Not Haneke’s best film, but Isabelle Huppert is stupendous.

Full Review | May 2, 2024

Isabelle Huppert outdoes herself.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2021

If perfection is the only exaggerated nomenclature with which to describe Haneke and Huppert's sordid tango through considerations of submission and control, then it's surely embodied here in the form of Erika Kohut, the piano teacher.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 31, 2020

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

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

The Piano Teacher is high art.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2019

For a director who's often raged against the manipulations of Hollywood, Haneke is as gifted a puppetmaster as Steven Spielberg.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2019

The film veers into wildly compelling -- and unsettling -- territory.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2019

Both director and actor were clear on their intentions from the start, and this alignment produced a movie that holds up as one of the best arthouse films of the last 20 years, with a nearly unmatched quiet kind of intensity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 11, 2018

The acting awards are utterly perplexing: Benoit Magimel's transformation in the final act smells fake. and Isabelle Huppert's piano teacher is the nearest to a one-note performance she's given in 20 years.

Full Review | Jan 27, 2018

[Huppert gives] the single finest performance I have ever seen her give, and therefore almost by default one of the best of the decade.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Feb 10, 2010

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

A film of Artaudian cruelty, and a boundary-breaker in the cinema's exploration of its own erotic and artisanal id.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 28, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

A revolting and shocking work devoid of redemption and purpose.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 13, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: A | Aug 7, 2004

If genital mutilation, rape, incest and twisted acts of sexual gratification are your thing, then this is the film for you. Any takers?

Full Review | Feb 13, 2003

It's a harrowing, difficult film that's only for the most adventurous art-house movie fans.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jan 30, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 24, 2002

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

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

Will leave audiences cold and not a little depressed.

Full Review | Oct 18, 2002