An erotic drama about a piano teacher and her student: Isabel Huppert stars in a film which received a record three awards at Cannes in 2001.
Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is a professor at the Vienna Conservatory, and applicants queue to try to join her course. Her inner world is, however, at odds with her professional life. Still residing with her domineering mother (Annie Girardot), the 40-year-old teacher keeps a box with whips and belts under her bed and frequents sex shops. At a musical evening, she meets Walter (Benoît Magimel), a talented self-taught musician. Despite the age difference, Walter falls in love with the piano teacher and tries to get close to her.
One of the best-known works by the agent provocateur of Austrian cinema Michael Haneke, this erotic psychological drama was based on the eponymous novel by Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Open to many different psychoanalytical interpretations, the film focuses on the theme of interpretation, be it of creative work or sexual desires.
Haneke’s uncompromising film won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, while both Huppert and Magimel took home best actor’s awards. Many critics still believe Erika to have been the best performance in Huppert’s impressive career.
The film will be screened in French and German with Russian subtitles.
«The Piano Teacher»
Director: Michael Haneke
France, Austria, Germany, 2001. 131 min.
18+