The Piano Teacher

Name: The Piano Teacher
Genre: Drama, Music
Released: March 29, 2002
Duration: 131 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Annie Girardot, Isabelle Huppert

2002

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 80 Ratings

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8.4

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8.4	User Score Universal acclaim based on 80 Ratings

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The Piano Teacher

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino International | Release Date: March 29, 2002 | Unrated

Starring: Annie Girardot, Isabelle Huppert

Summary: Erika is a piano teacher at a prestigious music school in Vienna. In her early forties and single, she lives with her overprotective and controlling mother. Lonely and alienated, Erika finds solace by visiting sex shops and experimenting with masochism. [Kino International]

Director: Michael Haneke

Genre(s): Drama, Music

Rating: Unrated

Runtime: 131 min

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Awards & Rankings

36	#36 Best Movie of 2002
80	#80 Most Discussed Movie of 2002
44	#44 Most Shared Movie of 2002

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Kim Morgan

Daring work of genius. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

At once an emotional thriller and a domestic horror movie -- a woman's picture with a vengeance, in which the bloodletting is kept to a minimum, and ends up all the more powerful and profound for it.

Kevin Thomas

The Piano Teacher will surely be too strong for some audiences and is best left to those who like films that take big risks and get away with them. Read full review

Peter Travers

Watching Haneke's film is, aptly enough, a challenge and a punishment. But watching Huppert, a great actress tearing into a landmark role, is riveting. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Haneke is an exploitation filmmaker of the highest gifts. His movies are not to be entered into lightly. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

The audience for this grimly disquieting film is, or ought to be, self-selecting. Read full review

Maitland McDonagh

This is a psychological study that rejects psychology, an erotic drama of surpassing coldness, and a story of amour fou in which the madness is calculated and the love frozen. Read full review

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User Reviews

JordanLayton

Apr 30, 2020

This was a difficult watch but definitely worth it. Haneke expresses the dangers of both repression and complete devotion to craft through these characters whose actors give such incredible performances. I'm going to need more than a hot take to fully absorb what Haneke is trying to say withThis was a difficult watch but definitely worth it. Haneke expresses the dangers of both repression and complete devotion to craft through these characters whose actors give such incredible performances. I'm going to need more than a hot take to fully absorb what Haneke is trying to say with this film, but on the surface level alone there are some beautifully shot and performed piano sequences as well as oppositely horrifying scenes performed so genuinely. The range of abilities on display by these two actors (Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel) is shocking in the best way. I will definitely be seeking out more of Haneke's films, Huppert's performances, and Magimel's performances in the future.… Expand

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jameslucasutley

Sep 26, 2015

Ambiguity and subtlety (though not the same thing) is apparently a struggle for some people to deal with. I'm talking of course about some people giving this film negative reviews on here. The Piano Teacher doesn't give us easy answers, which should be expected from Michael Haneke. What itAmbiguity and subtlety (though not the same thing) is apparently a struggle for some people to deal with. I'm talking of course about some people giving this film negative reviews on here. The Piano Teacher doesn't give us easy answers, which should be expected from Michael Haneke. What it does give us though, is perfect.… Expand

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MarilynM.

Mar 5, 2006

Haunting! Perfect!

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pdw123

Sep 19, 2016

Well, I had seen "Cache" from this director which held my attention all the way through, and which I loved. This is one of his earlier films which proved to be even more challenging for me, and which some prudish Americans will detest because it is a film that is obviously in the moreWell, I had seen "Cache" from this director which held my attention all the way through, and which I loved. This is one of his earlier films which proved to be even more challenging for me, and which some prudish Americans will detest because it is a film that is obviously in the more liberal European (character driven vs. plot driven) tradition. However, let me just say that the acting from Huppert is superb. I watched the interview with her after the film, and the transformation she underwent for this looks similar to Charlize in "Monster", truly amazing. The story is one which is very unique and held my attention for the entire 125 minutes, which is definitely a rarity for late night film watching, especially these days. The character Huppert plays is sick obviously, but it is the process of her performance in which her character unfolds like an onion that makes for a wonderful story here, and makes the ending obvious.… Expand

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ViniciusBrito

Dec 11, 2018

La Pianiste
A piano teacher that works in a conservatory, still lives with her mother even with her advanced age and is heavily repressed by the mom, she tries to escape of that repression in different ways, and when one of her students start to fall in love for her, she sees one possibilityLa Pianiste
A piano teacher that works in a conservatory, still lives with her mother even with her advanced age and is heavily repressed by the mom, she tries to escape of that repression in different ways, and when one of her students start to fall in love for her, she sees one possibility to change things, wich is full of surprises. Directed and written by Michael Haneke.
This movie is really heavy and disturbing in many ways, ant it doesn't try to hide it in any way, it doesn't try to camouflage it and calmly deliver the story in the way that it is supposed to be, like other movies do, in La Paniste, since the very beginning from the movie we can already have a nice image of how things gonna go, and it is troublesome in a familiar way and in a psychologically that automatically ends up affecting physically as well, this is definely not for everybody, it is a rough journey. The narrative is, yes, calmly giving away the level of the disturbing, so you know since the beginning that it isn't a convetional movie, but it easily give to us how much of it is in here, and a little by a little we got surprises by how much affected the mind of the character really is and how she deal with it, inch by inch things got a little darker, as soon as you start to see how does the character of Erika deal with some situations, where does she go, and what she do, things can get even creepy, she went to sex shops and porn cinemas, or wathever that was, doing things that is sad, simply sad and strane at least. While things get on and you see what kind of relationship she wants, you kind of get as surprise as the character, and his reaction is disappointment, and how he deal with this is just horrible, and things, that already was been very graphics, got even more, and maybe, just maybe, a bit to much. They were pretty good in showing how desperate she was, the development of her character is great, you see the sadomasochism in action with her, and also the necessity and ampare, where she would do anything for someone that says that love her, because she needs to escape.
I think that this movie is important for us to notice how inconceivable mind situations can be and reach, i think that it got pretty obvious in the movie that the way that her mother controls her in everything, a thing that probably happens since forever, is what have caused the disturbances in Erika mind, someone that get controlled and disrespected during her whole life by some terrible ways will surely get situations in the brain where it will hurt and suffer a lot, the mother controlling what she dresses, what time she goes to where, screaming and attacking, Erika surely feels tied in by that house and that woman, her mind is painful and very noisy, wich is why i believe that she have chosen the career of a musician, because when you are hearing loud things, the voices that comes and goes in the mind got a bit muffled, so it is easier to relax and in concentrate in something else. This together with the pain in the body, a lot of people cut themselves, so as the character of Erika that sometimes during the course of the movie hurt herself physically, this happens clearly for the same reason, for the pain in the skin and in the flesh be so big for then, somehow, hide the pain in the mind, because she is already tired of it and can't stand living with it the whole time. All of this happens without people in her day to day life notice anything, there are just emotion situation that you can get from her, wich would be, angry and perhaps a bit of antipathy, together with all of it was already said, all caused by the situation in her home.
Isabelle Huppert is amazing, she can express so much with so little, she in a lot of moments don't really need to speak to say something, i think she was able to pass that idea of traumatized with her eyes, and small expressions, like a pokerface with a background full of sad things, in other moments that she actually talk, she can be emotional less with other people, not giving empathy to others, or really bossy, saying things that you actually believe, or in other moments a regret that you can say that it is a bit exaggerated, but it is intentional, because in her mind that was all of what could "free" her, she was fantastic and scary. Benoît Magimel at first is just a boy who likes and play well paino, yet he starts to be very charming with Erika, very dominated by her, and then he became something completely out of mind, he is scary and nasty in a not predictable way, he was also very good. Annie Girardot can be also very scary and mean, so as at the same time, kind of caring, it is complex.
The music and the mise-en-scène in this movie is just fabulous, things are so well putted to give an alive and complete aspect to each place.
A movie that surely runs out from the standard movies that we have seen.… Expand

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Nesbitt10

Feb 2, 2013

In Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher," which won three awards at Cannes 2001 (best actress, actor and film), Isabelle Huppert plays the role of a bold, conflicted woman named Erika Kohut. Erika is approaching middle age-she is a highly respected and equally demanding instructor at theIn Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher," which won three awards at Cannes 2001 (best actress, actor and film), Isabelle Huppert plays the role of a bold, conflicted woman named Erika Kohut. Erika is approaching middle age-she is a highly respected and equally demanding instructor at the conservatory of music in Vienna. Erika is stone cold--distant, unsmiling, she leads a secret life of self-mutilation. In the classroom she sits without emotion, but listens attentively to her students. She doesn't want to help her students however--she wants to destroy them.
Erika lives with her domineering mother, who is immediately subjected to her mother's demanding questions the minute she walks through the door. We quickly realize Erika is completely manipulated and owned by her mother's invasive possessiveness. Instantly Erika resorts to behaving like a child, or a rebellious teenager at best. They both sleep in the bed together. Her mother (a chillingly unsympathetic Annie Girardot), complains and is bitter about money Erika is squandering. Pleading, shouting, and violence is followed by brief tearful apologies--and it is obvious that this is a well-worn habitual pattern. She intrusively rings Erika when she is rehearsing, and apparently has no life of her own. Enter Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel), who is a handsome, self-assured student who auditions for her class and is forthright in his attraction to her. She responds coldly then demands he let her lead. Then she changes the role with a detailed letter, inviting him into her dark, twisted fantasies. The sex scenes within the movie, while not graphic, are long, uncomfortable--and psychologically brutal. The movie goes to a place of mad masochism. At a certain point we begin to feel that the director, the characters, and the actors will take this anywhere--there are no boundaries. Erika is not simply an adventuress, or a sexual experimenter--Erika is a psychological train wreck. Walter's dreams and thoughts about an experienced older woman have turned into nightmares about interactions and scenarios he doesn't even want to know about.
Erika is a highly respected professor at the prestigious Vienna conservatory, who just happens to spend her free time visiting pornography dens and mutilating her genitals. The women is a ticking time bomb that's on the verge of exploding at any given point. Some audience members will dislike the ending, but with a film like this any conventional ending would be a cop-out. Ultimately, "The Piano Teacher" is a disturbing portrait of a woman in power coming undone before our very eyes.… Expand

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LeeT.

Nov 6, 2007

Things about this movie that don't make sense: People in Vienna don't speak French. They speak German. Vienna is in Austria. Get it? What professor has sex in the bathroom of her school with the door open? Is that realistic? Maybe on Jupiter, where professors don't care if Things about this movie that don't make sense: People in Vienna don't speak French. They speak German. Vienna is in Austria. Get it? What professor has sex in the bathroom of her school with the door open? Is that realistic? Maybe on Jupiter, where professors don't care if they get ridiculed and then fired. In Vienna, they care, even when they go around speaking French. Why, when Erika finally gets what she's been asking for during the whole movie, does she suddenly become frigid? Why does she ask her boyfriend to hit her in the face, and when he does, the first thing she says is, Not my face? I've got to give the director this much - if you've gotten the viewer to sit through a movie for over two hours and your protagonist finally gets what she's been asking for and then doesn't like it, what could possibly be a more dramatic and illogical climax than to have her then kill herself? Or maybe she kills herself because she finally realizes what a dreadful script she accepted. Now that would make sense.… Expand

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