The Piano Teacher
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The Piano Teacher (French: La Pianiste) is a 2001 film directed by Michael Haneke, starring Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Maginel. It is based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin by Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel Prize for Literature winner in 2004.
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Plot
Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory. Although she is in her forties, she still lives in an apartment with her domineering mother (Annie Girardot); her father is a long-standing resident in a lunatic asylum. Erika is only able to "feel" by exacting cruel punishment on her students, whom she secretly detests.
Upon meeting Walter (Benoît Magimel), a charming 17-year-old engineering student, she becomes obsessed with him, though among colleagues she doubts his chances for a professional career; he is starting at too late a stage she feels. He is also a capable performer and shares in her appreciation for Schumann and Schubert.
She destroys the musical prospects of an insecure but talented girl Anna Schober, when driven by her jealousy of the girl's contact with Walter, by hiding shards of glass inside one of her coat pockets, but is wholly sympathetic when the girl's mother (Susanne Lothar) asks for advice on her daughter's recuperation. (The sub-plot of the pupil and her mother, mirroring the main relationship in the film, is absent in Jelinek's novel.)
Behind her icy façade, Erika is a sexually-repressed woman with a long list of sadomasochistic fetishes. Walter is very insistent in starting a relationship with her. However, when she finally acquiesces, Walter is unwilling to indulge her violent fantasies, which enrage him. The film ends with Walter attacking her in disgust in her home as per her request, the reality does not match her internalised fantasies; her father has also just died. The devastation of this reality drives Erika to stab herself.
Cast and crew
- Isabelle Huppert .... Erika Kohut
- Annie Girardot .... The Mother
- Benoît Magimel .... Walter Klemmer
- Susanne Lothar .... Mrs. Schober
- Udo Samel .... Dr. Blonskij
- Anna Sigalevitch .... Anna Schober
- Cornelia Köndgen .... Mme Blonskij
- Thomas Weinhappel .... Baritone
- Georg Friedrich .... Man in drive-in
- Philipp Heiss .... Naprawnik
- William Mang .... Teacher
- Rudolf Melichar .... Director
- Michael Schottenberg .... Teacher
- Gabriele Schuchter .... Margot
- Dieter Berner .... Singing teacher
- Volker Waldegg .... Teacher
- Martina Resetarits .... Teacher
- Annemarie Schleinzer .... Teacher
- Karoline Zeisler .... Teacher
- Liliane Neiska .... Secretary
- Luz Leskowitz .... Violinist
- Viktor Teuflmayr .... Pianist
- Viviane Bartsch .... Woman in drive-in (as Vivian Bartsch)
- Florian Koban .... Pupil
- Thomas Auner .... Haydn pianist
- Noam Morgensztern .... The first pupil (voice)
Awards
Won
- Grand Prix
- Best Actor - Benoît Magimel
- Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Supporting Actress - Annie Girardot
2002 German Film Awards
- Best Foreign Film
- Best European Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Supporting Actress - Annie Girardot
2002 L.A. Film Critics Association
- Best Actress (Runner-up) - Isabelle Huppert
2002 National Society of Film Critics
- Best Actress (Runner-up) - Isabelle Huppert
2001 Russian Guild of Film Critics
- Best Foreign Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Foreign Film
2002 San Francisco Film Critics Circle
- SFFCC Award - Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
2002 Seattle International Film Festival
- Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
Nominated
2002 Bafta Awards
- Best Film not in the English Language
2003 Bodil Awards
- Best Non-American Film
- Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Foreign Language Film - Michael Haneke
- Best Foreign Language Film - Veit Heiduschka
- Best European Film
- Best European Screenplay - Michael Haneke
- Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Foreign Film
See also
