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Sunday, Aug 23
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Format: DVD September 26, 2017
Description
Academy Award winning Austrian director Michael Haneke shifted his focus from the social to the psychological for this riveting study of female sexuality and the dynamics of control, an adaptation of a controversial 1983 novel by Elfriede Jelinek. Haneke finds his match in Isabelle Huppert, who delivers an icy but quietly seething performance as Erika, a middle-aged piano professor at a Viennese conservatory who lives with her mother, in a claustrophobically codependent relationship. Severely repressed, she satisfies her masochistic urges only voyeuristically until she meets Walter (Benoît Magimel), a young student whose desire for Erika leads to a destructive infatuation that upsets the careful equilibrium of her life. A critical breakthrough for Haneke, The Piano Teacher which won the Grand Prix as well as dual acting awards for its stars at Cannes is a formalist masterwork that remains a shocking sensation. DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES - New, restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Michael Haneke - New interview with Haneke - New interview with actor Isabelle Huppert - Selected-scene commentary from 2002 featuring Huppert - Behind-the-scenes footage of a postsync session for the film featuring Haneke and Huppert - Trailer - New English subtitle translation - PLUS: An essay by scholar Moira Weigel
Genre: Drama
Format: NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Contributor: Benoit Magimel, Isabelle Huppert, Michael Haneke
Language: English
Runtime: 2 hours and 10 minutes
MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 1.6 ounces
Item model number : 43190-578586
Director : Michael Haneke
Media Format : NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time : 2 hours and 10 minutes
Release date : September 26, 2017
Actors : Benoit Magimel, Isabelle Huppert
Dubbed: French
Subtitles: English
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Top Amazon Reviews
If it is true that sadomasochism is a two-sided coin which contains the whole in the diverse expression of its opposites, then the cinematic portrait of Erika Kohut has its reality. Professor Kohut treats her piano students with a kind of fascist sadism while longing for the same for herself. Her outward expression projects her desire. That is why she can hurt without guilt or remorse. Along comes talented, charming, handsome young Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel) who is attracted to her because of her passion and her intensity. He wants to become her student so as to be close to her. She rejects him out of hand, but because of his talent the Vienna conservatory votes him in. He falls in love with her. Again she pushes him away, but he will not take no for an answer, and thereby begins his own descent into depravity and loss of self-respect. The question the viewer might ask at this point is, who is in control? The sadist or the masochist? Indeed who is the sadist and who the masochist? It is hard to tell. Is it the person who has just been greatly abused both psychologically and physically, who is actually lying wounded on the floor in grotesque triumphant and fulfillment, or is it the person who is rushing out the door, sated, giving the order that no one is to know what happened. But Erika is not just a sadomasochistic freak. She is a sex extreme freak. She wants to experience the extremes of human sexuality while maintaining the facade of respectability. Actually that isn't even true. She says she doesn't care what others think. She doesn't care if they walk in and find her bleeding on the floor because she is in love. Love, she calls it. For her sex and love are one and the same. At one point Walter tells her that love isn't everything. How ironic such a superfluity is to her. How gratuitous the comment. The movie is beautifully cut and masterfully directed by Michael Haneke who spins the tale with expert camera work and carefully constructed sets in which the essence of the action is not just clear but exemplified (as in the bathroom when Walter propels himself high above the top of the stall to find Erika within). He also employs a fine positioning of the players so that they are always where they should be with well timed cuts from one angle to another. This is particularly important in the scene in which Erika, like a blood-drained corpse caught in stark white and black light, lies under her lover, rigid as stone. Here for the most part we only see her face and the stark outline of her neck with its pulsating artery. We don't need to see any more. The part of Erika Kohut is perfect for Isabelle Huppert who is not afraid of extremes; indeed she excels in them. I have seen her in a number of movies and what she does better than almost anyone is become the character body and soul. Like the woman she plays in this movie she is unafraid of what others may think and cares little about her appearance in a decorative sense. What matters to her is the performance and the challenge. No part is too demanding. No character too depraved. It's as if Huppert wants to experience all of humanity, and wants us to watch her as she does. She is always fascinating and nearly flawless. She is not merely a leading light of the French cinema; she is one of the great actresses of our time who has put together an amazingly diverse body of work. I think it is highly instructive and affords us a wonderful and striking contrast to compare her performance here with her performance in The Lacemaker (La Dentellière) from 1977 when she was 22 years old. There she was apple sweet in her red hair and freckles and her pretty face and her cute little figure playing Pomme, a Parisian apprentice hairdresser. Her character was shy about sex and modest--just an ordinary French girl who hoped one day to be a beautician. Here she is a self-destructive witch, bitter with hateful knowledge of herself, shameless and entirely depraved. Huppert is fortunate in being an actress in France where there are parts like this for women past the age of starlets. (Hollywood could never make a movie like this.) In the American cinema, only a handful of the very best and hardest working actresses can hope to have a career after the age of about thirty. Huppert greatly increases her exposure because of her ability and range, but also because she is willing to play unsympathetic roles, here and also in La Cérémonie (1995) in which she plays a vile, spiteful murderess. Do see this for Isabelle Huppert. You won't forget her or the character she brings to life.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2005 by Dennis Littrell
This movie is a story of hidden desires and the taboo being brought into a secret world through a master pianist, Erika. You see her life as a teacher paint her as a reputable pedagogue, with a deep love for the musical works of Schubert. This mutual interest brings her into an intimate but confused relationship with a young man named Walter. If you enjoy bringing yourself to the edge of despair and darkness to see what lays beyond, I recommend this movie. It’s quite good.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2026 Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2026 by Zach Jones
Dark, disturbing- yet sly, this captivating and fascinating character study ambitiously takes on themes of perfectionism, arrested development, female sexuality, perversion, and the balance between keeping a private life and the need for self expressionism, all with great intelligence and confidence. The cold, repressed and socially awkward piano teacher and her dangerous desire for control, dark fantasies, and demand for her arbitrary perfection from the students and her potential lover is a brilliant metaphor to convey the film's mature themes.The great Isabelle Huppert portrays the title character and is masterful in a role that is challenging for being professionally restrained and emotionally raw. Her performance is unforgettable- completely fearless and absolutely stunning! Though the subject matter is shocking and the content extreme, this is decidedly unromantic and intellectual.The cold Vienna setting, effective use of classical music, and excellent direction and photography give the film an artistic atmosphere and uncompromising edge. I was not a big fan of director Haneke's Funny Games, but I found this film a haunting and provocative surprise. Some films to compare this with: Elle (also with Huppert), the masterpiece Belle de Jour, and especially Last Tango In Paris. This Criterion Blu ray contains commentary on select scenes, and interviews.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2018 by Andy
Sad in a sick twisted way. Most depressing? maybe. The story is about an uptight sexually repressed piano teacher who lives with her old mother. Also the students she teaches. She has a gift for music and comes off as very intelligent yet emotionless. One of her younger students falls in love with her, attempts to seduce her and she keeps trying to control him and use him for her warped version of love. I still cant tell if she really loved him or not. It seems the only time she feels anything is when shes inflicting pain on herself or pain on others, even the student who loves her. She makes him do certain things and will deny his affections. Then when he does what she supposedly wanted him to do which was disturbing in itself, she is still just sitting there with no emotion at all. This woman was definitely mentally ill and i tried to understand her character but there wasnt really enough information. I dont want to give away the ending but the whole movie is a downer. I didnt understand what happened at the end or what became of her but i have to say this, this is probably the saddest portrayal of anyone ive ever seen on film. I still cant tell what exactly made her that way. Is she a sociopath? Was she abused at some point? Its a slow moving film but effective.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2007 by Amy Lynn
Just when I think I've seen everything I can, Haneke surprises me. This is a powerful film to watch. Isabelle Huppert gives perhaps the greatest onscreen performance that I've ever seen; her ability to telegraph her character's mood shift with only minuscule changes in her expression is an unparalleled talent. A story about unconventional love, loneliness, and consent, it ultimately brings forth a complex question of ethics; I could even see the kink community having a difficult time explaining the moral dilemma in this one. Images of this movie lingered long after it ended. Excellent addition to the Criterion library.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2020 by C. S.
What some people might find unusual about the story of The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) is how common it really is. The vast numbers of sexually "complicated" people exist within our society and their individual tales are rarely discussed in popular culture. Michael Haneke steps foward boldly to correct this problem. Isabelle Huppert's Erika is an exceptionally talented artist and her needs are specific and frightening to those who do not understand the context of her nearly 50 years of life. How can anyone understand anyone sexually? It takes years to understand another individual, and the tragedy of The Piano Teacher is that the character Walter gives up on Erika before development can occur. Frightened people do this in the "dating" world everyday. I personally thank Michael Haneke and Elfriede Jelinek for this inspiring story every time I come home from another failed attempt at romance. It keeps me going.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2010 by Michael E. Dixon
Shortly before seeing this film, I watched a DVD of Bertolucci's " The Dreamers", both for the first time. It was informative to compare the two products of film-makers who are regarded as serious practitioners of the Art, and whose work often incorporates explicitly sexual material that risks demeaning their serious intent and exposes them to the charge of gratuitous audience titillation. In the case of Bertolucci's movie, the sex was graphic and not in the best of taste, but one could argue that it had a place in the lives of its young protagonists who were representative of much of their generation: narcissistically focused upon their own self-gratification and freedom of expression at a time when freedom of expression as a whole was under restraint by the State. Not until their indulgence brought their cocooned existence crashing down did they see fit to join those at the barricades fighting for universal freedom. With "The Piano Teacher", it is an altogether different matter. We are exposed to two hours of sordid behaviour, self-destructive as well as destructive of others, by a totally deranged individual (Erika) with no redeeming feature beyond a certain musical talent, and no causal factor other than a domineering mother and a father who is mentioned only briefly, but who apparently went mad and killed himself. Even if we accept these as partially exonerating, it still leaves the whole experience as no more than a case-history of lunacy with no universal relevance and no political, moral, religious, ethical or philosophical purpose. The interview with Isabelle Huppert, who plays Erika, included with this DVD reveals the lack of anything meaningful that all concerned in its production have to communicate to its audience. She describes the objective of the director and the motivation of the central character that she plays as an attempt to explore the search for " true love without the taint of seduction". What garbage! On this premise, genital mutilation, maternal incest, fornication on the floor of a public toilet, and submission to requested flagellation and physical brutality, all become justified as acts of "true love". It is clear that Huppert has no valid idea of why she is doing the awful things she is required by the director to perform; viewed in this light, her much-lauded performance becomes no more than a meaningless charade involving a limited repertoire of scowling gestures and hysterical outbreaks that soon become boring and irritating to watch. It does not help that the other characters are equally unattractive, at least in their behaviour. As the object of Erika's perversions, Benoit Magimel initially presents as a sensitive and charismatic young man, but his descent into frenetic violence instead of simply walking away from an impossibly unsavoury relationship ruptures that bond of empathy with the viewer. The technical skills of Michael Haneke are evident in the composition of many of the frames and sequences that give this film an artistic texture, coupled with the gorgeous music of Schubert, Bach and others that introduce brief interludes of sanitizing poetry. His serious talent, demonstrated in "Cache" and "The White Ribbon" persuaded me to discount the 16 1-star reviewers and heed the recommendations of the 54 who awarded the movie 5 stars, especially as many of the latter came from intelligent and critically eloquent film buffs. I was fully conditioned by his above-mentioned movies to become immersed in the lives of thoroughly unlikeable individuals, since these seem to represent the only segment of humanity in which he is interested. I expected the compensation of a challenging and thought-provoking experience in return. All I got was senseless depravity without meaning or justification.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2011 by David M. Goldberg
Good packaging and case protection of disc. Movie quality is fine. Have viewed it once so far.
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2024 by Steven A. Moon