The Piano Teacher
2001
Directed by Michael Haneke
I read the book The Piano Teacher a couple of years ago. I plucked it off the shelf at a library because I thought it was going to be the novel version of The Piano. Oops.
Erika Kohut is a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory. She lives with her domineering elderly mother, and is about as repressed as the day is long. She meets Walter Klemmer, a new student of the conservatory who is clearly attracted to her. However, her terms for having a sexual relationship with him are a little...unconventional.
The book was even stranger, but the director does a good job of capturing Erika's repression. This is not an easy novel to adapt to a movie, and Haneke, psycho that he is, does a good job of it. Of course, the characters are hardly what you would call relatable, so I have a little trouble connecting with the thing. Still, it never gets boring.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Isabelle Huppert played all her piano scenes herself.
Isabelle Huppert played all her piano scenes herself.
Huppert's last scene required 52 takes.
