Madame Sousatzka

I see that Shirley MacLaine complained that no one got to see Madame Sousatzka in its first run. Well I can say that back in 1988 I did get to see this film with the late Daniel Strausbaugh in its initial run. Seeing it again 31 years later it is as fresh and original as it was on first viewing.

Playing the title role of a strict and demanding piano teacher recently settled in London MacLaine is far from some of the characters she did in her salad days. She's a good teacher, but she intrudes a bit too much into the lives of her students. She's not one to just take the money from parents who want their untalented kids. She's like a jockey who wants only to ride stake horse races.

Such a thoroughbred is Indian kid Navin Chowdhry whose mom Shabana Amzi is a single mom with a catering business who has sacrificed all for her talented kid.

The thing is Navin is a regular kid who likes to kid things such as rollerskating. A habit MacLaine cures him of. She nurtures his talent and him. But he does grow away from her because teenage boys do have hormones even if they're piano prodigies.

The cast is uniformly fine and this film should be better known. MacLaine's scenes with Chowdhry are special. You really do think this is a demanding teacher and pupil not just actors playing them.

If you like Shirley MacLaine this is a must.

Madame Sousatzka is one of those coming of age to win the big competition films; albeit, the kid doesn't come of age (that will be his next step) and there is no competition. And the lovable, eccentric coach is the maddening, overbearing piano teacher, Madame Sousatzka.

Sushila and Manek Sen, an immigrant Indian family, moves to London. Sushila, the mother, supports her son, Manek, by cooking pastries for an upscale department store out of her cramped kitchen. Manek is a raw child prodigy of the piano. For years, Sushila has been funding Manek's studies by selling off her family heirlooms.

They hook up with Madame Sousatzka, one of the top piano teachers in London. She has issues, however. She smothers her students. She has an "art for art's sake" philosophy, and she doesn't believe that her students should seek commerce for their skills. And she tries to hide her students from the world. Through flashbacks, she relives her failed career through her students.

I just finished watching this film for the second time--the first since 1988. It holds up really well. Shirley MacLaine, who plays the title role, gives one of her best performances. She is neither showy nor mannered, in a role that was too easy to devolve into both. Navin Chowdhry (Manek) seems like a natural at the piano. His part calls for him to be cocky and nervous, all at the same time. And he does it quite well. And the supporting roles from Twiggey to Peggy Ashcroft seem to hit the right chords.

There is a lot of great music in it. And the direction and the pace of the film are swift. I think if the film would have spent too much time talking about music, I would've been bored. As it is directed, I was captured by all the pieces played.

Finally, I couldn't help but notice that Ruth Praweer Jhabvala adapted this piece. (I, in fact, researched this film to find out who wrote it.) It's the work between A Room with a View and Howard's End. It really shows off her style of writing. There is this great sense of time and space of modern day London here, as there was in early twentieth century London in Howard's End. And dangerous intimacies seem to be a subject she likes tackling in all three films.

Overall, Madame Sousatzka is well worth the two hours.

Shirley MacLaine's Golden Globe winning performance was matched by India's gorgeous star actress, Shabana Azmi's as Sushila Sen. MacLaine's part is that of a reputably in high demand local piano teacher who takes younger piano prodigies to the brink of their entrance into public performances. Then, the big name men piano professors get a stronghold on them. Madame Sousatzka remains in the shadows as the one who truly molded them into great musical performers.

It's interesting that India's Shabana Azmi is hardly even mentioned as a best supporting actress though her part was to be the mother of one such piano prodigy who Sousatzka molded. A mother who baked & baked to earn the money for her son's piano lessons.

The plot, director, acting, actors, music, sets, lighting, editing & costumes are all very well done. In a world where every other word has to be bleeped because it's cursing, this film is refreshing and suitable to hold the interest of refined adults & children, especially ones interested in musical careers.

Too bad there wasn't made a Madame Sousatzka II and a Madame Sousatzka III with successive students. This film does more for any plausible immortality than her laughable, daffy & wild reincarnation baubles. Sousatzka is one hell of a story, and an A+ piece of direction by John Schlesinger. They should have made it at least twice. MacLaine and the director were absolutely the very best. Doubtless her best film maybe incl the Apt.

This movie was wonderfully written, produced and directed. A+. Easily a 3 star movie, esp if you are one of the many music persons who also play an instrument. However, I was a bit bewildered about the contribution of Twiggy and the boy's kissing her. MacLaine was outstanding!!