John Schlesinger's "Madame Sousatzka" (1988) This is an adaptation of the novel by Welsh writer Bernice Rubens, her real name is Bernice Reuben, her father was an orthodox Jew, who at the age of 16 in 1900 wanted to emigrate from Lithuania to America, but failed, got only to Wales, where he later married an immigrant from Poland. The
more
John Schlesinger's "Madame Sousatzka" (1988) This is an adaptation of the novel by Welsh writer Bernice Rubens, her real name is Bernice Reuben, her father was an orthodox Jew, who at the age of 16 in 1900 wanted to emigrate from Lithuania to America, but failed, got only to Wales, where he later married an immigrant from Poland. The family had four musically gifted children, the oldest of whom - Harold - was a real prodigy and from the age of seven began to travel to London to the famous teacher originally from Russia Maria Levinskaya. Here, to some extent, the story of Harold and formed the basis of the plot of the novel “Madame Suzatzka”. Bengali immigrant Shushila Sen (Shabana Azmi) is very proud of her musically gifted son Manek (Navin Chowdhry), doing everything in her power to make him do music, so that after another successful performance, he gets to the famous teacher Madame Irina Suzacki, who is going to make him a real pianist. Being herself a gifted pianist, she at one time failed at one performance and stopped performing, after which she developed her own system based on her mother’s system, which includes not only learning to play the piano, but also educating her in her own spirit. Being by nature very domineering, she tries to crush the student under herself, not taking into account that in the past such her tactics have already ended in defeat for her. So in the case of Manek, a struggle begins between her and his mother. The mother, being quite poor (Manek pays school fees), sleeps and sees when he starts performing and making big money, especially since her own small catering business fails due to her not too conscientious attitude to hygiene. Madame has another enemy - the neighbor's lover, music agent Bloom, who heard Manek's play, immediately understood his extraordinaryness and decided to make money on him. Having got into a difficult financial situation in the family, Manek agrees to perform at the festival, about which Madame does not want to hear, but his mother is very proud. How will this whole story end? The situation is difficult for everyone and it will bring change. Despite this plot simplicity, I watched the film with interest, let’s say I listened to it, because the film sounds a very large amount of beautiful classical music, so I can advise watching the film only to fans of classics like me. Of course, Shirley McLaine in the role of Madame Suzatzka may interest some, the rest of the actors are also quite in their place, and the boy in the role of Manek is very good.
|