The Piano Teacher is a film that denies the audience the pleasure of emotional release. It is a study of a woman who is both a victim of a suffocating society (the Conservatory, the Mother) and a perpetrator of cruelty. Haneke forces the viewer to watch Erika’s degradation not to pity her, but to implicate us.
A significant portion of the film's power resides in Isabelle Huppert’s performance. Huppert utilizes a "poker face" that rarely breaks, yet communicates volumes through micro-expressions. The Piano Teacher 2001 Torrent