The Audition

An uncompromising high school violin teacher becomes obsessed with her student in this slow-burning psychological drama from rising German actor/director Ina Weisse. Dominated by a riveting performance from Nina Hoss (Barbara, Phoenix), whose screen intensity has earned comparisons to Isabelle Huppert, The Audition follows Anna, a musician who channels her midlife uncertainty into an unyielding control over her new young pupil while her own marriage falls apart. Teetering between perfection and perversion, Anna finds her symphonically arranged world going to pieces, which only doubles her desire for power. A pitch-perfect, Bach-heavy score provides a deceptively serene cover for this tale of human relationships and the psychological violence found even in the politest of bourgeois homes. “I think the family is the smallest social unit,” notes Weisse. “What you see in the family—all these difficulties to live together—you can see in the whole world.”