The piano prodigy from a provincial Australian city is suffocated by his well-meaning, overprotective father, but finally breaks free only to implode with a nervous breakdown on the concert stage in London. He spends a decade in Australian mental institutions, and after his release wanders into a bar and invites himself to play the piano complete with vocal eccentricities to the stunned delight of all. This rekindles his career and sets up a meeting with a woman who falls in love with him.
Good story: even better because it's true. Better still because the pianist is very much alive, and living in a provincial backwater. David Helfgott is the pianist, and his return to the concert stage is enjoying the momentum of the release of his story, Shine, in Australian cinemas mid-August, on the eve of its prestige screening here in Venice.
This was the film at Sundance earlier this year, over which Miramax and New Line fought for US rights; this is the film which has screened at the film festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and which is rocketing the name of its director, Scott Hicks, into the A list.
Hicks had been working on the project with the help of the Australian Film Commission for some time before it became a viable production, when Hicks invited producer Jane Scott to come on board officially. Writer Jan Sardi was 'scrupulous' says Hicks, but he notes: 'The film is inspired by David Helfgott rather than being a biographical journey. But it's really a film and a story in its own right.'
Helfgott's eccentric personality, the drama of his struggle with a loving father, and the stranger-than-fiction elements of his resurrection as a pianist provided much of the base material for the project.
Hicks moves the story backwards and forwards through time, in 'a sort of mosaic structure rather than traditional flashbacks,' he says. 'In a way the structure mirrors the way Helfgott's mind and memory work.' Andrew L Urban
Prod co: Momentum Films
Prod: Jane Scott
Dir: Scott Hicks
Scr: Jan Sardi
Ph: Geoff Simpson
Prod des: Sally Campbell
Music: David Hirschfelder
Ed: Pip Karmel
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, Sir John Gielgud, Lynn Redgrave, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running time: 100 mins
Int sales: Pandora
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