La Pianiste
In this adaptation of the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek, Isabelle Huppert plays a brilliant but sexually repressed piano instructor whose world is shattered by the advances of one of her students.
Erika teaches classical piano in a cold and often abrasive style. Approaching middle age, Erika lives with her doting mother and still sleeps in the same bed with her. Erika’s social life consists of occasionally sneaking away to a peep show where she secretly comes into contact with perverse passion, often using the discarded trash of previous customers. Her beautiful piano playing seduces youthful Walter, who then takes the instructor’s advanced class. Walter reveals his desire during a class session. Erika reacts curiously, presenting a long list of cruel, humiliating sexual acts she would like him to perform on her.
Michael Haneke (DAS WEISSE BAND) directed this unflinching allegorical tale of cruelty. The film caused a stir at the Cannes Film Festival where it was controversial not only for its subject matter, but also because it won multiple awards despite leaving many audience members outraged.