Worth: $17.00
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Cast:
Daniel Johns, Ben Folds, David Helfgott, Simon Tedeschi
Intro:
… rich in insight and includes truly great sounds.
When pianist Simon Tedeschi was eight, he won a prestigious open-age competition playing Mozart at the Sydney Opera House – causing the runner-up, a 21-year-old, to have a minor tantrum.
What makes someone like Tedeschi so talented? What goes on in the musical mind? This is the question director Scott Hicks seeks to answer in this involving documentary. Tedeschi is one of four musicians here – the other three being former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns, singer/songwriter Ben Folds, and classical pianist David Helfgott, the focus of Hicks’ most famous film, Shine.
Each story is equally interesting, and Hicks draws out fascinating insights and tales – like Daniel Johns describing being a teenager at his first ARIA Awards as he crosses paths with Janet Jackson, or Ben Folds talking about the music in his head that he just can’t turn off.
All four showed musical talent at a young age, with Helfgott and Tedeschi child prodigies. That term seems to weigh heavily on Tedeschi – there’s a sense that the pianist didn’t welcome the attention and accolades.
The absence of women as central subjects is more likely a reflection of the musicians that Hicks knew and had access to. Apart from the obvious connection with Helfgott, Tedeschi – or rather his young piano-playing hands – appeared in Shine. Folds is the subject of another of Hicks’ music-related works, the concert doco My Name’s Ben Folds – I Play Piano. Johns, meanwhile, has collaborated with Helfgott, and is Hicks’ friend.
Nevertheless, there are female voices here – including Helfgott’s late wife Gillian, Anne Phelan – the conductor of the amazing youth orchestra that Helfgott is involved with, and Tedeschi’s artist wife Loribelle Spirovski, whose many portraits of her husband provide part of the film’s visuals.
The visual arts is an undercurrent in The Musical Mind – as well as Spirovski’s work, Johns is seen doing Jackson Pollock style abstracts. Johns also explains his songwriting processes in a visual way – talking about textures and sketches, while he touches on having synaesthesia (where there’s a crossover in the senses and someone can, for example, see a shape when they hear a sound). Johns says he doesn’t know what music is, but he understands texture.
Does The Musical Mind get anywhere near discovering what makes a great musical talent tick? Maybe – one of the recurring themes is the left-of-centre mind … Both Johns’ and Helfgott’s mental health issues are well documented, while Tedeschi says he probably has “some kind of undiagnosed ADD”, and Folds refers to himself as “obsessive”.
The Musical Mind: A Portrait in Progress has no special effects or animated sequences, so common in today’s documentaries. It’s no-frills on that front, but rich in insight and includes truly great sounds.
Scott Hicks will participate in Q&A screenings at the following:
November 18 – Cinema Nova, Carlton Melbourne – 7pm
November 19 – Event Bondi, Sydney – 4pm
November 20 – Event Glendale, Newcastle – 6pm
November 26 – Palace Nova Eastend, Adelaide – 3pm
