Product Details

• Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel
• Directors: Michael Haneke
• Format: NTSC, Import
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000W64Q1G
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,698 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

LA HISTORIA CUENTA LA VIDA DE ERIKA KOHUT, CATEDRATICA DE PIANO EN EL CONSERVATORIO DE VIENA, QUE A SUS CUARENTA ANOS HA FRACASADO COMO MUJER Y EN SU CARRERA COMO PIANISTA, UNA CARRERA VIGILADA SIGILOSAMENTE POR SU MADRE. CONVENCIDA DE LA INFERIORIDAD DE LAS MUJERES EN CUANTO A LA LUCHA POR LA IGUALDAD, NIEGA SU PROPIA SEXUALIDAD Y ES INCAPAZ DE FORMARSE UNA IDENTIDAD SEXUAL. VIVE CON SU MADRE TIRANICA EN UN VIEJO DEPARTAMENTO UN POCO ABANDONADO, PARECIDO A UNA FORTALEZA A LA CUAL NADIE PUEDE ENTRAR. DESDE SU INFANCIA ES LLEVADA A LUCHAR SOLO POR EL EXITO, EDUCADA PARA SER UNICA, PRECIOSA Y VIRTUOSA, SE ENCUENTRA SOLA SEPARADA DE LA VIDA DE LOS DEMAS. SU PADRE YA NO VIVE CON ELLAS, SOLO REPRESENTABA ABURRIMIENTO PARA AMBAS. DIA Y NOCHE LA MADRE ESTA ALLI, ESPERANDO QUE SU HIJA REGRESE DE SUS CLASES DE PIANO. SUS PENAS, AMORES, Y DEPENDENCIA MUTUA ESTAN LIGADAS UNA A LA OTRA, UNA RELACION IMPENETRABLE PARA UN HOMBRE . . . DIRECTOR: Michael Haneke ACTORS: Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel, Annie Girardot

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Struggle Between Love and Seduction, July 27, 2011

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Pianista (La Pianiste) (The Piano Teacher) [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America] ISABELLE HUPPERT (Spanish subtitles) (DVD)

THE PIANO TEACHER goes places most film makers dare not tread - the dark aspects of frustrated sexuality where desire and affection cannot meet. In brief, this is the story of the inner world of an exceptional pianist and piano teacher who lives with her mother in a 'marriage arrangement' that appears to satisfy both with its accompanying fights, jealousies, cheatings, and clingings. This cold pianist (incomparably portrayed by the fine Isabelle Huppert) is absorbed by Schubert and Schumann and shares many of those composers' tendencies towards madness and melancholy. Her private acting out of her sexual life includes forays into pornography video booths, drive-in movies for voyeurism, and other sadomasochistic practices that leave her frustrated in her drive to be humiliated and beaten. Into this sad woman's life enters a sensuously handsome student (again, played with complete credibility and finesse by Benoit Magimel) and much of the film is a hard driving match between lust/desire and need/repulsion, the true approach/avoidance conflict. The pace of the film is so correct for a story about the extended periods of ennui between moments of exhilharation that mirror the life inside a music academy. We are treated to some wonderful Schubert, Schumann, Schonberg, and Bach that serves as the 'dialogue' during extended scenes where the piano teacher listens with her eyes and ears and dsitorted mind, reacting to the music in equal parts with the performing students. Yes, this is a distrubing film, but it is not a grotesque film. Director Michael Haneke manages to place this surreal sexual tragedy for us to understand just how wide the bell curve of human sexuality stretches. An astonishingly fine film - if you are open to explore the dark interstices of the human mind without prejudice. An added feature of an interview on the DVD with Isabelle Huppert about the character she portrays is exceptionally apropos and well filmed.