#894: HANEKE, Michael: The Piano Teacher (2001)

HANEKE, Michael (France)
The Piano Teacher [2001]
Spine #894
Blu-ray

In this riveting study of the dynamics of control, Academy Award-winning director Michael Haneke takes on Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's controversial 1983 novel about perverse female sexuality and the world of classical music. Haneke finds his match in Isabelle Huppert, who delivers an icy but quietly seething performance as Erika, a 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 Magmel), a 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.

130 minutes

Color
5.1 Surround
in French
1:85:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2017

Director/Writers

Adapted from the novel by Elfriede Jelinek.
Michael Haneke was 59 when he wrote and directed The Piano Teacher.

Other Haneke films in the Collection:

#1163a: The Seventh Continent (1989)
#1163b: Benny's Video (1992)
#1163c: 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)
#975: Funny Games (1997)
#780: Code Unknown (2000)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by scholar Moira Weigel.

Commentary

Selected-scene from 2001 featuring Huppert.

Interview 1

With Haneke.

Interview 2

With actor Huppert.

Behind-the-scenes

Footage featuring Haneke and Huppert.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

By Director
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