This film certainly has rough edges, but this suits the depiction of the location at the time being portrayed. Most of the film was centred on the childhood of pianist Eileen Joyce. She lived in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, and at the time (some would say still) it was an isolated and rough mining area. Eileen's father was there to try to find a fortune in gold, but was actually very poor. The story is really about the struggles that the family and Eileen went through to develop Eileen's piano playing skills. The acting is adequate, without being exceptional, but this is not as important as the story, which is well presented. Some of the scenes of Eileen as a young girl actually 'playing' the harmonica and piano are very unconvincing. This can be forgiven as the audience is primarily there to be informed, rather than be entertained in the conventional filmic sense. The only real criticism I have is that the film ends too soon. I learned that Eileen Joyce went through a lot to actually become famous, but I learned nothing about what she did to become as famous as she did. The viewer gets the feeling that the production company ran out of money, so the bulk of Eileen Joyce's life was dealt with in about a minute of celluloid - lots of the old newspaper headlines ploy! Overall, this is a good film, and well worth watching. I rated it 7 out of 10.
8 Reviews
Classic Aussie 1951
gregorybecroft12 September 2021
I thought it was a great old Aussie classic, while it lacked the production of some more modern movies (apart from the special effects of the upside down camera shot towards the end) at least the camera people could hold the camera still enough to capture the dialogue and action. I saw some great old Aussie characters, some fantastic nostalgic palaverous dialogue and scenery that would be adored by Australians as they would, could and should. I see it as one of those stepping stones for the Aust film industry that has now made classic after classic. It's a bonza.
A fine watch, and snapshot of old Australia.
Nemesis4211 September 2021
Though the film is derived from a book which itself is a highly fictionalised version of Eileen Joyce's life, this is an enjoyable and uplifting watch. For example in the film she has one brother, when in fact there were 7 children in that family, two of whom died early on.
Nothing much that happens in the film depicts precisely what happened to her in real life, but does act as a kind of parallel version. For example, the miners round up donations for her when she was a young girl in Boulder, on order to fund a trip to Perth were she can enrich her talents. In real life the West Australian Premier Phillip Collier conducted a similar donation champaign to help her future.
I found it interesting to hear the yesteryear versions of the Australian accent. The film skips from her being a young girl to 50+ years old, with the in between completely missing. I would have liked to see more of what happened after she left the country town and went to Perth. Well, one can always carry on and do some research about this highly talented woman!
Nothing much that happens in the film depicts precisely what happened to her in real life, but does act as a kind of parallel version. For example, the miners round up donations for her when she was a young girl in Boulder, on order to fund a trip to Perth were she can enrich her talents. In real life the West Australian Premier Phillip Collier conducted a similar donation champaign to help her future.
I found it interesting to hear the yesteryear versions of the Australian accent. The film skips from her being a young girl to 50+ years old, with the in between completely missing. I would have liked to see more of what happened after she left the country town and went to Perth. Well, one can always carry on and do some research about this highly talented woman!
Early life of a great pianist
wilvram21 November 2015
A partially fictionalised account of the childhood of Eileen Joyce, who would go on to be one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century. It commences in her native Tasmania, where she's followed about by her beloved pet kangaroo, Twink. After learning to play the harmonica, she moves with her mother and brother to Western Australia to join her father who is labouring with very little success in the gold fields. The rest of the film depicts the grinding poverty of their existence, how Eileen loves the piano and is taught to play at Convent school, finally winning at a local music festival.
Suzanne Parrett gives a very likable, sympathetic, performance as the young Eileen, the early scenes being particularly charming, and there's no doubt that the film-makers' hearts were in the right place. But sad to say it all becomes increasingly slow and tedious, and it's hard to see the point of a biopic that ends abruptly just as its subject's life is becoming more interesting. The overall lack of imagination is perhaps reflected in the paucity of footage of Eileen Joyce herself, just a couple of brief extracts of her playing the Grieg Piano Concerto.
Suzanne Parrett gives a very likable, sympathetic, performance as the young Eileen, the early scenes being particularly charming, and there's no doubt that the film-makers' hearts were in the right place. But sad to say it all becomes increasingly slow and tedious, and it's hard to see the point of a biopic that ends abruptly just as its subject's life is becoming more interesting. The overall lack of imagination is perhaps reflected in the paucity of footage of Eileen Joyce herself, just a couple of brief extracts of her playing the Grieg Piano Concerto.
A biopic oh, so dreary...
melnar121 August 2015
Heavy-handed, dreadfully dreary somewhat fictionalized account of the young Eileen Joyce's introduction to the world of music, her subsequent passion for it and how she struggled against enormous odds to become proficient on the piano. Lack of support from her near-penniless parents did not help matters. Indeed, the story of her battles to procure a piano for practicing on were heart-rending.
Produced with very little humour, and imbued with an intense feeling of pathos throughout, this tear-jerker of a film was not fun to watch.
Having said all that, I have nothing but praise for the actress, Suzanne Parrett, who played the part of the young Eileen Joyce, and who acquitted herself very well indeed in an extremely negative role.
I would much prefer to have seen a biopic that treated Eileen's early life more superficially, and dealt with more of her later successful career as one of the most popular concert pianists of her time.
Produced with very little humour, and imbued with an intense feeling of pathos throughout, this tear-jerker of a film was not fun to watch.
Having said all that, I have nothing but praise for the actress, Suzanne Parrett, who played the part of the young Eileen Joyce, and who acquitted herself very well indeed in an extremely negative role.
I would much prefer to have seen a biopic that treated Eileen's early life more superficially, and dealt with more of her later successful career as one of the most popular concert pianists of her time.
A finely crafted Aussie classic
markoldrey16 May 2014
This is such a delightful film! Suzanne Parrett, as the young Eileen Joyce, is enchanting. This is a finely crafted film; the images, vernacular and social settings are iconic of Australia at that time, the middle 1920s. Each scene is beautifully composed and captures the landscape and characters perfectly. It is guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings as Eileen navigates through the minefield of adult skepticism in a tough economic environment. Hope is maintained by her meetings with a sympathetic swagman, an inspiring pianist in a piano shop and the rough but appreciative miners in Boulder. This wonderful film stands up there with A Bush Christmas, The Overlanders and Smiley as an Aussie classic.
what was the point?
malcolmgsw19 May 2019
Australia 1951
Mozjoukine15 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Hearts sink as we open with young Susanne Parrett whistling her pet kangaroo (that clearly resents the one occasion she has to pat it). WHEREVER SHE GOES combines the things that were wrong with the drab post-war English movies with the things that were wrong with naive Australian Cinema, what there was of it. We get a cast whose experience is largely in radio, lots of local colour, notably in the declining gold mining community of Kalgoorlie, and that cherished scenario where one of Australia's own achieves worldwide prominence.
The film is a fictionalised (we are told at the start) account of the childhood of then-famous concert pianist Eileen Joyce, conveniently giving us a local with some star value, a setting that is exotic to world audiences and a chance to lay on lots of classical music, which veteran Ernest Irving manages to use to underpin some of the location action quite effectively.
Young Suzanne Parrett shows a promise, that was sadly never realised, as the child of itinerant parents Muriet Steinbeck and Nigel Love. She encounters a swagman who is (of course) also an artist ("Swaggies are real people who live working about the country"). Overnight she masters the harmonica he gives her, starting her off on her musical ambitions where she (of course) shows exceptional talent. A shift to Kalgoorlie generates some bland drama. Mum Steinbeck has to live in a tent and cook with a kerosene Primus stove and Dad Lovell has to abandon his get rich schemes on a fellow no-hoper's mining leases and come on wearing a tie "I can work for a boss as well as the next man." Young Eileen/Susannne finds herself doing harmonica numbers and playing the battered piano in the boozer to get the sixpence the nun music teacher demands for lessons and buy scores from the snotty music store owner. This escalates to a campaign, where the scrubbed-up miners run a coins in the tin campaign to raise the expenses of the trip to the comic city audition, which (she of) course aces.
We are then treated to a montage of programs to grown Eileen's International and Australian concerts, climaxed by an uncharacteristically spectacular finale drawing back from her playing the packed Albert Hall's Steinway.
All this does finally gets to be quite endearing, coming closer to the Children's Film Fund BUSH CHRISTMAS than Co-producer Ealing's ponderous Colonial epics of the day, like EUREKA STOCKADE or THE OVERLANDERS. Director Michael Gordon is proficient rather than inspired, bringing up a light on Parrtett's face as she spots the piano, and the production only occasionally gets away from the expatriot crew - shot of the kids jiggling against a studio truck cabin to suggest driving, the pub verandah singer out of synch with his track. Leading local cameraman George Heath comes off best, making his filter effects emphasise the striking cloudscapes behind bush and mine scenics, though we remain aware of the use of lighting units.
The film is a fictionalised (we are told at the start) account of the childhood of then-famous concert pianist Eileen Joyce, conveniently giving us a local with some star value, a setting that is exotic to world audiences and a chance to lay on lots of classical music, which veteran Ernest Irving manages to use to underpin some of the location action quite effectively.
Young Suzanne Parrett shows a promise, that was sadly never realised, as the child of itinerant parents Muriet Steinbeck and Nigel Love. She encounters a swagman who is (of course) also an artist ("Swaggies are real people who live working about the country"). Overnight she masters the harmonica he gives her, starting her off on her musical ambitions where she (of course) shows exceptional talent. A shift to Kalgoorlie generates some bland drama. Mum Steinbeck has to live in a tent and cook with a kerosene Primus stove and Dad Lovell has to abandon his get rich schemes on a fellow no-hoper's mining leases and come on wearing a tie "I can work for a boss as well as the next man." Young Eileen/Susannne finds herself doing harmonica numbers and playing the battered piano in the boozer to get the sixpence the nun music teacher demands for lessons and buy scores from the snotty music store owner. This escalates to a campaign, where the scrubbed-up miners run a coins in the tin campaign to raise the expenses of the trip to the comic city audition, which (she of) course aces.
We are then treated to a montage of programs to grown Eileen's International and Australian concerts, climaxed by an uncharacteristically spectacular finale drawing back from her playing the packed Albert Hall's Steinway.
All this does finally gets to be quite endearing, coming closer to the Children's Film Fund BUSH CHRISTMAS than Co-producer Ealing's ponderous Colonial epics of the day, like EUREKA STOCKADE or THE OVERLANDERS. Director Michael Gordon is proficient rather than inspired, bringing up a light on Parrtett's face as she spots the piano, and the production only occasionally gets away from the expatriot crew - shot of the kids jiggling against a studio truck cabin to suggest driving, the pub verandah singer out of synch with his track. Leading local cameraman George Heath comes off best, making his filter effects emphasise the striking cloudscapes behind bush and mine scenics, though we remain aware of the use of lighting units.
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