Madame Sousatzka

Madame Sousatzka is a 1988 drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the 1962 novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens.

Plot
Indian 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.

The Russian pianist and teacher Madame Maria Levinskaya (died 1960) inspired the character of Madame Sousatzka. The plot is based on the experiences of Harold Rubens, a child prodigy pianist who began lessons with Levinskaya from the age of seven (in 1925) and became her star pupil.

Cast

 * Shirley MacLaine as Madame Sousatzka
 * Navin Chowdhry as Manek
 * Shabana Azmi as Sushila
 * Peggy Ashcroft as Lady Emily
 * Robert Rietty as Leo Milev
 * Twiggy as Jenny
 * Leigh Lawson as Ronnie
 * Lee Montague as Vincent Pick

Availability
The film was released in U.S. theaters on 14 October 1988. Some time 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 28 August 2014.

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