Madame Sousatzka

Madame Sousatzka
Directed by John Schlesinger
Written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (based on the novel by Bernice Rubens)
Starring Shirley MacLaine
Navin Chowdhry
Shabana Azmi
Peggy Ashcroft
Twiggy
Leigh Lawson
Barry Douglas
Music by Gerald Gouriet
Cinematography Nat Crosby
Edited by Peter Honess
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
 October 14, 1988
Running time
 122 minutes
Language English
Budget $9 million
Box office $3,548,238

Madame Sousatzka is a 1988 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens.

Plot synopsis

Bengali immigrant Sushila Sen (Shabana Azmi) lives in London with her son Manek (Navin Chowdhry) who is musically gifted. She supports them both as a caterer of Indian food, while Manek studies the piano with Madame Sousatzka (Shirley MacLaine), who is a Russian-American immigrant. Madame Sousatzka, while highly talented, never succeeded as a pianist and thus lives through her students, particularly talented ones such as Manek. Manek is soon forced to choose between Madame Sousatzka and his mother who both compete for his attention.

Cast

Awards

Availability

The film was released in U.S. theaters on October 14, 1988. Sometime after its theatrical run, the movie was released on videocassette by MCA Home Video in 1989. The movie was released on DVD in the U.S. by Universal Studios Home Entertainment under their Vault Series banner on August 28, 2014.

A region 2 DVD was released by Network in 2007 (catalogue nr. 7952723). The extras are a trailer and some production stills.

External links