The Piano Teacher



La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher in English) is a 2001 erotic drama film directed by Michael Haneke, based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin by Nobel Prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek.

Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory, living with her overbearing bitch of a mother (Annie Girardot) whom she both loves and hates, whose father is in a mental institution, and who, despite her conservative exterior, harbors an unparalled repressed masochistic sexual apetite inside her. This combination of factors has rendered her a bit on the irritable side, and she takes this out on her students by subjecting them to ruthless criticism. At a recital one night, Erika meets prospectless engineering student Walter (Benoît Magimel). Though it takes a long time, and despite the fact that by all appearances they cannot stand the sight of one another, the two eventually become romantically involved, behind Erika's mother's back. Walter is disgusted by her masochistic fantasies, and eventually attacks her. Fortunately for her, this is just what she wanted. The film ends with Erika stabbing herself and casually walking out of a gallery.

Not to be confused with Roman Polanski's The Pianist or Jane Campion's The Piano.

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This film provides examples of:

 * A Date with Rosie Palms
 * All Women Are Lustful
 * Bondage Is Bad
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: When Erika sees Walter flirting with one of her students, she breaks a glass and puts the shards in the student's coat pocket so she cuts her hands and can never play piano again. She stops just short of the Yandere.
 * Euroshlock
 * Insufferable Genius: Erika.
 * Jerkass: Erika comes off as this quite a lot of the time. See above.
 * My Beloved Smother