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Created Jul 06, 2013 10:28AM PST • Edited Jul 06, 2013 10:31AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Intriguing and awkward, confusing at some points, but really exceptional. Michael Haneke is the master of stories of everyday life and even when his story is simple, it won’t be plain. This time he confronts us with an unusual and a little bit old fashioned part of world, where people still make music recitals in their homes and where Schubert extremely matters.

   The movie follows a strange piano teacher and her offbeat habits. It interferes in the crack between her business and private life, popping a question – can a person whose job is art even accept it just as a job and ignore the private feelings? Hardly. We see it in many scenes of this movie, where she can’t disregard competitive spirit, jealousy and artistic vanity, even with her own students. More important, there is an interweaving of her job and love life, when she tastes forbidden love with a student.

   To make this thing even more complicated, Haneke gives this love a hurdle of perversity, making the teacher’s wishes a bit harder to fulfill. Many questions are now open and the movie masterly answers some of them. Some of them, unfortunately, aren’t closed properly.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   The movie has a small acting crew, but they provide a bomb of energy and emotions. Isabelle Hupert as a teacher is wonderful and I must notice she looks really young for her age. Maybe it just seems so beside Benoit Magimel, her piano student and much younger lover. They both show enviable variety of emotions and passion, being very compatible. On the other hand, the teacher’s mother, played by Annie Girardot, seems very lost in her role.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

   Benoit Magimel as Walter Klemmer

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

   Isabelle Hupert as Erika Kohut

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

   Annie Girardot as The Mother
   Susanne Lothar as Mrs. Scchober
   Anna Sigalevitch as Anna Schober

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

   They only appear on a few seconds and you don’t really get enough time to make a real impression.

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Accidentally, I’ve watched it twice. This is one of those movies you easily get to like, but you won’t want to watch it again. The reason is the simplicity of the plot. Once you see it, you’ve seen it all and it is unlikely you’ll find out many things you have missed the first time.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Great, detailed and even. Haneke focuses on everyday sundries and makes big deal out of them. With that kind of material, a director has to be a true artist to keep it interesting like Haneke did. What disappointed me a little bit was the very end. I don’t think everybody will get it and it’s a pitty that it’s left so unfinished.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Haneke wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Elfriede Jelinek. The plot is, as I’ve already mentioned, very simple, but the details are amazing. Lines are very witty and direct, so I can definitely say it’s a good play.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Appropriately, we can hear a lot of classical music.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Nothing special, but it’s not bad. It’s a bit dark atmosphere, even a bit claustrophobic, but it’s all well related to the emotions.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

    This movie is all about sex and violence actually, since the couple tries to make love from the very beginning, and she is into sadism and masochism. Yet, the explicite scenes are minimized. We don’t see much of it, but we certainly realize what is going on.

17. Sex Lewd 4.4

    Sex happens in various ways, but only in a scene where teacher watches a porn we see completely explicit content.

18. Violence Brutal 3.4

    There is some blood and some slaps.

19. Rudeness Polite 1.0

    Actually, they’re very nice.

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    Absolutely natural. Their motivations are crazy, but it is all realistic.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0