Shine (film)
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| Shine | |
|---|---|
 original film poster. |
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| Directed by | Scott Hicks |
| Produced by | Jane Scott |
| Written by | Jan Sardi (screenplay) Scott Hicks (story) |
| Starring | Geoffrey Rush Noah Taylor Armin Mueller-Stahl |
| Music by | David Hirschfelder (original music) |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Simpson |
| Editing by | Pip Karmel |
| Release date(s) | 21 January 1996 (Sundance Film Festival) |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,500,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Shine is a 1996 Australian film based on the life of pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. It stars Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, John Gielgud, Googie Withers, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd, Chris Haywood, and Alex Rafalowicz. The degree to which the film's plot reflects the true story of Helfgott's life is disputed (see below).
The screenplay was written by Jan Sardi, and directed by Scott Hicks.
Contents |
[edit] Awards
Shine won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Geoffrey Rush), and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. It also won a BAFTA for best actor, a Golden Globe for best actor and nine AFIs.
[edit] Title
Several previous alternate titles included "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Helfgott". The title Shine connotes David's brightness while coming from a history of darkness.
[edit] Controversy
The movie has attracted reproach on two main grounds:
[edit] Margaret Helfgott's book
That certain events and relationships in David's life are portrayed wildly inaccurately, and sometimes fabricated, yet presented as faithful to the truth, in such a way that casually demeans the reputations of real people. Helfgott's sister Margaret Helfgott, in her book Out of Tune[1] stresses particularly the case of Helfgott's father Peter Helfgott, who was, according to her, a loving husband, over-lenient parent and very far from the abusive tyrant portrayed in Shine. Peter Helfgott's decision to prevent David from going overseas at the age of 14 was not made with the vindictive spirit portrayed in Shine, she claims, but a reasonable judgement that he was not ready for such independence. Helfgott's mother seems to have agreed; on seeing Shine, she said she thought that a great evil had been done. Margaret Helfgott further claims to have been pressured by David's second wife Gillian and by the publicisers of the film to stop making trouble for them by telling her story. Although Margaret Helfgott has possession of letters between Helfgott and his father, the copyright is held by Gillian Helfgott who has prevented their contents from being publicised.
Scott Hicks published a letter to the Wall Street Journal when Margaret Helfgott’s book first came out. The following are excerpts from Hicks' response to the reviewer for the Wall Street Journal August 27, 1998:
My primary source was not David Helfgott's wife Gillian, but David Helfgott himself. In Shine I made a film that speaks for itself, and I stand by the research that was conducted in preparation for it, drawn from numerous interviews with friends, relatives, teachers, medical people and colleagues of David's. A number of these people were adult observers of Peter Helfgott and his family when Margaret and David were very young children. I maintain that all of the actions of the character Peter Helfgott have their origins in real events. In fact, some people who knew David Helfgott's father have commented to me that it is, if anything, a rather kind portrait. Certainly, I was told of abuses far more serious than those shown in the film, which I chose not to include in order to spare the family as well as the audience. When David's sister Susie read the script, she thanked me sincerely for my discretion about these events, which I have never discussed publicly. Susie continues to dispute Margaret's view of events, and has said publicly that her sister views the past through "rose-coloured glasses." Margaret Helfgott's first words to me were, "My father was a saint," a view she continues to campaign for, but which is not shared by other members of her family. I believe she chooses, for reasons of her own, to block out the memories of the years she has described in her own letters to family members as "traumatized." David's brother, Les Helfgott, has repeatedly told me and others that his father hit him, on one occasion actually knocking him unconscious. Les was omitted from the screenplay at his own request. When I gave him the script to read, he asked to be included in it again, but added that he gave the film his blessing, regardless. I gave Les, David's sister Louise and his mother Rae the opportunity to preview the film privately and discuss it with me. Afterward, Les Helfgott wrote to thank me, saying, "Any fears we may have had regarding the film have now gone. You have done a brilliant job of Shine." Several weeks later, Les and Louise were my guests at the world premiere of the film, joining in the celebrations publicly with me. This was a strange way to show the concern and anger that Margaret's book would now have us believe they feel. Louise was also our guest during filming, and actually appears briefly in the film. Louise is the author of a play about Peter Helfgott (which she told me was workshopped at the Australian National Playwrights' Conference in Canberra) that is more explicit in its depiction of her father than is Shine. Margaret Helfgott is, of course, entitled to her memory, despite consistently denying her brother David's right to his. It is tragic that she is unable to share her brother's joy at recapturing fragments of his lost career while overcoming the difficulties of his past. Perhaps this is a reflection of a decades-old jealousy instilled by the intense spirit of competitiveness her father fostered between Margaret and David, as she herself describes in her book… She remains devoted to the memory of a complicated man who, whatever his merits, left behind him a family legacy that one psychiatrist who knew the Helfgotts described to me as "a bottomless pit of need."
[edit] Pianistic ability
That Helfgott's pianistic ability is grossly exaggerated. In a journal article[2], the New Zealand philosopher Denis Dutton speaks for many critics who claim that Helfgott's piano playing during his comeback in the last decade has severe technical and aesthetic deficiencies which would be unacceptable in any musician whose reputation had not been inflated beyond recognition, i. e. in Shine. Dutton claims that, while listening to the movie, he covered his eyes during the parts where Helfgott's playing was used in order to concentrate entirely on the music, and not be distracted by the acting. He felt that the musicianship, when perceived in isolation, was not of a particularly high standard. Despite being widely panned by professional piano critics, Helfgott's recent tours have been well attended because, according to Dutton, Shine's irresponsible glamorisation of Helfgott's ability has attracted a new audience who are not deeply involved in the sound of Helfgott's playing, thereby drawing deserved public attention away from pianists who are more talented and disciplined.
[edit] The music
[edit] Featured Piece
Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 plays a central role in the film:
- Sample from Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3
30-second sample from 1st movement (Allegro ma non tanto)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn, 1972
- Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Music Credits
- WITH A GIRL LIKE YOU
Written by Reg Presley, © 1966 Dick James Music Limited
Performed by the Troggs, (P) 1966 Mercury Limited - WHY DO THEY DOUBT OUR LOVE
Written and performed by Johnny O'Keef
© 1959 Victoria Music / MCA Music Australia Pty Ltd, (P) 1959 Festival Records Pty Ltd - POLONAISE in A flat major, Opus 53
Composed by Frederic Chopin, Performed by Ricky Edwards - FAST ZU ERNST - SCENES FROM CHILDHOOD oPUS 15
composed by Robert Schumann, Performed by Wilhelm Kempff
(P) 1973 Polydore International GmbH Hamburg - LA CAMPANELLA
From Violin Concerto in B minor by Niccolo Paganini
Transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt, Performed by David Helfgott - HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY No. 2 in C sharp minor
Composed by Franz Liszt, Performed by David Helfgott - FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE BEE
Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff
Arranged by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Performed by David Helfgott - GLORIA, rv 589
Composed by Anotonio Vivaldi, Arranged by David Hirschfelder and Ricky Edwards
© PolyGram Music Publishing / Mushroom Music - SOSPIRO
Composed by Franz Liszt, Performed by David Helfgott - NULLA IN MUNO PAX SINCERA
Composed by Anotonio Vivaldi, Arranged by David Hirschfelder and Ricky Edwards
© PolyGram Music Publishing / Mushroom Music
Performed by Jane Edwards (Soprano)
Geoffrey Lancaster (Harpsichord) and Gerald Keuneman (Cello) - DAISY BELL
composed by Harry Dacre
Arranged and Performed by Ricky Edwards, © Mushroom Music - FUNICULÌ, FUNICULÀ
Composed by Luigi Denze, Arranged by David Hirschfelder and Ricky Edwards
© PolyGram Music Publishing / Mushroom Music - PIANO CONCERTO No. 3 in D minor Opus 30
Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arranged by David Hirschfelder
Performed by David Helfgott, © PolyGram Music Publishing - PRELUDE in C sharp minor Opus 3, No. 2
Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Performed by David Helfgott, (P) 1994 RAP Productions, Denmark - SYMPHONY No.9 in D minor Opus 125
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven,Arranged by David Hirschfelder and Ricky Edwards
© PolyGram Music Publishing / Mushroom Music - APPASSIONATA SONATA, No.23 in F minor Opus 57
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, Performed by Ricky Edwards
[edit] Trivia
Geoffrey Rush resumed piano lessons - suspended when he was 14 - in order to act as his own hand double. [3].
[edit] References
- ^ Margaret Helfgott and Tom Gross, Out of Tune: David Helfgott and the Myth of Shine, ISBN 0-446-52383-6, pub. Warner Books (1998)
- ^ Denis Dutton, Philosophy and Literature 21 (1997): 340-345 [1]
- ^ Playing for their lives - interview with actors Noah Taylor and Geoffrey Rush - Interview
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Shine at the Internet Movie Database
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