The Piano Teacher

[rosco rathbone]

People have been telling me to watch this ever since it came out.

Finally got around to it. Wow!

 

[FurryFury]

I'm intrigued.

 

[seela]

I really liked it too. The book was better, though. They always are.

 

[ThorkelGriersen]

People have been telling me to watch this ever since it came out.

Finally got around to it. Wow!

There are two DVD versions: the R rated and the full director's uncut version. It is based on a 1983 novel by Elfriede Jelinek. She won the Nobel prize in Literature a couple of years after the movie was released. The New York Times buried the Nobel announcement in one sentence at the end of the award for one of the sciences. Jelinek practices BDSM and writes serious literature from that perspective-the Nobel prize should be some indication.

The director Michael Haneke is not known for pulling punches. This is a "hair curling" lesson in the dangers of repression. In addition to the Grand Prize, the movie won Best Actress and Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. No surprise, since the lead actress Isabelle Huppert has won 15 times at Cannes and 8 Cesar [French Oscar] awards. The Hupperts are the French equivalent of the Barrymores or the Richardsons/Redgraves.

ETA: I usually refer to this movie as "The Topping from the Bottom from Hell."