Le Pianiste (2001)

“Jouer donc le protecteur”

The Piano Teacher is the only Michael Haneke film to be adapted from a novel (originally written by fellow Austrian Elfriede Jelinek), and it stars the indomitable Isabelle Huppert. Of everything I’ve ever watched in my lifetime of watching horrible things, this is possibly the most uncomfortable I have ever felt during a movie. The film won Haneke the Grand Prix at that year’s Cannes film festival, and both Huppert and her co-star Benoît Magimel were awarded for their acting. After years of trying to work together, The Piano Teacher was the first (of many) collaboration between Haneke and Huppert.

Like so many Haneke films, this movie explores the ways that violence interacts with power. The only music in the film is the piano pieces played by the characters, and many sequences unravel in one uncomfortably long take. Huppert’s character, Erika, has no control over her life, despite being a highly respected piano teacher, and she inflicts violence on whomever is available to her (including her own body). When Walter (Magimel), a brash, arrogant student, demands her attention, her highly controlled world begins to unravel. Though he is relentless in his pursuit, he withdraws his interest whenever she tries to express her own desires, which becomes its own kind of violence.

The conclusion of Le Pianiste is such a punch to the gut. So much of Erika’s life is about the denial of pleasure, but it is clear from Huppert’s nuanced performance that she craves connection and relief. Pain is a way that she can express herself, and for better or worse, her final act is just that. Despite such an extreme expression, she remains invisible to the people around her.