The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste (2001) or, The Cursed Pervert

9/10/2023

The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste (2001) or, The Cursed Pervert

♥♥♥♥♥

A simple yet striking image of a loving embrace on a public bathroom floor makes up this titillating poster for Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher

A middle-aged Parisian piano teacher gets courted by a juicy younger student of hers, which activates her perversions and her labored psyche.

The Piano Teacher is written and directed by great German-born Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)), adapting Der Klaverspielerin (1983) by Elfriede Jelinek (Die Kinder der Toten (1995)). The original French title translates to 'the pianist'.

It is a tragic character study and a story of a romance that evades fulfillment. Haneke elevates a serious drama with powerful photography (by Christian Berger (Ludwig II (2012))) and contrasting, at times underpinning and at times beautiful music (piano sonatas by Franz Schubert) and astoundingly uninhibited, flawless acting by Isabelle Huppert (Mama Weed/La Daronne (2020)) as well as Benoît Magimel (Lola (2019)) and Annie Girardot (Ursule et Gelu (1974)) as the student and the teacher's mother, respectively.

The film is strong and typical for Haneke in its conclusion. The Piano Teacher may give increased understanding and sympathy for the strange and sometimes wounded perverts out there, while it shows us one exponent of these same perverts as psychically unbalanced, dysfunctional and miserable.

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: Happy End (2017) - A worthy full stop for Haneke's dark oeuvre

2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Amour (2012) - Tender love, unseizing death in Haneke's pictures
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003) - Apocalyptic meanderings by Haneke

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.2 mil. $

Box office: 9.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.54 times its cost)

[The Piano Teacher premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 131 minutes. 13 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from August - October 2000 in Vienna, Austria. The film opened #54 to a 29k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #44 and in 19 theaters, grossing 1 mil. $ (10.4 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 3.3 mil. $ (34.4 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and then came Germany with 881k $ (9.2 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA, won 1/2 César award nominations and the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes, and two other awards there (it lost the Palme d'Or to The Son's Room), also winning 1/3 European Film award nominations. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Haneke returned with Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003). Huppert returned in 8 Women/8 Femmes (2002). The Piano Teacher is fresh at 73 % with a 7.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Piano Teacher?

No comments:

Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

9/10/2023