When you see The Piano Teacher in a movie theater you get a chance to go back in time, back to the days when French movies were titillating, provocative and kind of smart.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
A seriously scandalous work, beautifully made, and it deserves a sizable audience that might argue over it, appreciate it -- even hate it. [1 April 2002, p. 98]
Whatever valid points are being explored are hopelessly clouded by the film's unwavering earnestness as it descends into silliness and excess.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Its grimness is explicit, so approach it with caution.
New Times (L.A.) by Jean Oppenheimer
Huppert has never looked more beautiful. Despite her severe expression and lack of makeup, her face communicates enormous character. She proves absolutely spellbinding.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
The Piano Teacher will surely be too strong for some audiences and is best left to those who like films that take big risks and get away with them.
Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan
Daring work of genius.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The audience for this grimly disquieting film is, or ought to be, self-selecting.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
Haneke is an exploitation filmmaker of the highest gifts. His movies are not to be entered into lightly.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Has the feel of a clinical case study elevated into a subject of aesthetic and philosophical discourse.
The Piano Teacher, much like its titular protagonist, is a movie that is so earnestly depraved that it’s sometimes difficult to watch (and this is one of its strong suits). A grim cautionary tale about the dangers of fantasy fulfilment and the horrors of sexual subjectification, the film feels like a perverse coming-of-age film at times, with Huppert’s character portraying a strange sort of adolescent naiveite buried underneath her stern, emotionally-distant demeanor—one of the most wonderfully cringeworthy aspects of her performance and the movie in general.