I found The Pianist unpleasant but, as a case study of female desire, repression, and oedipal trauma, not at all outré.

| Mar 31, 2020

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

This is a penetrating, deeply disturbing examination of desire and loneliness, of desperation and self-denial.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Nov 4, 2002

It is as unlikely that you have ever seen another movie like The Piano Teacher as it is that you will ever want to see another one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2002

A striking, brilliant film with extraordinary performances -- and Huppert's acting is heartrending.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2002

Disturbing yet provocative.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 14, 2002

Is like The Graduate remade by David Lynch; it's no picnic to watch, but you can't look away.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 21, 2002

Although Huppert's intensity and focus has a raw exhilaration about it, The Piano Teacher is anything but fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 21, 2002

Restraint is this movie's mystery and its miracle. No matter how gruesome it is, mercifully, it's always holding back.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 13, 2002

Not for the prurient or squeamish, it's a daring if overlong examination of an idolized culture, self-loathing and sexual politics.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 6, 2002

A disconcertingly assured tango between tenderness and brutality.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 24, 2002

Seems less like a fictional story than a tour through Freud's forgotten files.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 24, 2002

This austerely stunning film reminds us that not all art is pretty.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 17, 2002

A powerful and outrageous film from Belgian director Michael Haneke, takes that stereotype and stands it on its head.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 3, 2002

There is an old saying: Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it. The Piano Teacher has a more ominous lesson: Be especially careful with someone who has asked for you.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 26, 2002

Once one experiences Mr. Haneke's own sadistic tendencies toward his audience, one is left with a sour taste in one's mouth, and little else.

| Apr 25, 2002

This is a smart movie that knows its classical music, knows its Freud and knows its Sade.

| Apr 19, 2002

... a pretentious and ultimately empty examination of a sick and evil woman.

Full Review | Apr 8, 2002

A disconcertingly riveting anti-love story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 29, 2002

Thanks to a superb performance by Isabelle Huppert, it's compulsively, gruesomely watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 29, 2002