The Piano Teacher
Kino International | Release Date: March 29, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Its grimness is explicit, so approach it with caution. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The audience for this grimly disquieting film is, or ought to be, self-selecting. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin 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. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Has the feel of a clinical case study elevated into a subject of aesthetic and philosophical discourse. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Haneke is an exploitation filmmaker of the highest gifts. His movies are not to be entered into lightly. Read full review
50
VarietyDavid Rooney
Whatever valid points are being explored are hopelessly clouded by the film's unwavering earnestness as it descends into silliness and excess. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)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.
100
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Daring work of genius. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
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]
90
SalonJeff Stark
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. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Seems less like a fictional story than a tour through Freud's forgotten files. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
You will not forget The Piano Teacher. Nor will you forget Isabelle Huppert, a brave, brilliant actress who here plays her masterpiece. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Thanks to a superb performance by Isabelle Huppert, it's compulsively, gruesomely watchable. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Watching Haneke's film is, aptly enough, a challenge and a punishment. But watching Huppert, a great actress tearing into a landmark role, is riveting. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There is an old saying: Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it. The Piano Teacher has a more ominous lesson: Be especially careful with someone who has asked for you. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A disconcertingly assured tango between tenderness and brutality. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The Piano Teacher's study in lurid sexual pathology occasions a tour de force by Isabelle Huppert as the title character. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
At once an emotional thriller and a domestic horror movie -- a woman's picture with a vengeance, in which the bloodletting is kept to a minimum, and ends up all the more powerful and profound for it.
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
If you like being shaken up and don't care too much why or how, this is probably for you; Huppert gives her all to the part, and you won't be bored. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Powerful and outrageous. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A squirmingly strange and brutal study of sexual power, masochism and mother-daughter madness. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Although little is ultimately “solved” or demystified in The Piano Teacher, the movie allows a chaperoned peek into the mind of one of civilization's “discontents.” Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This is a psychological study that rejects psychology, an erotic drama of surpassing coldness, and a story of amour fou in which the madness is calculated and the love frozen. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
The result is a gripping psychological thriller that, while lacking the power of "Funny Games," is still the work of a master. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Haneke has made a masterly, disturbing movie.
90
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
A viscerally punishing study of repression and masochism, carried out with the utmost discretion and chilling reserve. Read full review
100
Time OutGeoff Andrew
Ambitious, profoundly articulate, and despite its avoidance of sentimentality and sermonising, very compassionate. Read full review
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