The Piano Teacher

Isabelle Huppert’s astonishing turn as Erika Kohut, a woman disturbed yet consumed by her desires, has lost none of its gut-punching torment. For Haneke, clean-cut, chiselled young men of good breeding are not to be trusted. Walter careens into piano tutor Erika’s life oozing entitlement and charisma, threatening her carefully calibrated equilibrium. But hers is a world of quietly seething resentment and barely contained masochism, lived in the shadow of an overbearing mother and surrounded by the mannered hierarchies of classical music. Control trades hands wordlessly between student and teacher, tension building as obsession sets in. Adapted from Nobel Prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek’s controversial 1983 novel, Haneke’s critically acclaimed film, featuring his trademark charged gaze, was rewarded with dual acting awards at Cannes. It remains shocking and uncompromising.

Ruby McGuigan, Michael Haneke season curator

Contains scenes of graphic sexual violence, pornographic content, self-harm and incest.

The screenings of The Piano Teacher on Friday 6 June 18:00 NFT1 and Sunday 8 June 18:10 NFT2 will be shown from a 35mm print.

See our Michael Haneke season.