Madame Sousatzka

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.

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.

This movie was an extremely enjoyable experience. I loved every minute of it, even though the story itself is not much to talk about. Its really a slice of life, centering on a piano teacher and her star pupil. The pupil gets involved in the lives of the teachers' neighbors and that's the movie. It might sound boring but it is not. The characters are all sweet and kind to one another, for the most part, and have a real affection for each other too. A birthday party for Madame is a standout scene.

Shirley MacLaine does not rely on her usual mannerisms and delivers a powerful performance as Madame Sousatzka. The rest of the cast is great, too, especially Twiggy as the beautiful Jenny and Peggy Ashcroft as the landlord Lady Emily.

This is the ideal movie for a Sunday morning or when you want to be entertained by some good music surrounded by a good story.

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.

I can see how this movie would not be for everyone. However, it worked beautifully for me. It was a wonderful contrast of a renowned piano teacher who becomes too attached to her young prodigy. The story was a wonderful juxtaposition of classical performances, along with a study of the people involved. The story develops simultaneously with the evolution of the main charactors, and the acting was first rate. You don't have to love classical piano to enjoy this, but it probably helps. It is a fine story with many layers and I give it a thumbs up.