The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste, 2001) — watch online on iFILM. Michael Haneke's Austrian-French-German drama stars Isabelle Huppert as Erika Kohut, a professor at the Vienna Conservatory. The film adapts the novel by Elfriede Jelinek, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004.

Erika's days run like clockwork: recitals, technique drills, Schubert. Evenings she returns to a cramped apartment shared with her domineering mother, with no life of her own. When a young student, Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel), starts pursuing her, the pressure on Erika's sealed-off inner world begins to crack — with consequences neither of them expects.

At Cannes 2001 the film swept three awards: the Grand Prix du Jury, Best Actress for Huppert, and Best Actor for Magimel. Haneke strips away every comfort and forces the camera to stay. Stream The Piano Teacher (2001) online on iFILM.