This is a film, European arthouse to its core, that seemed to look back at Hollywood’s “erotic thriller” boom — Basic Instinct, Body of Evidence, Eyes Wide Shut — and say: “Pah, that’s nothing.”

The film still holds the same fraught charge it did a quarter of a century ago.

Ambitious, profoundly articulate, and despite its avoidance of sentimentality and sermonising, very compassionate.

Although he is retired, Michael Haneke's films remain a beacon of hope in Cinema. Here is a true filmic poet with wisdom and insights that become crystal clear through his provocative and controversial films.