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Though it makes for rather unpleasant viewing, The Piano Teacher is a riveting and powerful psychosexual drama. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
Erika Kohut teaches piano at the Conservatory in Vienna. In her early forties, she lives at home, cooped up with her mother, whose influence Erika escapes only on her regular visits to porn cinemas and peepshows. Her sexuality is an affair of morbid voyeurism and masochistic self-mutilation. Erika and life travel separate paths. Until one day, one of her students gets it into his head to seduce her...
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Rating: R (Language|Aberrant Sexuality|Violence)
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: French (Canada)
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Director: Michael Haneke
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Writer: Michael Haneke, Elfriede Jelinek
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $1.0M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Kino Pictures, Artificial Eye, Alta Classics S.L. Unipersonal, MK2 Diffusion
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Production Co: MK2 Productions, Centre National de la Cinematographie, Le Studio Canal +, Arte, Eurimages, Les Films Alain Sarde, Arte France Cinema
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Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
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Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for The Piano Teacher
Critic Reviews for The Piano Teacher
Audience Reviews for The Piano Teacher
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An amazing performance from Isabelle Huppert expressing strange sexual desires after a life of loneliness and a strange upbringing. She brings her all to the role.
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Michael Haneke has never been a subtle filmmaker; all of his movies are, to varying degrees, difficult to watch. The Piano Teacher is one of his most provocative and disturbing works yet, and like many of his other movies it is not light-watching. Don't be misled by the R-rating it's been branded with, as it's far more severe than a typical R-rated drama. That said, Michael Haneke makes challenging movies, but they are never shallow or trashy, and that goes for The Piano Teacher as well. Despite the graphic nature of the movie, there is actually a compelling story to back it up and an astounding performance from frequent Haneke collaborator Isabelle Huppert in the starring role. Had someone less experienced been playing her role, the movie might have easily come off as laughable at best. She delivers bizarrely perverse dialogue at times, but she is so convincing that the movie still maintains a deadly serious tone. It's not easy to watch, and at times it seems excessively disturbing, but The Piano Teacher definitely has an engaging story and impressive performances to make it another successful cinematic exercise from Haneke, albeit one that will without a doubt be too shocking for most people.
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Rating: 2 stars Arthouse Rating: 2.5 stars- The Piano Teacher had one ginormous problem, it was the protagonist Erika Kohut. She's the most irritating character ever put on screen. Egotistic, naive, uptight, selfish, she just had awful qualities. Therefore even the final scene couldn't draw pity out of me. Was Haneke really trying to make the mother seem like the pest? Because if that was the intent he has it reversed. The cinematographer Christian Berger did a phenomenal job, no wonder Haneke had re-casted him for future projects. Also the film editing made this smooth in transition, not a single scene was over bearing for me. Technical wise this film was brilliant, but the characters and story couldn't meet these achievements. Therefore this film fell flat, and truly it wasn't that disturbing.
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Why is it that piano and music related films invite us to explode either our most heartwarming feelings or our bestiality and sexual impulses, therefore forcing us either way to allow the feelings and fantasies to govern the rationale? Jane Campion is an example. The violin would occupy the second place among musical instruments... With "Funny Games" fragments and the same intentions to make violence realistic, tense and emotionally disturbing, La Pianiste is brilliant enough to showcase a demented orgy of neurotic and aberrant behaviors, inviting us to look away but cruelly making it impossible to miss a moment. 92/100
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