The Piano Teacher (2001)

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Director: Michael Haneke

Writers: Michael Haneke, from the novel by Elfriede Jelinek

Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoit Magimel, Susanne Lothar, Udo Samel, Anna Sigalevitch, Cornelia Kondgen,  Thomas Weinhappel


A repressed, tightly controlled professor at a music conservatory (Isabelle Huppert) meets a self-confident young man (Benoit Magimel) who thinks that he is just the one to unlock the passion buried within her. 



Unknown to him, the passions that stir within her are far more destructive and disturbing than he could have suspected. 



I realize that my synopsis makes this excellent film sound like a thriller a la “Fatal Attraction.” 



Rather, it is an absorbing, hypnotic character study that generates more suspense than most conventional thrillers as we ponder the mysterious inner scars that motivate this damaged woman. 



Huppert is by turns incredibly sympathetic and genuinely repulsive in one of the most powerful performances I have seen in recent years.








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