A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 18 wins & 23 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
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- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIsabelle Huppert really played the piano in the film. She had studied piano for 12 years. As preparation for her role as a piano teacher, she resumed practicing a year before the film was started.
- GoofsWhen Walter starts his piano audition; in the background, there are various teachers sitting in certain chairs. However in the following shot which is a medium-long shot of Kohut while Walter is performing; one of the female teachers is sitting in a different chair and a male teacher that was closest to Kohut is no longer sitting there but his belongings are on the chair. Then in the following shot after that, after Walter finishes his audition; the missing male teacher is back in his seat.
- Quotes
Erika Kohut: After all, love is built on banal things.
- Alternate versionsThe R-rated edition from Kino makes a number of changes and omissions, removing the shots of the hardcore peep booth footage viewed by Huppert's character in the mall, as well as optically pixellating pornographic images on magazine covers in the sex shop. In addition, this version completely removes the following two sequences: -Huppert's cutting sequence in the bathtub -Magimel taking Huppert to the ground and humping her at the hockey rink. In the latter case, the film awkwardly fades out and in again in quick succession, to elide the missing footage.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2003)
- SoundtracksPiano Sonata in A Major, D.959
Franz Schubert
Featured review
Powerful and thought provoking, 'The Piano Teacher' features a superb performance from Isabelle Huppert
'The Piano Teacher' is the third Haneke movie I've seen. I didn't like the other two ('Funny Games' I thought was a cop out and 'Code Unknown' a bore) so I expected little from this one. However I was wrong to prejudge it. It's a very good movie, powerful, thought provoking and features a superb performance from Isabelle Huppert. She plays a Erika Kohut, a brilliant but highly repressed pianist. Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel) is a young man who is very sure of himself who attempts to seduce her. The thing is she is a deeply disturbed individual and he can't cope when her true nature is uncovered. I don't want to go into any great detail about Erika or her mental state. The movie reveals this slowly and beautifully. I was impressed that there was no attempt at pop psychology or pat explanations that you would expect in a Hollywood melodrama with similar subject matter. Huppert is extraordinary throughout. I can't think of many contemporary Hollywood actresses who could have played this role as convincingly. 'The Piano Teacher' is not for those who can't face the dark side of human nature. It's far from being a life affirming "feel good" movie. If the difficult subject matter of 'Irreversible' or 'The War Zone' interested you then this is your kind of movie. I can't say I "enjoyed" it, but it was a worthwhile, rewarding experience and how often do you get to say that these days?
helpful•4514
- Infofreak
- May 20, 2004
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- ATS 70,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,012,069
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $29,671
- Mar 31, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $6,766,708
- Runtime2 hours 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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![Isabelle Huppert and Benoît Magimel in The Piano Teacher (2001)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWU3MmZlMDMtYzcwZS00YjNiLWFmYTUtNGMzMzg3ZjMzN2E2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUyOTc1NDYz._V1_QL75_UY133_CR3,0,90,133_.jpg)