The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		5.0

The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 13, 2017

Michael Haneke's "The Pianist" (2001) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new video interviews with Michael Haneke and Isabelle Huppert; selected-scene audio commentary by Isabelle Huppert; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring writer and scholar Moira Weigel's essay "Bad Romances" and technical credits. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"Pay attention"

Deep inside she (Isabelle Huppert) is completely broken. She has lived with the pain for years and has accepted that it is an inseparable part of her existence. There are nights when she even secretly cuts herself with a razor blade before she goes to bed because her body has become addicted to the pain and like a seasoned junkie now routinely demands a fix. Her elderly mother (Annie Girardot), who lives with her, is clueless.

At the nearby conservatory she is a classical piano expert with a busy schedule that does not leave her any time to make friends or have a lover. During the short breaks while she waits for the next student to arrive she is alone with her thoughts and frequently fantasizes about being humiliated, just like the moaning women in the fetish videos that she regularly watches in a popular sex shop not too far away from her home. She realizes that what she does isn’t right but can’t help it -- her mind insists that if she can’t end her dependence on pain this is the only type of ‘love’ that can coexist with it.

At a private recital she is approached by a handsome young man (Benoit Magimel) who shares her passion for classical music and also plays the piano. The man immediately makes it clear that he likes her and later on, while attempting to seduce her, applies for an open spot in her masterclass. They start interacting but the relationship quickly begins to disintegrate when it becomes clear that they have very different expectations of each other -- he is looking for old-fashioned romance while she demands that he learns to humiliate her in a variety of different ways.

Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher is incredibly difficult to watch, but its directness is undoubtedly an essential element of its brilliance. Even a whiff of sugary melodrama would have made the film unbearably pretentious and ultimately unforgivably awkward.

The film is based on Austrian Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek’s popular novel of the same name, but the profile of the teacher that emerges in the film is a bit different. In the novel she is a sick person whose tragic condition has very clearly transformed her into a victim that appears on the path of self-destruction. While examining her condition via the prism of her relationship with the younger student, however, the novel also looks at the social environment in which the teacher exists and attempts to identify a trail of cultural norms that have made it possible for her to remain untreated. In the film the line that separates the victim from the dangerous predator is largely blurred. Indeed, Haneke shoots the teacher as a deeply troubled individual but also someone whose casual decisions to hurt other people appear perfectly rational. So at the very least here the teacher is a hybrid character, part-victim, part-intellectual predator. (Pay attention to the measured abuse in the classroom that culminates in a well-calculated act that removes the young girl from her position as an accompanist for the singer).

Haneke’s refusal to provide logical justification for the acceptance of the teacher’s actions gives the film its edge because it an odd sort of way it actually legitimizes her condition as it is -- a very disturbing but apparently possible to tolerate if present in the proper socio-cultural environment. There are endless red flags throughout the film revealing that there is something profoundly wrong with the teacher -- from her exclusion from her colleagues’ closed circle on the basis that her take on Schubert’s work is different to the answers she offers to the distraught mother -- but because of her academic status and ability to operate as a chameleon society basically chooses to ignore them, and then profiles her differently and even makes it easier for her to interchange her personalities.

Huppert’s performance is sensational and it is hard to imagine that this film could have been made with anyone else but her playing the teacher. Magimel's transformation into her emotionally brittle student who struggles to understand her condition is just as spectacular.

The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Approved by director Michael Haneke, this new digital transfer was created in high-definition on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative at Listo Vienna. The restoration was performed at Listo, and the color correction was supervised by Haneke. The original 5.1 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm magnetic tracks."

The entire film looks very sharp and clean, boasting a healthy color palette with solid primaries and a very good range of slightly muted but natural nuances. Regardless of the lighting conditions definition is consistently excellent; even the darker/indoor footage looks terrific. Close-ups convey excellent depth. The new remaster also supports great density, so if you are viewing your films on a larger screen you will be very pleased with how stable and all-around natural the entire film looks. There are no image stability issues or transfer-specific anomalies to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Michael Haneke's films do not have elaborate music scores, and The Piano Teacher is not an exception. Basically, in addition to the standard exchanges the sound design incorporates only organic sounds and noises. There is still a good dynamic range with a variety of proper nuances, but you should not expect to hear the type of dynamic intensity that big-budget Hollywood productions typically have. There are no technical anomalies to report.

The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for The Piano Teahcer. In French, with optional English subtitles. (2 min. 1080p).

• Michael Haneke - in this brand new video interview, Michael Haneke discusses the some of the social boundaries that The Piano Teacher bends (with excellent comments about the difference between pornography, obscenity and dramatic art), the reason(s) why he considers violence in contemporary cinema to be the real 'pornography' and the hypocrisy that tolerates it; the socio-cultural environment in which the original material that inspired the film emerged; the the casting of Isabelle Huppert and the film's production history; the shooting of some of the most controversial sequences; etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Vienna in May 2017. In German, with optional English subtitles. (30 min. 1080p).

• Selected-Scene Commentary - this audio commentary features Isabelle Huppert and was recorded in 2001. In French, optional English subtitles. (51 min).
  
  1. The Perfect Love
  2. Presence
  3. Sacrifice
  4. No Control
  5. Not Enough Suffering
  6. Proof
  7. A Mutant

• Isabelle Huppert - in this brand new video interview, Isabelle Huppert recalls her work with Michael Haneke on The Piano Teacher, the 'different and difficult' nature of her character, the type of love she demands, her interactions with Benoît Magimel, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Vienna in May 2017. In French, with optional English subtitles. (12 min. 1080p).

• Postsync sessions - presented here is raw behind-the-scenes footage of audio postsync sessions for The Piano Teacher featuring Michael Haneke and Isabelle Huppert. In French, with optional English subtitles. (20 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring writer and scholar Moira Weigel's essay "Bad Romances" and technical credits.

The Piano Teacher Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I think that the moral degradation that is captured in The Piano Teacher is only the final phase of a much bigger tragedy, which is that a modern society would actually find enough excuses to allow people like Erika Kohut to continue to self-destruct. (The massive opioid crisis in America exists because of very similar indifference that was allowed on an even higher level). Sadly, in the wired world that we live in today, with all of these social platforms that supposedly make communication easier, there are even greater opportunities to create social outcasts that can evolve into predators or victims. Criterion's new Blu-ray release of The Piano Teacher is sourced from an excellent 2K remaster that was approved by director Michael Haneke. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.