Customer Reviews

Madame Sousatzka [VHS]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the films that I remember for many reasons. If you have a love for the the teacher's ardent desire to share passion, classical music, family drama and the idea of living life with purpose, you'll love this film. Shirley MacClaine is an idiosyncratic, passionate teacher of music as well as life. She wears her heart of her sleeve and uses a personal and vulnerable approach to teaching the piano. The situation with her main pupil is complicated and challenges her to give without knowing whether her dreams will come true.

John Schlesinger became famous as a polemic and very socially oriented director, but this is his Masterpiece of all times.

It is not a monumental movie and it is not a box-office smashing hit.

No. This is a far superior work of artistry, worked and reworked from the guts and above all, from the heart.

The story is very skillfully developed and has plot twists and turns as the classical masterpieces interpreted in this movie.

Yes, because it is a tale of two cultures: the Western and the Eastern. The western side is taken by a (Russian?) piano teacher, living in London (masterfully played by a magnificent Shirley MacLaine) and the Eastern is represented by a would-be
and reticent Hindi piano student.

Not only does Schlesinger tell us the story of the two and their passions and strives in life, but also gives us a whole palette of undertones in quite different social worlds.

Despite its length (slightly over two hours) the movie has never a dull moment or a static conversation. Emotions are fully and honestly expressed by all involved and never for a moment, one can feel he is watching a movie here.

Quite the contrary. All the characters play their parts so much to the hilt, that it "sucks" us in and doesn't let loose until the end credits roll.

I am not an emotional person generally, and many "tearjerkers" only make me crack up, so academic they are, but when I watched this movie for the first time in New York City at the Carnegie Odeon Movie Theater, I must admit I came out in tears and had to make an effort not to be noticed for that.

Not that it is particularly sad, quite the contrary. Despite some very dramatic moments, it is truly a wonderful comedy.
No the sadness comes out from the realism contained in the lives of the characters, in which we all could find similarities.

The dreams, the passions, the disappointments, the crime and punishment and finally, the absolute redemption are all very important factors in this excellent movie.

The music world is only a mask to show us a much deeper view on society as such. But the film is conducted by Schlesinger (the old fox) as an orchestra conductor, directing a symphony by Beethoven.

His baton is light but never loses out on a note. His conducting is comparable to the mastery of Herbert von Karajan. The only difference is that he waltzes with a camera.

If you want to discover a different movie from the same-o, same-o, then this is an absolute must see.

I personally laughed, cried, got concerned and was worried, was uncomfortable, then immediately relieved by pleasant surprises throughout the entire movie, but above all, it made me think about the similarities with my own world and this is probably why I learned to love this tiny masterpiece.

I just own the VHS version, but would like to plea the producers of the movie (Universal was the distributor, but the movie was a Cineplex/Odeon production) and all those who are involved in DVD production to finally decide to release a pristine copy, with a decent digital sound and a crisp image.

Of all the movies around, this one surely would merit an extra effort to digitalize it and therefore preserve it for posterity.

I can only recommend it. This movie is for all, although some scenes may be a bit difficult to understand by younger audiences, without an adult presence. But in reality, this is a naive suggestion, since it has to be watched by the entire family on a quiet movie evening around the living room.

You need some concentration though, to watch it. It is not a popcorn and beer movie. This is a movie for those who love to think.

This is wonderful movie whose release on DVD is long overdue. Shirley McLaine was wonderful as Madame Sousatzka -- a bit like my own red-haired, eccentric piano teacher in college. The plot and characters are unique and memorable. What a shame this exceptional movie has not been released on DVD by now.

This fine movie and its wonderful soundtrack are too good for VHS and deserve to be preserved on DVD.

Wonderful film with flawless performances! It is also one of the most underated films ever and it'll be a shame if it is not "preserved" on DVD format! This movie really draws you in and Shirley MacLaine was really incredible in her role as the eccentric passionate music teacher! I love this movie and can go on forever talking about it but I guess I will just end here and keeping my fingers crossed that they will release it on DVD!

I just watched this movie on an old vhs taped off of HBO from the late 80's! Terrible quality and sound, but a fantastic movie nontheless and it reminds me so much of my childhood. I need this on DVD. Who do we petition to get this on DVD?!?!

This was a very inspirasional movie about a young Indian boy and his piano teacher who live in England. Madame Sousatska is a piano teacher who teaches the piano with the same methods that were her mother taught to her by her mother years before. She was a very good teacher, but after her first live performance, she was overcome with stage fright and played the wrong bars. She had been haunted by that experience ever sense then. When he becomes her new student, there are troubles between both people. She doesn't want him to make the same mistake she did years ago. He wants to play in public, while she doesn't want him to. This is a very moving tale. Shirley MacLaine's acting in this movie was one of her greatest.

It is one beautiful movie I've ever watched. The movie deals with so many issues: clash of western/eastern cultures, a 13-year-old boy going through the pain of growing, society problems in England -- the tenants are chased out of their apartment because someone thinks the apartment needs to be torn down, an old man being mugged by young boys, etc. There are class issues as well. And the boy, the piano student, is being pulled toward pre-mature success, against his teacher's will, because his single mother has lost her job and they have no other means to survive. The clash between the mother and his teacher (played by Shirley MacLane) is pretty real and funny too. Two women compete each other to mother him, and he is at the age he wants to be independent. He's also attracted to a woman who lives in the same apartment as his teacher.
All these issues are finely woven, and you will see the real lives of all who are involved. Obstacles are everywhere, but regardless of what happens, the boy cannot stop from growing and he moves on.

Wonderful, wonderful movie. A must for movie lovers.

This movie made a Shirley MacLaine fan out of me. Madame Sousatzka is a flamboyant, eccentric piano teacher who struggles with her past as she seeks to make the best of her students. She is a stern but loving taskmaster as she teaches a young man not only about music, but about life. If for nothing else, the film is worth watching for an elegant dinner party scene in which teacher and student play a Schubert piece for four hands, amid what appears to be hundreds of burning candles. Subplots involve changes in the lives of the residents of Madame Sousatzka's aging but lovely apartment building and finding companionship in old age.

I appreciate this film more now than I did when it first came out and wish it were more generally available, especially on DVD. While it certainly is a great vehicle for Shirley MacLaine, it is more than just a showcase for her. It is a story about transitions, of being between worlds and finding one's way through being defined by others. The ostensible point of the story is the art of playing classical piano.

Madame Sousatzka (MacLaine) is an older and famous piano teacher. She is known for her authoritarian and, well, old fashioned ways. However, she produces students who can really play. The problem is they tend to leave her. Of course, one thing piano teachers (all teachers) know when a student starts with them is that the relationship will, at some point, come to an end as the student goes off on their own path. In reality, a great teacher knows this and the very best ones teach their students to become independent and able to learn and work on their own. However, the teaching of piano is still the older style of master - student intimacy and when a student leaves before the master is ready or if the student is rejected by the master, well, terrible hurts are unavoidable.

Madame's rigidity and demanding demeanor come from her own training from her mother, who was an even greater concert artist. The studio is dominated by a large portrait of her mother and so much of what Sousatzka does flows from her relationship with her mother. The mother, though, was not a healthy teacher for her daughter. During the movie we learn about a terrible source of pain and fear that still grips Madame at the present time of the movie. It has paralyzed her for much of her life, even while Madame still idolizes and imitates her mother more than she knows. For Sousatzka the transitions are between a past world that has a dying place in the present and the question of whether she can ever get free of her mother and her own painful memories.

The student in this movie is Manek Sen (played quite well by Navin Chowdhry). He is a brilliantly talented boy from an immigrant family. He has his own domination problems with his own mother and then gets into a domineering student-teacher relationship with Sousatzka. He has pressures from his mother who constantly lets her know of all her sacrifices (working and selling her jewelry) to get him his training and wants to be taken care of. Manek doesn't like the man she has taken up with, and wants to use his gifts to provide for her (his father has died). Since musical prodigies make good box office, he is also being pursued by an agent who wants to get him on the stage - the agent is also trying to get him to another teacher. Manek also has terrible pressures about his own Indian culture versus the European culture he is living in and whose music he is learning to play. Sousatzka is trying to remake him into a European so he can play the music more completely, but his mother resists the change because of her own desires to keep her boy close to her.

Madame is dead set against him going to the stage to early, because of her own painful experience. And this holding back from the stage is what causes her students to leave. They want to play. She wants to spare them from the pain of failing on stage without ever explaining it.

Well, I don't want to share how all this comes together, but the ending of the movie does have transitions made and not everything is wrapped up neatly. However, we know more about where everyone is going and understand why.

As for the playing in the movie, it is pretty good. The difference between the student playing of pieces and the teacher is interestingly different. And the concert performances do make sense. However, this is not so much a movie about classical music as using classical music to tell its real story.