sequences when Annie Girardot intervenes. Indeed, she spends most of her time glued in front of the telly, the telly, a cursed object in Herr Haneke's universe. Here, one could argue that the telly only contributes to cement Girardot's domination on her daughter. Haneke also uses his static, clinical style again to describe and assess in a hard-hitting way, the mournful, loveless life of Erika Kohut with sometimes evocative colors. The blood which flows in the bathroom after a scene of self-mutilation on her genital parts underscores Erika's psychological wounds.

In a way, what makes the strength of the film also constitutes its main drawback. I'm far from being an expert at psychology but it seems incompatible to me that Erika can be a brilliant piano teacher while being systematically over-protected by her mother in spite of her key-sentence: "you must be the best piano teacher in the world my girl". Maybe would it have been more cohesive to introduce a character with a not so prestigious professional situation. But on the other hand, Erika's voyeuristic side and her secret attendances of porn cinemas seem logical with her persona and it's a neat idea from Haneke to have included classical music in the screening sessions. But the irregularity I mentioned handicaps a major part of the film and what doesn't help matters is that the second half which is more centered on the sadistic love affair between Erika and Walter (Benoît Magimel) is rather undermined by overlong sequences with some filler. Hence, this feeling that the film never seems to end.

Part of the disappointment also comes from the cast. Maybe it was a mistake to have hired celebrities. In Haneke's previous pieces of works, actors were unknown of the mainstream (except maybe for the German and Austrian public) and contributed to the filmmaker's unique universe, even if "Code Inconnu" had Juliette Binoche. Hats off to Isabelle Huppert who agreed to play such a demeaning part. Anyway, she would act the same type of character with startling results in the highly superior "8 Femmes" (2002) by François Ozon. But Annie Girardot's part is underwritten. She didn't deserve her César in 2002. Haneke had thought of Jeanne Moreau for this part, I wonder what she would have done with it. Her possessive, pervasive presence isn't potent, destructive enough to give her the image of a monstrous mother. Worse, she's sometimes wasted in the way she's badly used. In one of the most famous images of the film, she's held by Huppert and Magimel as she's screaming. In the grievous scene, she's locked on a room and her cries make the moment unintentionally funny! As for Benoît Magimel, his persona doesn't articulate itself very well with the posh, cold universe in which the film bathes. His prize for best actor in Cannes in 2001 is very disputable.

I don't want to slate Haneke's film. It's not a winner, neither is it a despicable work. I can't find in it the "something" which elevated the bulk of his work to undebatable heights.

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8 /10

up there with 'Last Tango' as a truly disturbing work of sexual horror

Michael Haneke, it's easy to say, is one sick puppy. Between the three films I've seen of his- Funny Games (US), Cache and now The Piano Teacher- he's certainly not a director to make his films boring. This is to his credit as a provocateur more-so than as a genuine art-house/Euro talent; his work is a kin to giving you a swift kick in the nuts, giving a tid-bit of ice for the wound, and then having you watching in eager anticipation for the next event to come. It didn't work for Funny Games very well, and for Cache it worked at almost masterful levels. For the Piano Teacher, which may be the most disturbing of Europe's crop of psycho-sexual dramas of the decade, deals out its main character as something between a side character in Barry Lyndon and, well, your local cold-fish of a teacher at school, but it's not a cold movie, per-say.

Rather, The Piano Teacher never moves its gaze from its characters movements or actions, usually going right with the action without 'flashy' turns, and the only music coming out of those luminous numbers from Schubert and, oddly enough, that one numbner from Barry Lyndon. And at the center of Haneke's torrid drama is Isabele Hupert in the title role, playing a woman who still lives with her mother (one of the most fascinating things for me in the film, something that adds a whole other level of the psychological tension, perverseness), and rarely has a good word to say about anyone's musical ability. Least of all for the young man (played very well by Benoit Magnimel), who has an affinity for Schubert and finds something in this teacher he wants to know more; he pursues the poisition of student very much despite being rejected by her. But then they meet again, in a manner that is so deranged I dare not mention it here (let's just say it's a manner of horrible, unforgivable "payback" that says all that needs to be said about Hupert's insecurities).

Like Last Tango in Paris, the sexual congress is intense, rough, and uncompromising for what many of us consider practical, loving contact. These characters- in Haneke's universe probably more- are driven by obsessive needs and something they can't express, and ironically, when Hupert puts her thoughts and desires all out there in "un-poetic" writing, it becomes the Achilles heel. There's a lot that Haneke explores here that sparks interest, and I found myself thinking about the ideas and the cold look of Hupert (one that, showing how great she is in the part, you keep looking for the slightest change of the guard) and why it didn't totally knock me off my feet... Maybe it did, in a manner of speaking. By the end of the film, which concludes perhaps logically if somewhat randomly, I was shocked and appalled, but I also knew I had seen something powerful and challenging to boot. How do we contemplate these characters that are seemingly the everyday sort but are dark and depraved and wanting something from someone that they can't get? In short, The Piano Teacher works best as a tale of loss, I suppose, or of never having it in the first place.

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Disturbing and provocative

This film tells the story of a female piano teacher who has perverse fantasies towards her young student.

The piano teacher seems like an ordinary woman, until her dark side is introduced. It is provocative and at times even disturbing. The scene in the video club is quite a shock to me. Then, the story builds on and goes even further. Yet, the ending is a great surprise. It is a provocative, disturbing and engaging film.

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8 /10

Klavier sonata

Warning: Spoilers

Erika Kohut is a woman with deep sexual problems. At the start of the film, we see her arriving home late. When her older mother protests, Erika goes into a frenzy, attacking the older woman without pity. Erika, as it turns out, is a musical teacher of a certain renown in the conservatory where she teaches. When we next see her, she is the model of composure, but she shows a cruel side in the way she attacks a young male student because she feels he is wasting his time, and hers. The same goes for the insecure Anna, a talented girl who Erika hates, maybe because she sees in the young woman a promise that she is not willing to promote.

At the end of the day, we watch Erika as she goes into an amusement area and proceeds to one of the cabins where pornographic material is shown. Erika is transfixed as she watches the things that are being performed on the screen. On another occasion, Erika comes to a drive-in where a movie is in progress. Her attention goes toward a parked car in which, two lovers are performing a sex act. The camera lingers on Erika as she is lost in reverie watching what the two lovers are doing, until she is surprised by the young man inside the car. Erika flees horrified she's been discovered.

When a wealthy couple invites Erika to perform in a recital in their opulent home, she meets an eager young man, Walter, who is related to the hosts. Walter is immediately taken with Erika's playing; the young man is a talented pianist himself. His eagerness to compliment Erika is met with skepticism on her part. Walter decides to audition for Erika's master class, and is accepted.

Thus begins Walter pursuit of Erika, who is taken aback when she realizes what the young man's motives really are. In turn, Erika, begins to fantasize about Walter in ways that only her mind could, imagining what she would like him do when, and if, they get together. Walter gets turned off by the letter Erika has written to him, detailing sexual acts that are repugnant to the young man.

The film's ending, reminded us of the last sequence of Mr. Haneke's current "Cache". We are taken to a concert hall where Erika is going to perform. She is seen stalking the lobby looking for the arrival of Walter, who goes on into the hall without noticing her. Erika's expression to the camera reveals a lot more of her state of mind in that last minutes of the film. As she flees the lobby area after inflicting a wound on herself, the camera abandons her and concentrates on the building's facade that seems to stay on the screen for a long time.

"La Pianiste" is a personal triumph for Isabelle Huppert. This magnificent actress does one of her best appearances on the screen, guided by the sure hand of Michael Haneke, one of the most interesting directors working today. Ms. Huppert's works with economic gestures, yet, she projects so much of her soul as she burns the screen with her Erika.

The supporting cast does wonders under the director's guidance. Annie Girardot, always excellent, is perfect as Erika's mother. She seems to be the key of whatever went wrong with her daughter. There is a hint of incest that is played with subtleness in the context of the film. Benoit Magimel is perfectly cast as Walter. This young actor does a wonderful job in the film as the young man, so in love with a woman that is possessed by demons, that he'll never be able to chase away or get her to love him in a normal manner.

Michael Haneke films are always disturbing to watch, yet they offer so many rewards because he dares to go where other men don't. The magnificent music heard in the film are mainly by Schubert and Schumann, two composers that are Erika's own favorites. The movie is helped tremendously by Christian Berger's cinematography.

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8 /10

How I hate my mother.

Why is it that Freud was always talking about hating your father? Mommies do the best job of screwing you up, and Erica's (Isabelle Huppert) mom is a doozy.

Huppert can always be counted upon to give an incredible performance, and she is superb here in the painful-to-watch film. She is carrying an incredible amount of psychological baggage, and it really affects her emotionless life. She is looking for love, but only finds seduction. Part of the problem is hers as she has no concept of what love is. She has a warped sense of S&M that she supposes is love, but when faced with reality, she is shocked and cold.

I should warn you that the ending is certainly unconventional, but the film is unconventional as well, so it fits.

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8 /10

A beautiful movie about some ugly things.

Really, I'm not just a Michael Haneke gusher, that likes everything he does but when a movie is good it is simply good!

But like basically all Michael Haneke movies, it's not for just everyone. It's really a matter of taste, whether you like this movie or not. It's a movie with a very own approach to its heavy story but as far as Michael Haneke movies go, this one is actually still pretty straightforward with its storytelling. It's always simple to follow and the movie mostly lays out everything for you, so you don't have a lot of blanks to fill in for yourself.

Still the story itself will be a bit too much for some people to handle. It's really about something awful and disgusting but yet I really can't help myself but to be deeply intrigued by this movie.

It's all about the movie its style and the way the story is slowly being told by director Michael Haneke and its actors. It's what makes the movie a great watch, as well as a real intriguing one. The movie and its story probably work out great and intriguing because it is about something unusual and something you are not likely to see being handled often in a movie.

It's a story about extreme sexual repression and what happens when someone finally gets together with someone of the opposite sex. Repulst by love and probably also by herself, a 40-something years old piano teacher uses one of her students, that pursues her, to fulfill her odd sadomasochistic fantasies. But how far is he truly willing to go for her and exactly who controls who? You could say that the movie turns into a sexual thriller, that you can't ever really predict. The events are unpredictable as well as all of the characters. It gives the movie, an almost constantly present feeling, of tension.

It's a real accomplishment, by both cast and crew, that this movie about some odd and ugly things and characters, still remains such a beautiful and engaging movie to watch. It's simply storytelling and filmmaking at its best, though it's obviously not a movie for just everybody.

8/10

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8 /10

Spellbinding

Being a piano teacher in a school isn't necessarily the most compelling job. Erika(Huppert, disappearing into the role) lives with her overbearing mother(Girardot, fleshing out what in the hands of a lesser talent would have been one-sided), who keeps close tabs on her. Both of them are single, lonely, missing the father, and feeling they've achieved what they could in their lives. She always retains control even when not the only authority(even in that situation, she doesn't "give" any), keeps her distance, doesn't smile, and claims to have no emotion. Her love of the music, that we are at times given rich explanations of, fits with her personality, and vice versa - clear rules for what is right and what is wrong, intelligent and reserved, refusing to cater to the masses. But she does have violent fantasies, and when she meets the young enthusiast of the classics Walter(Magimel, fantastic, holding his own against a woman 20 years his senior), she may be able to live them out - even if doing so poses great risks to herself.

This is gripping from start to finish. It is not for everyone, and I mean no offense to those who aren't in the intended audience. There are a lot of long takes with few people in the shot, a lot of silence, few cuts or close-ups, little in the way of movement of the camera, and largely basic angles and compositions. It's driven by the acting and dialog(with many mean, even cruel, lines, to an extent equally divided between the leads - there is no room for failure in the perfectionist world of performing arts that require that much talent, nor is there a way to impress, at most, be thought to be "good enough"). There are no real plot twists, merely a spiral towards the inevitable awful outcome. This sets up some themes and characters, and explores them, thoroughly. Our protagonist has no make-up, and this is an example of this not holding back, not covering up imperfections, it is bare and harsh, and all the better for it. This is only the second film of Michael Haneke I've watched, the other being The White Ribbon, but I love both of them, and will be seek out more of his work.

This goes into selfishness vs. sacrifice, disgust vs. understanding, complete acceptance vs. unrepentant rejection, what is proper and what is not. Add to that the way the world of yesterday's "sensual" (in direct contact with, not theory but talent for playing, composing) love of art being shoved aside by, and for the sake of, modern intellectualism(study of theory) and crowd-pleasers such as sports. Most of all, it is about sado-masochism. This goes into that subject without misrepresenting(unlike 50 Shades of Grey) and free of judgment. It is, however, deeply unsettling, showing the negatives that can come from it, whilst clearly showing that they aren't inherent to it. When it isn't practiced in a healthy relationship based on trust, where the partners use safe-words, consent and aftercare. Because when someone has suppressed something for the longest time, it can be an explosion when the faucet is finally turned on. We see how the greatest perversity may be borne of the strongest repressive environment, and that just because one's sexuality has not been expressed, doesn't mean it's gone.

This contains a near-constant tension, mostly regarding disturbing content, a lot of sexuality, some of it graphic and/or violent. It is a movie that is sometimes arousing, other times revolting, one that dares you to look on yet is impossible to take your eyes off. I recommend this to everyone who is not put off by the subject nor the unflinching approach to it. 8/10

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The Struggle between Love and Seduction

LA PIANISTE (THE PIANO TEACHER) goes places most film makers dare not tread - the dark aspects of frustrated sexuality where desire and affection cannot meet. In brief, this is the story of the inner world of an exceptional pianist and piano teacher who lives with her mother in a 'marriage arrangement' that appears to satisfy both with its accompanying fights, jealousies, cheatings, and clingings. This cold pianist (incomparably portrayed by the fine Isabelle Huppert) is absorbed by Schubert and Schumann and shares many of those composers' tendencies towards madness and melancholy. Her private acting out of her sexual life includes forays into pornography video booths, drive-in movies for voyeurism, and other sadomasochistic practices that leave her frustrated in her drive to be humiliated and beaten. Into this sad woman's life enters a sensuously handsome student (again, played with complete credibility and finesse by Benoit Magimel) and much of the film is a hard driving match between lust/desire and need/repulsion, the true approach/avoidance conflict.

The pace of the film is so correct for a story about the extended periods of ennui between moments of exhilaration that mirror the life inside a music academy. We are treated to some wonderful Schubert, Schumann, Schonberg, and Bach that serves as the 'dialogue' during extended scenes where the piano teacher listens with her eyes and ears and distorted mind, reacting to the music in equal parts with the performing students. Yes, this is a disturbing film, but it is not a grotesque film. Director Michael Haneke manages to place this surreal sexual tragedy for us to understand just how wide the bell curve of human sexuality stretches. An astonishingly fine film - if you are open to explore the dark interstices of the human mind without prejudice. An added feature of an interview on the DVD with Isabelle Huppert about the character she portrays is exceptionally apropos and well filmed.

Grady Harp

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9 /10

Missed the Ending's Point!

The Piano Lesson is based on Nobel Laureate Elfriede Jelinek's book of the same name. I didn't read the book but I am curious to read it. The story is about a mature piano instructor played beautifully by the French actress, Isabelle Huppert. She lives with her mother in a small Vienna apartment. The character of Erika, the piano teacher, slowly unwinds as her need for love and control intertwine in her life. She meets Walter Kemmler, a young handsome hockey player student, who changes her life and offers her a chance at some pretty repulsive sexuality. Despite her appearance as a prim and proper piano teacher, she harbors deep sexual desires towards bondage and masochism in which she wants her students to fulfill. Her relationship with her mother is even more bizarre at one point in the film. This film is not easy to watch at times and don't expect a happy ending but it's a great French film in looking at the psyche of a trouble woman.

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10 /10

Truly harrowing film.

"La Pianiste" aka "Piano Teacher" is very strong psychological terror tale about destructed mind,feelings and the reasons behind that."La Pianiste" doesn't explore violence like "Funny Games" did,but these are very important films and tell about real life and real people.The film is very disturbing psychological study of female who has very severely damaged mind and extremely sick sexual life and habits.Occasionally almost unbearably powerful and extremely harrowing;the final scene made me cringe.Isabelle Huppert is jaw-droppingly excellent as the main character-her performance is only comparable to Suh Yung's performance in "Seom"/"The Isle"(2000).Highly recommended-Michael Haneke is a genius!

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4 /10

Little of Substance beneath the Darkness

Although  "The Piano Teacher" is a French film with dialogue in French, it is set in Austria, based on a novel by an Austrian writer (Elfriede Jelinek) and directed by an Austrian-born director, Michael Haneke. The original French title of this film was "La Pianiste" which literally means "The Pianist", as does Jelinek's title "Die Klavierspielerin". This title was not, however, used in English, doubtless to avoid confusion with Roman Polanski's film of that name.

The main character is Erika Kohut, a professional pianist and a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory. Outwardly Erika is a reserved, repressed and puritanical individual. Although she is already in her forties she still lives at home with her elderly, domineering mother; the two even share the same bed. We never see Erika's g father but learn that he is incarcerated in a psychiatric asylum. There is, however, a hidden side to her personality, first revealed when we see her acting as a Peeping Tom, spying on courting couples at a drive-in cinema. More of this hidden side is revealed when Erika begins a sexual relationship with a good-looking young pupil, Walter Klemmer. Although Walter is physically attracted to his teacher, he is repelled by her sadomasochistic tendencies, which leads to a curious love-hate relationship growing up between them.

Erika's speciality as a pianist is Schumann and Schubert; Schubert's music plays a particularly important part in the film. This struck me as very appropriate, as his music has always struck me, like that of Mozart, as being full of emotion but hiding it behind a veil of reserve, in contrast to the much more openly emotional and Romantic music of slightly later composers such as Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. I felt, however, that the film rather pandered to the Hollywood myth of Schubert as a shy, ugly little man who poured into his music all the emotions he could not express in life; in reality he seems to have been a successful womaniser, even though he was far from handsome.

Isabelle Huppert is often compelling, and Annie Girardot is also good as Erika's witch-like mother, but this is not a film I cared for. In what is supposedly a character study far too much is left unexplained, such as the incident in which Erika deliberately injures one of her female students by putting broken glass in her coat pocket. In the violent sexual encounters between Erika and Walter it is never made clear whether he is abusing her or merely pandering to her masochistic tendencies. Haneke (who acted as scriptwriter as well as director) might think that this distinction does not matter, but I felt that it was very relevant to an understanding of Erika's character.

"The Piano Teacher" seems to have been intended as a dark, disturbing psychological study, but I found that it did not do much to explain Erika's behaviour except in terms of that old get-out "sexual repression"; there are doubtless many people who are sexually repressed, but most of them do not behave in the same way as Erika, who appears to be verging on the criminally insane. "The Piano Teacher" may be dark and disturbing, but it disturbs us to no good purpose and hides little of substance beneath its darkness. Having been greatly impressed by Haneke's more recent "The White Ribbon", I was very disappointed by this film. 4/10

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8 /10

A disturbing, dark character study with powerful performances

=G= 6 November 2002

"The Piano Teacher" is all about Huppert's character; a middle-aged classical piano instructor with a stoic facade behind which lurks a powerfully compelling aberrant personality. Unsatisfying as a story but intriguing as a character study, the film follows the Huppert character through the term of her anguished relationship with a pupil delivering superb performances in the process. Not for everyone, "The Piano Teacher" will play best with those into foreign films and character-driven dramas dealing with dark issues. (A-)

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Brutal, provocative, and brave!

The Piano Teacher is the next film in line for the 24-hour watch of Von Trier and Haneke films.. and what we have here is rather unsettling in the surface.

The character of Erika started off as just a dedicated Piano teacher, nothing really wrong with her, besides her 'seemingly' annoyance with the crush of a younger man. However, as the film progresses the audience is let in to the true manifestation of this character... and it isn't easy to accept. Isabelle Huppert is fantastic here, and we see just how contrasting her appearance to the outside world is compared to her hidden pleasures. Dialogue doesn't have to be said for us to truly grasp what kind of person this is, and instead Haneke masterfully uses un- edited scenes to show it. The 2nd half of the film is where it turns perverse. Although the film's turns even more intriguing than before, it's not that easy to watch and asks for full attention.

The Piano Teacher is exactly the type of film that I would have expected from Haneke, since I have already seen The White Ribbon and also the 'cruel' Funny Games US Version. The truth is that like Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark (also Von Trier provocative films that I saw yesterday) The Piano Teacher will surely not be forgotten by me and possibly anyone who watches it.

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7 /10

Schubert, indeed--the mind and libido over 88 keys

The Piano Teacher (2001)

This is a difficult movie. It's difficult to watch at times, if you take it seriously. But I think it was difficult to film, to write, to act.

The premise is subtle even if it sounds sensational--show the inner mind and inner life of a brilliant woman who is mentally ill. She has compulsive issues, I think, and sexual repression that has led her to masochistic and finally sadistic extremes. She is admirable in some external way for her self-control which reads, to an outsider, as cold precision, the kind needed to be an extraordinary classical pianist.

But the movie takes us inside her life, first to the unhealthy relationship with her mother, then the oddly stern and indifferent role she takes with her advanced students. Finally there is a young man who sees only her ability, and her external beauty. (This woman, Erika, is played by the incomparable Isabelle Huppert.) He is a pianist of unusual talent, but he wants not to concertize, but to live life. He plays hockey. He has friends. He smiles warmly. He is, in short, a healthy normal and rather handsome young man.

And he falls for Erika. This is where the movie gets weirder and weirder, but also more challenging. They play an intense game of sexual chicken, at first, and lots of head games. He knows she's superior to him in some way--older, more severe---but he has no idea about her slanted view of life and of sex. He wants her. He becomes a pupil of hers just for that reason. She pretends not to care, or to rebuff him (in part this isn't pretense because she's afraid). Finally a couple of serious and demented confrontations occur.

And things unravel in a very interesting way. Some people will find it simply sick and unwatchable. It also happens very slowly--if the film has an obvious flaw, it's the pace. It's in love with itself far too much. But if you get into that flow, and can take the pain that will rise up, then you will at least be greatly affected. That's more than most movies can say.

It's all quite in ernest. I don't think it's a bit campy or playing games with the viewer. It's really trying to get at this woman's psyche--and the young man's, since he gets in deeper than he intended. It's filmed with terrific planning and visual panache. And it makes some kind of deranged sense, too. In fact, there are probably more people in these kinds of situations than I'll even know, and to them I say give this a careful look.

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1 /10

What a waste of time watching this for 2 hours!

Warning: Spoilers

I only watched this movie thinking it would be good, but instead, it was just awful. I was hoping that the characters Erika and Walter were going to live happily ever after but instead, it was like a battlefield. To be honest with you, the films poster tells you that they are in love with each other and not beating each other to bits! I really thought they should've developed Erika's character even more because, she acted like such a dope in saying no to love. You could see it in his eyes that Walter cared about her but yet, she keeps refusing and whines that she deserves pain. Such a crybaby. I even hated near the end when Walter beat her up but like, why the hell did she have to get involved with a young man? What made the pair of them so attracted to each other?

Yknow if I compared Fifty Shades of Grey to this movie, I would say that both are equally as bad as each other!

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7 /10

Love...

"The Piano Teacher" is a Drama movie in which we watch a young man falling in love with his masochistic piano teacher. Their relationship has its ups and downs and the fact that she lives with her mother who is very strict creates more problems.

I did not know what to expect from this movie but I was surprised by the interpretation of Isabelle Huppert who played as Erika Kohut the piano teacher. She was simply outstanding and I believe that her interpretation made the difference. The plot was simple but interesting with no much of suspense but full of mystery and plot twists that I could not expect or predict. Regarding the direction which was made by Michael Haneke, it was good and he created a mysterious atmosphere, something that made his movie even more interesting. Finally, I have to say that "The Piano Teacher" is a nice movie but I can understand those who did not like it because it is not meant to be for everyone.

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Powerful Cannes triple winner

Warning: Spoilers

This triple winner (actress, actor, grand prix) at Cannes 2001 has been the subject of many controversial debates. One clear consensus is that the film is on characters rather than stories, with a simple plot of an "encounter" sort, between stern piano teacher Erika (in late thirties according to the material in the official Cannes web site) and student and admirer, infatuated Walter, two roles winning respective awards for Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Maginel.

The early part of the film would capture the attention of music lovers, with numerous scenes of Erika's lesson, as well as performances by both Erika and Walter. As one scene after another peel off layers of the music perfectionist and reveals the desperately sexually repressed woman, the severity of audience's reaction vary, in a wide spectrum demonstrated in the IMDb comments. Personally, it's not so much the ritualized sadomasochism that could potentially be between consenting adults, but the absolutely icy violent bent of Erika that is disturbing. Witness the almost nonchalant manner with which she "arranges" the injury inflicted on her piano student. Can't help shuddering.

In addition to the overwhelmingly powerful portray of the main character, there is also a clear sub-text, about dominating mothers, stated unambiguously in not one, but two characters: Erika's mother and her timid student's mother.

Huppert is superb. From the slightly down turned corner of the her mouth signifying absolute dominance, to the almost non-perceptible softening at Walter's piano performances, to the still inscrutable but vaguely discernible changes of moods in the various encounters with Walter, she has mastered every fiber of this very dark character that takes a tremendous amount of courage to portray. Maginel's task is not as formidable but in so many scenes, the success of Huppert's performance hinges of his rising to the same level to meet her head on, so to speak.

Finally, an entirely inconsequential note on Benoit Maginel. While I observed that he has a bit of an Oskar Werner look, particularly when playing the piano, the good wife added that in hockey gears, he bears some resemblance to Wayne Gretzky, Brantford, Ontario born hockey player whom many consider to be the greatest ever in the game.

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3 /10

Huppert Wonderful; Movie a Bomb

Isabelle Huppert is a wonderful actor. The director of "La Pianiste" understands this, providing the viewer with long takes of Huppert's face, and these are a pleasure to see. Huppert is not an animated actor--she registers emotion with the smallest lift of an eyebrow or flicker of a smile.

Other than the enjoyment of watching an experienced actor excel in her profession, there is nothing in this movie that makes me want to recommend it. (Well, if you enjoy self-mutilation, sado-masochism, and bizarre behavior, "La Pianiste" might work for you. Other than these attributes, I could not find any redeeming value in it.)

Buried in all this strange material there is a kernel of truth. People who compete at the very highest level--musically, athletically, whatever--begin as strange people, and are shaped into stranger people by the competitive environment.

Not worth a trip to a movie theater to relearn this life lesson.

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I'm Bored With Piano Teaching How Do I Get My Mojo Back

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254686/reviews

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