Sorry for the messy way my previous comment on this thread came out. I'm having
trouble with new software. I'll try again here to see if I can remedy the
problem. Apologies if it's still messy.
Joan Warmbold includes on her list
for summer reading *Love You to Bits and Pieces: Life with David Helfgott*. I
suggest anyone reading this book by honorary life member of the Australian
Federation
of Astrologers Gillian Helfgott should immediately take an antidote in the form
of the book co-authored by David Helfgott's eldest sister Margaret and
journalist/commentator Tom Gross: *Out
of Tune: David Helfgott and the Myth of "Shine"*
The film "Shine", based on
the story propagated by Gillian in 20her book, enraged David Helfgott’s family,
family friends, and other people associated with David’s life, because of its
gross misrepresentations, both of individuals and events. Margaret's account is
backed up by
quotations from numerous people who
knew the family at all periods of their lives, and who have provided testimony
that the portrayal of David's father in the film (and specifically his
behaviour towards David) is a travesty of the facts. The Reverend Robert
Fairman, who knew the family and ran a halfway house where David Helfgott
stayed for seven years after a lengthy period of hospitalisation, writes that
in the whole of that time "he never said one angry word about his father".
He also said of the "
Shine" filmmakers that their "line of
thinking must have been: 'Why let facts get in the way of a good story?'."
A consequence of David Helfgott's
mental disorder was that he became a child-like adult. His
first wife was a nurse several years
older than him. His second wife Gillian, then a professional astrologer, was
sixteen years older than him and effectively ran his life and told him what to
do.
Here is Denis Dutton, editor of Arts
and Letters Daily, commenting on David Gelfott's
schizophrenia and the claim his
mental disorder was brought on by his father's brutality:
"Whatever its etiology, his disease is not something
explained by life with an unpleasant f
ather. This is a view shared by
Helfgott’s sister, Margaret, who has objected to the 'derogatory and insulting'
portrayal of their father in the film. As for their mother, who now lives
in Israel,
she said after the film was released that "Shine" 'haunts me day and
night. . .I feel an evil has been done.' It is hard not to sympathize with
Mrs. Helfgott. On her and her daughter’s testimony, Peter Helfgott never struck
his son…"
http://www.denisdutton.com/helfgott.htm
Allen Esterson
Former lecturer,
Science Department
Southwark College, London
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