The Piano Teacher (2001) is a French film by Michael Haneke that masterfully subverts audience expectations by presenting a seemingly straightforward story of a strict piano teacher at a Paris academy, only to reveal a deeply disturbing narrative involving psychological abuse, obsession, and violence. The film's artistic cinematography and slow-burn approach create a powerful contrast with its explicit content, demonstrating how great cinema can challenge viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about human psychology and relationships.
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Comedians on The Piano TeacherAdded:
Let's go. Let's go. No, I'll tell you.
The best movie I've seen recently was a French movie called um The Pianist.
And or The Piano Teacher. Piano Teacher.
>> Piano Teacher. I'm going to ruin it for you so that it's worth talking about.
Yeah, it's a French movie.
>> Yes, The Pianist.
>> [ __ ] that reading [ __ ] >> French woman and she's a piano teacher at like a high-end uh academy in Paris.
And you think you're just watching a movie about a woman who's a really tough teacher and she's very cruel to students that aren't good enough.
That kind of thing. And she's very weirdly mannered and she has her tea, you know, one of these just like really strict, unsmiling French woman. And then you're watching this movie like 20 minutes, you're like, "Well, this is an interesting world I'm getting to learn about. I don't know. It's fine."
[laughter] And then she goes into a the mall and she walks around and you're just watching her walk around the mall. Then she goes into this video store and you realize it's an adult video store. Oh.
And you're like, "What's she doing in here?" She's proper. Why? She goes into a booth, like a private booth, puts coins in, and starts watching like a ass [ __ ] >> And you [ __ ] get it. You come around behind her and you see this in the movie. You see the the full-on sex. And then she there's a little bin, you know, tissue bin. She reaches in and gets a tissue and smells it while she watches.
Get the [ __ ] out of the car. [laughter] And you're like, "What kind of a movie is this?"
What kind of a movie is this? The thing is that it's so beautifully shot, you're like, "This is just a [laughter] a nice artsy film."
>> artsy movie about artists.
Play piano, you know.
And then all of a sudden she's smelling a tissue while she's watching a guy [ __ ] a girl in the ass. And she's got the same [ __ ] look on her face as when she's like with a metronome. That is amazing.
>> And then she some young pianist guy who she hates cuz he she thinks he's a hack, like he plays very flowery and everybody thinks he's great. But she's got she's hot for him. And so she sees him being nice to a young girl pianist. So then you So you just see that. You see her observing him being nice to this young girl pianist who's about to do a recital, a student of hers. And then you see her in the cloakroom. You don't know why you're watching this. The whole movie's like this. Like, "Why am I watching her walk around [laughter] a cloakroom?"
She finds a clo- a coat that she was looking for. And then she gets a glass out of the bar and she crushes it like, you know, like at a wedding, a Jewish wedding. Puts it in a napkin and crushes it and puts crushed glass in the girl's coat pockets.
Then the girl puts her hand and just her fingers are destroyed and she can't do the piano recital. What? This woman is this psychotic, horny, crazy [ __ ] Horny?
>> Yeah, if you're a [ __ ] American [ __ ] that watches Mel Gibson movies, it's slow.
If you have if you [ __ ] take a breath, [ __ ] you just stop.
>> Hulk Hogan's [ __ ] show. You might enjoy life. It's sick. It's a sick, sick twist. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen, honestly.
>> Wow. And I see a lot of movies. Yeah.
I'm going to [ __ ] go see that.
>> I saw this wild movie uh called The Piano Teacher. It's a French movie that came out in 2001. And um I'm glad I didn't see it 20 years ago. I'm glad that I saw it now where I finally in the last like 3 months, I finally understand what an abusive relationship is because to me it was normal. Like abusive relationships were just like I grew up in Massachusetts. It was just everywhere you went you just all people just verbally abusing each other. It's why it was so funny, but it's also why, you know, it was probably 2:00 a.m. in a bar and there was fights and stuff. So I don't know. So just watching it um I'm not going to lie to you, dude. It is You watch kind of like the first whatever 20 minutes of the film and it's like, "Okay, this is definitely unsettling, but whatever."
And I was actually sitting there going like, "I wonder what this thing got rated cuz they haven't cursed yet." I mean, at least in the subtitles they didn't. But it's definitely an abusive relationship, but this is like sort of maybe if there wasn't an abusive relationship, this is almost PG movie, not even PG-13.
And then this other thing happens. I was like, SPOILER ALERT. OH, maybe this is NC-17.
Like oh like in a split second. Um I heard a long time ago, I think Louis C.K. talked about this movie on uh Opie and Anthony show.
>> She goes into a booth and starts watching like a ass [ __ ] She reaches in and gets a tissue and smells it while she watches. GET THE [ __ ] OUT. THE PORN.
I was dropping my kid off at school and a parent who's into film recommended it cuz I was like, "Oh, I'm watching some French films." He goes, "Oh, yeah?" He goes, "I got one for you. Check out uh The Piano Teacher." So um I don't want to give it away, but yeah, I think the trailer like most great trailers, it doesn't give away the movie or whatever. So it's a weird thing though cuz I just brought up a movie that came out 20 years ago, but I know practically nobody saw it probably over here. So I don't want to ruin it.
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