This film tells the story of a female piano teacher who has perverse fantasies towards her young student.The piano teacher seems like an ordinary woman, until her dark side is introduced. It is provocative and at times even disturbing. The scene in the video club is quite a shock to me. Then, the story builds on and goes even further. Yet, the ending is a great surprise. It is a provocative, disturbing and engaging film.

I so love the book by Jellinek, it's a masterpiece. Fantastic language ( Jellinek varies according to her books, some of it are too experimental for me : when proving that her characters 'are lost in translation 'and will never understand each othr, she de-composes her language into abstraction. But THIS one is written in a very emotional style, exactly the oppposite of what she shows her surrounding ( or in the film ) , then she is rigidly composed/repressed, don't forget this is not about the PIANISTE, but a deadly critique on her country Austria, and why they also censured her lots of times, it's about Austrian society + history ( the most repressed European country, very conservative, alwys been like this, and thus its artists ar the most extreme of Europee....!! always been like this, think of body-exprssionism-performances-with -blood-and -cuts in the 50-70s........ Anyway , the book is TERRIFIC, you are inside her mind, and bellieve me that's a humorous + very intelligent mind, of the PIANISTE, wicked monologue interieurs, and she kicks ass at her 'kiddo'too. The film I gave a 8. ( not my fav Haneke )

Seeking emotional protection from our disturbed, corrupt, violent world, I tried to take refuge in Michael Haneke films; in his poetic and philosophical view and deep analysis of human complexities. I could compare his world viewpoints to Ingmar Bergman, a filmmaker which I would always enjoy being sunk in his creative world. I immensely admire Haneke 's recent film "Amour"; a film which would invite the spectators to take journey into the core of the matters and to the dark maze of human soul. It's said that through insanity, humans would sometimes find sanity, truth, love and empathy.I recently watched The White Ribbon and The Piano Teacher. My predication was that these films were somehow prophetic reflections of a new rise of totalitarian era. A suffocating new historical period!Yes, they indeed, are!I found both movies the White Ribbon and The Piano Teacher disturbing. Learning about these violent realities, the audience would need to get away from the harshness and be surrounded by the beauty of nature, serene environment, and splendor dreams. To deal with reality we need dreams! The Piano Teacher reflects the outlook of 80s, 90s and early 2000s where the notion of sexuality was dominant.

This movie was a pretty intense experience for me. It begins with a look at the life of Erika Kohut, a respected music professor, who lives with her controlling mother. She is pursued by another talented young man named Walter Klemmer, and they soon enter into a Dominant/Submissive relationship. Erika is very sexually repressed and unhappy, mainly thanks to her mother, who keeps check on her like one would on a baby.In many ways this movie reminds me of The Black Swan.Her relationship with Walter, who is not so normal himself, soon deteriorates and and the movie ends with Erika cutting herself, probably with more self harm to come. I only wish the movie had been longer and had let us learn more about Erika, especially concerning her relationship with her father, who lives in a lunatic asylum.