The Piano Teacher

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BBFC RatingThe Piano Teacher

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Certificate18
Year2001
GenreDrama
Director(s)Michael Haneke
Writer(s)Michael Haneke
LanguageFrench, German
CountryFrance, Austria, Germany
Running Time2HR 10MINS
Extra InfoEnglish subtitles
Season Main Programme

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.

Isabelle Huppert delivers a 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.


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