The Piano Teacher

Original title: La pianiste

2001
R
2h 11m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

75K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,650

Isabelle Huppert and Benoît Magimel in The Piano Teacher (2001)

Play trailer1:37

2 Videos

83 Photos

Psychological Drama Drama Music

A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.

Director
- Michael Haneke
Writers
- Michael Haneke
- Elfriede Jelinek
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

75K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,650

Director
- Michael Haneke
Writers
- Michael Haneke
- Elfriede Jelinek
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 18 wins & 23 nominations total

Videos2

Trailer 1:37

Bande-annonce [VO]

Clip 1:36

The Piano Teacher: I Can't Even Look At You (English Subtitled)

Clip 1:36

The Piano Teacher: I Can't Even Look At You (English Subtitled)

More like this

7.3

7.9

7.8

7.5

7.1

6.4

7.1

8.3

Have You Been Paying Attention?

6.3

Baggage

5.1

Person, Place or Thing

7.6

The Seventh Continent

6.5

The Chase

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Isabelle Huppert really played the piano in the film. She had studied piano for 12 years. As preparation for her role as a piano teacher, she resumed practicing a year before the film was started.

Goofs
When Walter starts his piano audition; in the background, there are various teachers sitting in certain chairs. However in the following shot which is a medium-long shot of Kohut while Walter is performing; one of the female teachers is sitting in a different chair and a male teacher that was closest to Kohut is no longer sitting there but his belongings are on the chair. Then in the following shot after that, after Walter finishes his audition; the missing male teacher is back in his seat.

Quotes
Erika Kohut: After all, love is built on banal things.

Alternate versions
The R-rated edition from Kino makes a number of changes and omissions, removing the shots of the hardcore peep booth footage viewed by Huppert's character in the mall, as well as optically pixellating pornographic images on magazine covers in the sex shop. In addition, this version completely removes the following two sequences: -Huppert's cutting sequence in the bathtub -Magimel taking Huppert to the ground and humping her at the hockey rink. In the latter case, the film awkwardly fades out and in again in quick succession, to elide the missing footage.

Connections
Featured in The 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2003)

Soundtracks
Piano Sonata in A Major, D.959
Franz Schubert

Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) has a volatile home life with her combative mother leading to violence at times. Erika has disturbing sexual tendencies such as porn shop visits, self-mutilations, and voyeurism. She's a piano professor at a conservatory. She's hard on her students especially the fragile Anna Schober. Walter Klemmer is a new student at the conservatory despite her objection. He's taken with her and she eventually lets him into her sexually disturbed world.

Isabelle Huppert has such great screen presence. She's great at playing damaged, vulnerable, and cold. It's not the most fun watch. There are a couple of really weird scenes. Her relationship with her mother is outrageous. This is an interesting character study of a troubled woman.