La Pianiste (2001)

"La Pianiste" (The Piano Teacher) is the unflinching psychological drama that cemented Isabelle Huppert's reputation for fearless, boundary-pushing work. She plays a repressed conservatory instructor whose private compulsions spiral into something far darker once a young student enters her life, and the film never looks away from the discomfort it creates. Huppert bares all in several of the archive's 5 scenes, delivering explicit and sexually charged material that matches the character's unraveling control. Annie Girardot also appears, adding a tense, complicated presence as the mother whose grip on her daughter is its own kind of intimacy. Together the two actresses give this hub page some of the most raw, confrontational scene work you'll find from European arthouse cinema.