- Year: 2001
- Country: Austria/France/Germany
- Director: Michael Haneke
- Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel
I think I’m going to need anti-depressants now that this movie is over. Ok, so an ultra-strict, masochistic and repressed middle-aged piano teacher (Huppert) with voyeuristic tendencies lives with her incredibly controlling mother. During the day, she works at a Vienna music conservatory, at night when she is not fighting with her mother, she goes to peep shows or watches porn films – followed by self-harm. A music student hopelessly in love with her (Magimel) eventually seduces her but has to meet her demands. Now, this isn’t at all the kind of movie that the story makes it out to be – if you’ve ever seen anything by Michael Haneke, you know that his style is slow and incredibly heavy. This is about a woman who is very ill and her relationship with her world – there is nothing romantic about the film (some reviews may make it seem like this is a decent into a sleazy sexual underworld or into perversion, do not let yourself be misled, it is a drama and a difficult one at that). Both Huppert and Magimel won prizes for their roles at Cannes, and they more than deserve them: both are fully immersed in incredibly complex characters that never know when to give, take or let things be. You’ve come to expect this from both actors, but this really goes above and beyond in their dedication to the acting craft. Haneke’s snail-like pace spares us no misery from any of the characters, including a mesmerizing Annie Girardot as the mother. A film that requires patience and is most certainly not for everyone.
Cinema Del Peppel 