Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke notoriously put audiences through hell — not once but twice — when he made Austrian and American versions of his polarizing endurance test Funny Games. And yet, some folks consider his 2001 erotic psychodrama The Piano Teacher (adapted from Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek’s 1983 novel) to be his most disturbing film. A lot of credit goes to star Isabelle Huppert, who’s never been afraid to play amoral anti-heroines, for carrying most of the twisted weight. Beating fellow redhead Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl shenanigans by more than two decades, Huppert’s titular, repressed professor engages in sadomasochistic hijinks with a young pupil (Benoît Magimel), eventually sliding deeper into a depraved downward spiral. If Hollywood’s violent horror/action films inspired Haneke to make Games, I believe he saw a couple of those problematic teen sex comedies where a male minor scores with an older, wiser smokeshow (My Tutor fans, where you at?!) and made his own deranged yet utterly believable version. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
Feb. 15 & 18 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
