The Piano Teacher

Based on Elfriede Jelink's controversial 1983 novel, The Piano Teacher tells the story of Erika (Isabelle Huppert), a middle-aged classical piano instructor who is trapped between her rigid passion for music and her suffocating home life. After subtly tormenting her students at a Vienna conservatory and battling her domineering mother in an undeclared war at home, Erika seeks solitary release through nightly voyeuristic wanderings and self-inflicted masochistic experiments. Drawn to Erika's unrelenting perfectionism, Walter (Benoit Magimel), a vain and handsome young student, tragically mistakes her unraveling sanity for growing ardor. After an unspeakably cruel assault on another conservatory student, Erika and Walter's perverse courtship explodes.