The Piano Teacher

“The Piano Teacher. Isabelle Huppert. Man. Has to be– not just in my eyes, but... Worldwide, like, one of the most incredible performances by an actress in, like, the history of cinema. She is so intense and vulnerable, and the scene where she, like, stabs herself in the shoulder with the piece of glass, I think it is, there’s a sound that comes out of her throat. It’s so, like, guttural. I remember watching this and I was like, “I have to... Just, like, go back and see this one more time, because I kind of can’t believe that I just saw this performance.” It’s like– and you imagine, like, with another actress, would they... What would they have brought to the character? But you can only picture Isabelle Huppert in this role.”

“One of my favorite contemporary director ever. He is called Michael Haneke. I love so many films by him. But now I found The Piano Teacher. He doesn't need so many plans. He just tells with very few shots what really will kill your heart and your mind and your belly all at once.”

“The Piano Teacher. I remember the first time I watched this, I was just really struck by the viscerality. I'm really drawn to films that bring me into my body and this film really does that in a deep way. And again, it was a film that after I watched I was like, "Oh, you can do that in cinema too," you know? And I'm so, this is one I'm really grateful for.”

“The Piano Teacher. We love Isabelle. We love her so much. She's such a good actress and she always is surprising us, and she's, she's a peach.”

“The Piano Teacher, by the way. This is like the best acting. It's her, of course, her presence and, her detail in thought and her detail in, in what she's going through. She's, she's, I can't say how she does it, of course, but it's, it's like she's very free, but she's also really controlled, so she can, she can go anywhere with her, where, with the scene or with the moment.”

“So, The Piano Teacher. It's not a comedy, and when I worked at a video store I would often recommend it to people, because I thought it was like an impressive movie to recommend to someone as like a young person. Oftentimes I'd recommend to families, not quite knowing, I hadn't seen it at the time. So I was kind of like, the cover looks, you know what I mean, it's like an, it looks like an important movie, and then I saw it and was like, oh no. Not kid-friendly. It's as good as I hoped it would be. I would now not recommend it for family viewing, but unbelievable performances and it is, gosh, it packs a punch. Wish I could take back some of those recommendations, from the video store, but you know what.”

“Next one is The Piano Teacher. I can’t do every Haneke movie, but this one was right in my Q zone. This one, I watched it during a formative time when I was a teenager and it hit me right when I was in my phase of… cold, repressed sexuality. I don’t know if any other woman has gone through that. I hate to admit this, but I remember walking down the streets of New York with “Well-Tempered Clavier” by J. S. Bach in my ears and walking very severely down the street thinking of The Piano Teacher. Many will disagree, but I think Bach wrote the “Well-Tempered Clavier” hundreds of years ago just so it could be in this film. This film has one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard. The use of music is so perfect in this, the Chopin, the Schubert, everything. And Isabelle Huppert is one of the best actresses, if not the best. The scene where she’s like, “If you want to hit me, hit me.” But in French, obviously. And in that scene, her face is so open and vulnerable, and you can tell, when she says, “If you want to hit me, hit me,” it’s what she really wants, and then he doesn’t give it to her and her face is just so perfect. So, anyway, this is a beautiful, beautiful film by Haneke.”

“Oh, The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke. I know French people say, “Michael Haneke,” and I met him once and he was, like, six-foot-something tall. He was older and I tried to impress him and I was speaking to him in French, and my French sucks, but I was like, “Je… Je t’aime.” But I was like, “I love all your filmmaking.” And I do. I love White Ribbon, I love Funny Games, I love Time of the Wolf, Caché. I mean, White Ribbon is one of the great films of all time, but… And Amour, of course. But The Piano Teacher, this film is so incredible because it’s so daring. I mean, talk about dysfunction. I love dysfunction because I came from a dysfunctional family, thank God, because I think the most interesting people I’ve met in my life all come from very dysfunctional families. So this is so dysfunctional. She’s so twisted and sick, and Isabelle Huppert is fearless. And sick, but in a good way, because they’re not sick for gore’s sake or to get a manipulative reaction out of you. It’s more to tell you that we all carry some sickness in ourselves and we don’t know how it’s ever going to manifest itself. And the film is so dangerous that way. And I think he’s one of the great filmmakers, might be one of my favorite modern filmmakers of all time.”