The Piano Teacher
Encyclopedia
The Piano Teacher is a 2001 film
directed by Michael Haneke
, starring Isabelle Huppert
and Benoît Magimel
. The film is based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin
by Elfriede Jelinek
who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.
music conservatory. Although already in her forties, she still lives in an apartment with her domineering mother (Annie Girardot
); her father is a long-standing resident in a lunatic asylum.
The audience is gradually shown truths about Erika's private life. Behind her assured façade, she is a woman whose sexual repression verges into full-fledged desperation and is manifested in a long list of paraphilias, including (but by no means limited to) voyeurism
and sadomasochistic fetishes such as sexual self-mutilation
.
When Erika meets Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel
), a charming 17-year-old engineering student from a bourgeois background, a mutual obsession develops. Even though she initially attempts to prevent consistent contact and even tries to undermine his application to the conservatory, he eventually becomes her pupil. Like her, he appreciates and is a gifted interpreter of Schumann
and Schubert
.
Erika destroys the musical prospects of an insecure but talented girl, Anna Schober, driven by her jealousy of the girl's contact with Walter — and also, perhaps, by her fears that Anna's life will mirror her own. She does so by hiding shards of glass inside one of Anna's coat pockets, damaging her right hand and ruining her aspirations to play at the forthcoming jubilee concert. Erika then pretends to be sympathetic when the girl's mother (Susanne Lothar
) asks for advice on her daughter's recuperation. (The sub-plot of the pupil and her mother, mirroring the main relationship in the film, is absent in Jelinek's novel.) In a moment of dramatic irony, the girl's mother rhetorically asks Erika who could do something so evil.
Walter is increasingly insistent in his desire to start a relationship with Erika, but when she finally acquiesces, he is unwilling to indulge her violent fantasies, which repulse him. The film climaxes, however, when he attacks her in her apartment in the fashion she let him know she desired, beating and then raping her. She discovers that the reality of her desires does not match her conception of them.
Erika takes a kitchen knife to a concert in which she is supposed to fill in for the injured Anna. She meets Anna and Anna's mother, and Walter, in the foyer of the concert hall. Minutes before the concert is due to start, Erika stabs herself in the shoulder and leaves the foyer. Her onscreen injury is not especially severe, but the implication is that further self-harm will ensue.
2002 César Awards
2002 German Film Awards
2001 European Film Academy
2001 French Academy of Cinema
2002 L.A. Film Critics Association
2002 National Society of Film Critics
2001 Russian Guild of Film Critics
2002 San Francisco Film Critics Circle
2002 Seattle International Film Festival
2003 Bodil Awards
2001 Cannes Film Festival
2002 César Awards
2001 British Academy Awards
2001 European Film Academy
2001 French Academy of Cinema
2002 Independent Spirit Award
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
directed by Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
, starring Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress who has appeared in over 90 film and television productions since 1971. She has had 14 films in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the Best Actress Award twice, for Violette Nozière and La pianiste . She is also the most...
and Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
. The film is based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin
Die Klavierspielerin
The Piano Teacher is a novel by Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, first published in 1983 by Rowohlt Verlag....
by Elfriede Jelinek
Elfriede Jelinek
Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."-...
who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.
Plot
Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) is a piano professor at a ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
music conservatory. Although already in her forties, she still lives in an apartment with her domineering mother (Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot was a French actress.She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland...
); her father is a long-standing resident in a lunatic asylum.
The audience is gradually shown truths about Erika's private life. Behind her assured façade, she is a woman whose sexual repression verges into full-fledged desperation and is manifested in a long list of paraphilias, including (but by no means limited to) voyeurism
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
and sadomasochistic fetishes such as sexual self-mutilation
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...
.
When Erika meets Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
), a charming 17-year-old engineering student from a bourgeois background, a mutual obsession develops. Even though she initially attempts to prevent consistent contact and even tries to undermine his application to the conservatory, he eventually becomes her pupil. Like her, he appreciates and is a gifted interpreter of Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
.
Erika destroys the musical prospects of an insecure but talented girl, Anna Schober, driven by her jealousy of the girl's contact with Walter — and also, perhaps, by her fears that Anna's life will mirror her own. She does so by hiding shards of glass inside one of Anna's coat pockets, damaging her right hand and ruining her aspirations to play at the forthcoming jubilee concert. Erika then pretends to be sympathetic when the girl's mother (Susanne Lothar
Susanne Lothar
Susanne Lothar is a German actress.Lothar studied at the Schauspiel an der Hochschule für Theater und Musik in Hamburg...
) asks for advice on her daughter's recuperation. (The sub-plot of the pupil and her mother, mirroring the main relationship in the film, is absent in Jelinek's novel.) In a moment of dramatic irony, the girl's mother rhetorically asks Erika who could do something so evil.
Walter is increasingly insistent in his desire to start a relationship with Erika, but when she finally acquiesces, he is unwilling to indulge her violent fantasies, which repulse him. The film climaxes, however, when he attacks her in her apartment in the fashion she let him know she desired, beating and then raping her. She discovers that the reality of her desires does not match her conception of them.
Erika takes a kitchen knife to a concert in which she is supposed to fill in for the injured Anna. She meets Anna and Anna's mother, and Walter, in the foyer of the concert hall. Minutes before the concert is due to start, Erika stabs herself in the shoulder and leaves the foyer. Her onscreen injury is not especially severe, but the implication is that further self-harm will ensue.
Cast
- Isabelle HuppertIsabelle HuppertIsabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress who has appeared in over 90 film and television productions since 1971. She has had 14 films in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the Best Actress Award twice, for Violette Nozière and La pianiste . She is also the most...
as Erika Kohut - Annie GirardotAnnie GirardotAnnie Girardot was a French actress.She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland...
as The Mother - Benoît MagimelBenoît MagimelBenoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
as Walter Klemmer - Susanne LotharSusanne LotharSusanne Lothar is a German actress.Lothar studied at the Schauspiel an der Hochschule für Theater und Musik in Hamburg...
as Mrs. Schober - Udo SamelUdo SamelUdo Samel is a German actor. He has appeared in over 80 films and television shows since 1977. He starred in the 1994 film Back to Square One, which was entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
as Dr. Blonskij - Anna Sigalevitch as Anna Schober
- Cornelia Köndgen as Mme Blonskij
- Thomas Weinhappel as Baritone
- Georg Friedrich as Man in drive-in
- Philipp Heiss as Naprawnik
- William Mang as Teacher
- Rudolf Melichar as Director
- Michael SchottenbergMichael SchottenbergMichael Schottenberg is an Austrian actor, film director and screenwriter. His film The Arrival of Averill was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.-External links:...
as Teacher - Gabriele Schuchter as Margot
- Dieter Berner as Singing teacher
- Volker Waldegg as Teacher
- Martina Resetarits as Teacher
- Annemarie Schleinzer as Teacher
- Karoline Zeisler as Teacher
- Liliane Neiska as Secretary
- Luz Leskowitz as Violinist
- Viktor Teuflmayr as Pianist
- Viviane Bartsch as Woman in drive-in (as Vivian Bartsch)
- Florian Koban as Pupil
- Thomas Auner as Haydn pianist
- Noam Morgensztern as The first pupil (voice)
Won
2001 Cannes Film Festival2001 Cannes Film Festival
The 2001 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian film The Son's Room by Nanni Moretti.-Jury:* Liv Ullmann, President * Mimmo Calopresti * Charlotte Gainsbourg...
- Grand PrixGrand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
- Best ActorBest Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival)The Best Actor Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.- Award Winners :-External links:* * ....
- Benoît Magimel - Best ActressBest Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)The Best Actress Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of films at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.-Award Winners:-External links:* * ....
- Isabelle Huppert
2002 César Awards
César Awards 2002
The 2002 César Awards were hosted by Nathalie Baye and Edouard Baer. The winners and nominees were:-Best Actor – Leading Role:* Michel Bouquet – How I Killed My Father...
- Best Supporting ActressCésar Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleList of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Supporting Actress .-Winners:Adapted from the article , from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License....
- Annie Girardot
2002 German Film Awards
- Best Foreign Film
2001 European Film Academy
European Film Academy
The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988.- European Film Academy :...
- Best European Actress - Isabelle Huppert
2001 French Academy of Cinema
- Best Supporting Actress - Annie GirardotAnnie GirardotAnnie Girardot was a French actress.She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland...
2002 L.A. Film Critics Association
- Best Actress (Runner-up) - Isabelle Huppert
2002 National Society of Film Critics
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
- Best Actress (Runner-up) - Isabelle Huppert
2001 Russian Guild of Film Critics
Russian Guild of Film Critics
The Russian Guild of Film Critics is a Russian organization of professional film critics. A member of FIPRESCI since 1999, the guild critiques Russian and Foreign films. Beginning in 1998, the guild began conferring annual awards in several categories...
- Best Foreign Actress - Isabelle Huppert
- Best Foreign Film
2002 San Francisco Film Critics Circle
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
The San Francisco Film Critics Circle was founded in 2002 as an organization of film journalists and critics from San Francisco, California based publications....
- SFFCC Award - Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
2002 Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
- Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
Nominated
2002 Bafta Awards- Best Film not in the English Language
2003 Bodil Awards
Bodil Awards
The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe...
- Best Non-American Film
2001 Cannes Film Festival
2001 Cannes Film Festival
The 2001 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian film The Son's Room by Nanni Moretti.-Jury:* Liv Ullmann, President * Mimmo Calopresti * Charlotte Gainsbourg...
- Golden PalmPalme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
2002 César Awards
César Awards 2002
The 2002 César Awards were hosted by Nathalie Baye and Edouard Baer. The winners and nominees were:-Best Actor – Leading Role:* Michel Bouquet – How I Killed My Father...
- Best ActressCésar Award for Best ActressList of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:...
- Isabelle Huppert
2001 British Academy Awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
- Best Foreign Language Film - Michael Haneke
- Best Foreign Language Film - Veit HeiduschkaVeit HeiduschkaVeit Heiduschka is an Austrian film producer. He has produced 50 films since 1985.-Selected filmography:* The Seventh Continent * Benny's Video * The Piano Teacher * Everyman's Feast...
2001 European Film Academy
European Film Academy
The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988.- European Film Academy :...
- Best European Film
- Best European Screenplay - Michael Haneke
2001 French Academy of Cinema
- Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert
2002 Independent Spirit Award
- Best Foreign Film