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Madame Rosa Movie Review

Madame Rosa is a 1977 French drama film starring Simone Signoret. It is a very undeserved Oscar winner.

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“In my house, there’s no such thing

as an Arab state and a Jewish state“

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It follows an elderly Jewish woman and former prostitute in Paris who cares for a number of children, including an adolescent Algerian boy. This story was very strong for its time as it is politically correct and modern. That is why the critics loved it so much.

However, nowadays it doesn’t really hold up as we live in a more tolerant society. The problem here is that the dialogue and the script are as subtle as an earthquake. It is overly didactic and just not professional at all.

Certainly Simone Signoret’s performance is excellent as she plays this great woman so well. Both the character and the actress steal the show, but I disliked the kid and his lines of dialogue quite a bit.

Madame Rosa has its sweet moments, but it’s mostly overly sentimental and not sophisticated at all. I liked that it featured prostitutes and transvestites and that must have been groundbreaking for 1977, but it lost its edge in this day and age.

It is weakly paced and although mostly quite engaging, the story is quite slight and overly predictable, especially in its ending. I knew hot it would end and I wasn’t surprised. The acting is good, but the directing is quite weak.

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In my opinion the film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film mostly for its politics and it was obviously a political move. That is why it did not deserve it at all and is among the more forgettable winners in this category.

Madame Rosa certainly has good intentions and a great performance from Simone Signoret, but it is an underserved, dated Oscar winner with a thin, predictable plot, an overly sentimental approach and a didactic dialogue that is as subtle as an earthquake.

My Rating – 3