Shine (1996)*****

Seen on 18-8-2009 - A Star Movies film

Cast: Geoffrey Rush (David Helfgott), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Peter)

Dir.: Scott Hicks

"A riveting profile of Australian keyboard virtuoso David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush) and his ultimate triumph over a domineering, abusive father (Armin Mueller-Stahl); schizophrenia; and an obsession with the all but unplayable Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. Sir John Gielgud, superb as ever, plays Helfgott's tutor. Richly deserved Oscars went to Rush (Best Actor) and to Mueller-Stahl for his supporting turn."---A Netflix summary

My comments: This kind of movie makes our day; it adds meaning to the humdrum routine of life. The Australian pianist's genius appears to have been thwarted by his circumstances; it would have flourished and reached great heights in happier circumstances. Although you'd end up blaming the father's oppressive influence, given the holocaust trauma that the father himself had suffered (he is a Polish Jew who survived Hitler), you couldn't have blamed. His desperate but savage aggression on his hapless son when he gets the chance to go to the US to study music is understandable because of his fears about family disintegration. If he pushes his son to pull off Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 against the local tutor's warnings, it is to enable his son reach the pinnacle of achievement of which is fully capable. The son himself measures against the standards set by his father all his life and seeks his approval and pride even after estrangement. This is pathetic. In a way the father as well as the Rach 3 are the undoing of David although he finds some solace from a woman admirer in the end.

But what is most amazing about David is that although on the outside he is insane, he insanely coherent and passionate when he begins to play music. These words of Roger Ebert about David are instructive: "What is terrifying for him is that the better he gets, the closer he comes to expressing feelings that his father has charged with enormous guilt. The ``Rach 3'' is a tumult of emotion, and what happens is that David cannot perform it without being destroyed by the feelings it releases." We feel absolutely handicapped by the lack of background necessary to appreciate the Western music which sends all those people into ecstasy.

This is a great biopic.