The Piano Teacher

Suffice to say that Erika and Walter, the couple in this unsettling psychological French drama, make Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris look like Ward and June Cleaver. A controversial winner of awards for best film, actor and actress at the Cannes Film Festival, this harrowing character study stars Isabelle Huppert as a music professor who, like her favorite composer, Schubert, is at that moment "just before" she is bereft of reason. The buttoned-up Erika, who is stern and abusive to her students, lives with her domineering mother, whom she sleeps next to in twin beds. Her only respite is nocturnal voyeuristic forays--going to porn shops to watch peep shows or spying on young couples having sex at the drive-in (or finding her own means of sexual expression; in one startling scene, she mutilates herself with a razor while her mother makes dinner). Enter Walter (Benoît Magimel), a precocious engineering student who is also a talented piano player. Drawn to Erika, he auditions for her master class, and the pair embark on a disturbing cat and mouse contest of sexual gamesmanship. Certainly not for all tastes, but the film holds an uneasy fascination. Recommended. [Note: while the "unrated" version is the director's cut, it also contains sexually explicit footage of Erika watching porn that is hardly integral to the film; we recommend the "R"-rated version.] (K. Lee Benson)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Sept. 19, 2017—Criterion, 130 min., in French w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2001's The Piano Teacher features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include select scene commentary by star Isabelle Huppert (50 min.), an interview with director Michael Haneke (30 min.), a behind-the-scenes segment on audio post-sync sessions with Haneke and Huppert (19 min.), an interview with Huppert (11 min.), and an essay by scholar Moira Weigel. Bottom line: Haneke's controversial drama shines on Blu-ray.]