The Eulogy

If you're fascinated by classical piano, or indeed manipulative mothers, this is a must watch. Even if you're not, it has surprising resonance.

The Australian Geoffrey Tozer was a world-level pianist (no, seriously) who flickered out early, but resurged under the patronage of Australian PM Paul Keating. When it all goes pear shaped once again, the suspects are variously too much patronage, the mother's death, the agent's death, or the end of the affair.

Resisting the urge to turn all this into white-hats and black-hats, director Janine Hosking achieves something better, a compact and original doco about the ominous and unlikely places from which great art arises.

My Review- The Eulogy My rating 8:10 There are two great documentary movies in Cinemas at the moment about the lives of famous Classical artists Pavarotti and Geoffrey Tozer. Pavarotti I knew a lot about but Geoffrey Tozer I knew nothing about. Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer (5 November 1954 - 21 August 2009) was an Australian classical pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China, where he performed the Yellow River Concerto to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Gerhard.

The film opens with Paul Keating ex Australian PM and great friend and champion of Geoffrey Tozer recreating his controversial Eulogy which blasted the Arts Community that in his opinion contributed to the premature death at age 54 of Geoffrey Tozer. Beloved Conductor and teacher Richard Gill takes us on a forensic journey to find out what happened to the talented pianist that many say was Australia's greatest. Through interviews and footage many theories are explored such as the parental pressure placed on a gifted young child to excel and over achieve or the lack of commissions that Tozer was offered by the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony orchestras then a friend of Geoffrey Tozer even unjustly blamed his lover who says he asked Tozer to seek help for his alcoholism in vain then ended their relationship. My answer to what happened to cause a 54 year old man to die derelict and alone in his home was the disease he acknowledged having and written in his diary Alcoholism. People referred to his "problem " with alcohol that really annoys me it's like saying an alcoholic has a problem with a loaded gun after dying of Russian roulette. It's often referred to as "the great remover" it removes ambition, talent, and eventually removes the alcoholic permanently ,thankfully we have the legacy of Geoffrey Tozer's recordings.

As I watch this movie (right now), I feel sad that such a great talent was greatly wasted. Then at the one-hour mark, they suddenly mention that Tozer's improvisations are what turned orchestras off toward him. What?! They made no mention of this valid point until now?! I wondered why it had another 45 minutes left, since it seemed complete.

I will continue watching, but viewers should know that if they leave too soon, they have only heard half the story. It's unfair of the director to save such important information for the middle.