An unintended viewing of a film was destiny’s plan for me over the weekend. I lazily switched on the television and fell directly onto the stoic opening shot of the movie.
An unintended viewing of a film was destiny’s plan for me over the weekend. I lazily switched on the television and fell directly onto the stoic opening shot of the movie. I continued watching and could not give up till the very end.
I am no movie buff, but good films like any work of art, do not fail to move me. An austere convent, nuns in habit, giggling young girls reprimanded for their silliness and coaxed into a disciplinarian life style alongside regular music lessons, was the simple backdrop. I knew it all too well, coming from a convent-educated background myself of Mumbai in the seventies. As the film unfolded, it laid bare the difficulties of running an institution against changes that are certain but nevertheless coarse to bear. The film is constructed in several layers that seamlessly dwell on the reforms of the Vatican Council, educational changes, the renunciation of the habit, the shock and disbelief of the older nuns, the pain of parting, of losing a loved one, of holding on against odds, the power of music and essentially the pathos that comes with accepting the inevitable and still trudging forward, make this a fine and endearing film.
The convent that Mother Augustine ran was like none other. It was the only school that specialised in music and she was proud of the fact. Music lessons were sacrosanct with Augustine immersing herself completely in training her prize-winning wards. There's place only for music over here, frets an old nun when a brand new piano arrives at the convent. Every teacher awaits the ideal pupil and Augustine’s manifests itself in Alice Champagne, her troubled and rebellious niece who comes to the convent boarding. The girl's intense love for music translates itself into her playing. When she is at the piano, she transforms, comes to life with renewed energy that pervades all around, leaving her classmates breathless in admiration.
The teacher, herself an excellent pianist conceals her conspicuous pride, nudging her disciple to get better, teaching her fingering techniques, showing her the path ahead.
When the creative young girl innovates with Bach, keeping just the prelude intact and composing the rest on her own with liberal touches of jazz, she receives her first important lesson in music from her teacher- master the genre and the composition before you can think of the next step of innovation. Her second lesson — put the feeling into the music. “With every chord, a new emotion surfaces,” explains Mother Augustine. She urges her pupils to get into the skin of the composer to sense the music, to throb with the sensation, to revisit music “as a prayer for the soul.” Her third — there is no alternative for hard work. Precious and time-tested lessons for any musician, student and teacher.
I was stupefied by the craft of the young actress that played Alice Champagne. She was natural and gifted at the piano, her virtuosity more than evident. A splendid actress who encapsulated the rhapsody of music in her enraptured smile, the twitch of her fingers, her whole body responding as it were to the call of music. It was no actress, but Lysandre Ménard, the young virtuoso pianist who played Alice's role to perfection and made me want to discover her more.
Alice Champagne overcomes her personal grief with the loss of her mother but Augustine does not win the battle against socioeconomic and cultural changes that force the music convent to be shut. Her superiors turn a deaf ear, her passion knocks itself against dead walls. A few influential people that nurture music cannot help more than they can and the convent has to shut its doors forever.
The nuns will be relocated, other schools will run but the only convent that held music as it unique asset had to go. This move, perceived as unjust and devastating, pushes Augustine to lay down her cross and move back into pedestrian life with characteristic dignity as Simone, her name before the vows. However, the journey with music goes on. Simone's protégée pays heed, works intensely with her guru and eventually wins the coveted medal for which they both toil. It is a world of women, a world of music that we discover in the film. The camera moves adroitly from beautiful shots of nature, to the dexterous fingers on the piano, to the subtle emotions on the face of the pianist, to the walls of the music school cum convent. The fluidity of music is amply and aptly represented, without failing to make the connect with humanistic values. A gentle human saga at many levels, with music at the heart of it all from start to end. An ironic reminder also that whether the sixties or today, the culling of the arts troubles but a few. Any music lover will adore The Passion of Augustine, a 2015 award-winning Canadian movie in French, set in Quebec of the sixties.
Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan is an eminent Carnatic vocalist based in Mumbai. She can be contacted on vasu@vasumathi.net
