Piano Teacher, The (2001, Isabelle Huppert, Benot Magimel)

With the critical and commercial success of Hidden , Michael Haneke’s stock as a filmmaker has never been higher. An opportune moment, therefore, to marvel again at one of the director’s previous triumphs. The Piano Teacher , a triple-award winner at Cannes, sees Isabelle Huppert give what many critics described as the performance of her life as Professor Erika Kohut, a distinguished piano teacher at the Vienna conservatory whose steely demeanour hides a secret, tortured life. She lives at home with her mother (Annie Girardot), who’s a martinet. But Kohut is also a sex addict, fascinated by pornography and self-mutilation of her genitals in her search for pleasure in her emotionless life. Into which comes student Walter Klemmer (Benot Magimel), who becomes infatuated with her. But her promise of intimacy is based on her rules and desires rather than his and the very explicit scenarios she lays down for their contact become, to him, increasingly strange and, as their relationship develops, frighteningly dangerous.

While critics acclaimed her performance, they were divided on the merits of the film. One described it as, ‘Euro art-shock porn’, another as a film that, ‘takes big risks and gets away with them’ but, like his film Funny Games , Haneke has many of the crucial moments between the ‘lovers’ happen slightly off camera, avoiding explicit ‘action’ in favour of letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the gaps and also switches between the beauty of the conservatory and the music and the seediness of the establishments Kohut haunts. The film is never comfortable to watch and the ending is decidedly shocking but it does confirm Haneke as one of Europe’s major talents.

production details
France | 131 minutes | 2001

Director: Michael Haneke
Script: Michael Haneke, Elfriede Jelinek,

cast
Isabelle Huppert as Erika Kohut
Annie Girardot as The Mother
Benoît Magimel as Walter Klemmer
Susanne Lothar as Mrs. Schober
Udo Samel as Dr. George Blonskij
Anna Sigalevitch as Anna Schober
Cornelia Köndgen as Mme Gerda Blonskij
Thomas Weinhappel as Baritone
Philipp Heiss as Naprawnik
Georg Friedrich as Man in drive-in
William Mang as Teacher
Rudolf Melichar as Director
Michael Schottenberg as Teacher
Gabriele Schuchter as Margot
Dieter Berner as Singing teacher
Volker Waldegg as Teacher
Martina Resetarits as Teacher
Annemarie Schleinzer as Teacher
Karoline Zeisler as Teacher
Liliana Nelska as Secretary
Luz Leskowitz as Violinist
Viktor Teuflmayr as Pianist
Vivian Bartsch as Woman in drive-in
Florian Koban as Pupil
Thomas Auner as Haydn pianist
Andreas Donat as Chopin Pianist
Gerti Drassl as
Klaus Händl as
Erika Kollmann-Till as
Nina Kripas as
Esther Pils as
Petra Reichel as
Arbesi Sufi as
Marcus Zeuner as