Joe Gould's Secret

Starring:Nell Campbell, Patricia Clarkson, Allan Corduner, Hope Davis, Merwin Goldsmith, James Hanlon, Hallee Hirsh, Ian Holm, Laura Hughes, Sarah Hyland, Steve Martin, Jerry Mayer, Jack O'Connell (II), Ron Ryan, Susan Sarandon, John Tormey, Patrick Tovatt, Celia Weston, David Wohl
Studio: Polygram USA Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Based on a pair of delicious character portraits by The New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, "Professor Sea Gull" and "Joe Gould's Secret," Stanley Tucci's film is an often lovely study in opposites that never quite realizes the delicate complexity of Mitchell's rich essays. Tucci plays Mitchell, a transplanted southerner in New York with a honey-smooth lilt and a careful detachment from the world. When he sketches a profile of disheveled bohemian Joe Gould (Ian Holm at his scruffy, scrappy best) for The New Yorker, he inadvertently becomes a part of the volatile little man's life, and the chaos shakes up his carefully ordered world. As in his first film, Big Night, Tucci shows a sensitivity to performance and an easy naturalness in his direction, and his evocation of 1940s New York is understated but beautiful. Holm creates a vivid firecracker of a frustrated artist, an explosive personality whose character quirks add an almost aggressive edge to him. Gould is never cute, but Holm creates a sad sympathy for his frustration. But the real story is Mitchell's troubled relationship with the man and his own guilt and responsibility when he "escapes" Gould. There's a quiet melancholy when we discover Joe Gould's secret, but in a way it's only the prologue to Joe Mitchell's secret. Tucci's careful, precise direction is heartfelt and well meaning, but never cracks Mitchell's social mask to reveal the man underneath. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant evocation of an era.......2006-05-06

Tucci is an inspired director and actor. This film depicts with sensitivity and brilliance the relationship between a writer and his subject. The "grammar" of the film, camera angles, editing, symbolism, etc., is the best I've seen in years.However, it is much too artistic and subtle to appeal to a general audience. Tant pis! Congratulations Tucci! Please keep at it.

A psychological slant.......2006-02-25

I'm surprised no one mentions Joe Gould's obvious psychological problems. His own mother recognizes his difficulties when he is a very young boy. Gould's brilliance was as profound as his lack of boundaries and thought disorders. The dreadful trouble 'other' people eventually have when a person is not able to recognize normal adult 'self' boundaries is slowly and agonizingly developed in the film by all who care for him, especially in Joe Mitchell and the amazing Patricia Clarkson. Joe M's sense of guilt about his own desire to withdraw to more normal distances and responsibilities grows with each encounter following the publishing of the article. He slowly realizes Joe G's affections and dependencies on him and Gould's inabilities to follow up on his success to make a better life for himself. Ian Holmes is absolutely magnificent in his portrayal of madness!!!!! Stanley Tucci's emotionally profound moments build to the incredible conversation scene in the psychiatric hospital with the now medicated and more personally aware Joe G. who speaks of himself 'as a mad person'. Joe M. realizes how much he missed/did not see of Joe G's 'total self' experience when he wrote. He used Joe G's madness for his own clever aggrandizment and had no full awareness of the man or of the impact his relationship and his writing would have on this man's delicately built 'positive' life style. The most 'whole' description of Joe Gould's value was spoken by Susan Serandon: "Joe G's gregarious, exhibitionistic, grandiose, scattered but profound communications of his experience with his 'friends' (as in the party scene) she recognized as speaking for the universal 'unconscious' of the unseen people of New York City AND its artists. She valued the awareness he brought to those who were capable of allowing themselves to listen with their hearts and connect to him."
Another parallel Tucci brought out in the film was the deadening of the brilliance of Joe G. by the 'cure' of the Hospital meds, comparing it to the deadening of Joe G.s fragile lifestyle as his connections to Joe M./others disintegrated.
I wonder if Ian Holmes and/or Stanley Tucci have had personal experience with madness in their lives, as their ability to see into all of these people is so deep? If not, their artistic ability to see into souls, others and their own, is to be applauded, as is this incredible film, which ever way it was made.
Given the gradual and painful awareness of his role in Joe G.'s disintegration. it was not probably, in real life, a necessary outcome for Joe M. that he could not write again, but Stanley Tucci makes it crystal clear why it WAS EMOTIONALLY SO for the real Joe M.

A story does not end when the writer finishes writing..........2004-07-30

I watched "Joe Gould's Secret" without knowing that it was based on a true story, but was not surprised when that turned out to be the case because this 2000 film from actor/director Stanley Tucci rings true. Tucci plays Joe Mitchell, a columnist for "The New Yorker" magazine in the early 1940s who had a chance encounter with a Greenwich Village bohemian eccentric named Joe Gould (Ian Holm). His reporter's curiosity piqued, Mitchell asks around a bit and finds that Gould claims to be writing an epic Oral History of New York, an almost daily record of the conversations he has each day with the forgotten ordinary folks of the great metropolis (the Oral History has to be capitalized; that is clear from the way Gould and his friends talk about it).

The notebooks containing this million-word history are secreted around the city with the various artist friends who provide Gould patronage by listening to him and making monetary contributions to the Joe Gould Fund. The rationale for their indulgence is articulated by the painter Alice Neel (Susan Sarandon) who tells Mitchell, "I have always felt that the city's s unconscious is trying to speak to you through Joe Gould."

Mitchell discovers that Gould is a walking contradiction, capable of both quick bursts of anger and madness as well as perceptive insights into the human condition. He proves his credentials at being a superb listener by doing a Henry Higgins and telling Mitchell he was born in North Carolina based on a single sentence. Mitchell writes two articles about Gould for "The New Yorker." The first, "Professor Sea Gull," makes Gould even more of a cult figure about the New York intelligentsia, and a publisher (Steve Martin) is interested in at least reading the Oral History. But Gould refuses to let excerpts be published, saying it is all or nothing, and declaring it will only be produced posthumously. Years later, after Gould died, Mitchell would write a second essay, from which this film gets its title. However the delicious irony of this film is that the secret that lies at its heart belongs as much to Mitchell as it does to Gould.

Holm has the flashy part as the brilliant madman, but it is Tucci's Mitchell that is the pivotal performance. "Joe Gould's Secret" is more about how Mitchell sees Gould than we do in watching the film. There is a scene early on when Mitchell tries to explain to his editor why he might want to rewrite an article that has already been accepted for publication. Mitchell gropes without success for the words to speak out loud and his editor can only laugh and point out that it is a good thing this Joe writes better than he talks. But the exchange is significant because it speaks to the depths of Joe's emotions and intellect. We see or hear little of what Mitchell writes; most of the voice over narration has him quoting the words of Joe Gould. So it is the looks on Tucci's face, the way he sets his body, the pace of his walk, that give us our only clues to the deep rivers of his heart, mind, and soul. "Joe Gould's Secret" is a film in a minor key, but it is a nice little gem all the same.

A literary genius........2001-10-19

This historical comedy-drama is based on the true story of Joe Gould, a bohemian eccentric who was a fixture in New York's Greenwich Village from his arrival in 1916 to his death in 1964. Gould, who claimed to be a graduate of Harvard, would cadge drinks and subsist on catsup as he regaled patrons of neighborhood saloons with stories, poems, opinions, and his imitation of a seagull. In a 1942 New Yorker profile by journalist Joseph Mitchell, Gould spoke of his life's work, a book entitled An Oral History of Our Times, which he claimed would be eleven times longer than the Bible, contain a variety of overheard conversations from throughout the years, and document the decline of 20th century culture. Mitchell kept tabs on Gould, and tried to introduce him to publishers who might put his work into print, but nothing ever came of it, and it wasn't until Gould's death that Mitchell discovered the surprising truth about his friend.

fascinating true life story.......2001-06-11

What is history? Is it nothing more than the accounts we read in books of the exploits of various kings, queens, generals, armies, nations etc. as they wage war or deliberate peace throughout the endless millennia? Or is it - as Tolstoy implied - the sum total of the day-to-day actions of ordinary human beings eking out an existence on this unique little planet we call Earth?

These are the questions posed by Stanley Tucci's "Joe Gould's Secret," an intriguing little film based on the true story of a well-known eccentric who lived amongst and associated with the New York literati of the 1940's. This tale is really about two "Joes" - Joe Mitchell, a highly successful writer at "The New Yorker," and Joe Gould, a strange but alluring figure who shuffles his way around town begging for handouts, yet who claims to be a writer currently involved in authoring a monumental "oral history" of the world around him. Intrigued by this true eccentric, Mitchell decides to feature Gould in one of his magazine pieces. Thus, the two Joes spend countless hours together as Mitchell examines, records and tries to understand the lifestyle and thoughts of this most unique and extraordinary of individuals.

The best part about "Joe Gould's Secret" is that it allows the title character to remain something of an enigma throughout. It doesn't try to "explain" him or rob him of the ambiguity that makes him so fascinating a figure. In many ways, Gould fits perfectly the image of the artist we have come to romanticize and even glorify in our minds over the years. He is often gruff, irrational and temperamental, prone to wide mood swings and occasional violent outbursts, yet he is also capable of making profound insights and he possesses an innate ability to afflict the "comfortable" living in their smug little materialistic worlds - a tendency that endears him to the, perhaps, equally smug Bohemians around him. That he has to "suffer" for his art - he is virtually homeless and relies on the pecuniary contributions of his "friends" to get him by - only elevates his standing both in his own eyes and the eyes of many others. Credit the complex screenplay by Howard A. Rodman for being able to see that Gould may himself be suffering from delusions of grandeur that the people who admire him and the work he is doing simply reinforce - perhaps because they like to have a "colorful" character hanging around or because it makes them feel good to be minimally and patronizingly kind to a fellow human being (you will note that only one of his concerned "friends" or patrons is willing to provide him with a place to live - so much easier to hand him a few dollars and send him on his way). Even Mitchell becomes highly conflicted in his feelings towards Gould. Though at first intrigued by his eccentric nature, Mitchell, once the article is published and Gould has served his purpose, begins to see the man as little more than a daily annoyance, a time-consuming irritant to be gotten rid of. As Gould slips ever further into the realm of societal castoff, "Joe Gould's Secret" begins to take on the air of a profoundly sad human tragedy.

Yet, in the end, it is what Joe Gould stands for - his insistence that we shine a light on the forgotten members of the working class and the down-on-their-luck societal "losers" - that ends up making the strongest mark on both Mitchell and us in the audience. Though we are often appalled by the lifestyle Gould lives, we can't help but acknowledge the truth of his core conviction. Real history CAN be found every bit as much in the words, faces and lives of those people lurking in dingy pubs and toiling away in sweaty factories as it can in the royal courts and on the bloody battlefields that somehow preoccupy so many of the world's historians.

Ian Holm gives a brilliant performance as Gould, managing to appear both larger and smaller than life as the situation warrants. Whether he is rhapsodizing poetically about the meaning of life or extending his palm out in a poignant gesture of humiliating beggary, Holm makes Gould a completely believable and thoroughly unique character. Tucci, as Mitchell, the passive observer, has the less flamboyant role, but he manages to convey the seemingly contradictory nature of a man who wants both to remain skeptical and to believe in the "truth" of Gould and what he stands for.

Description

An interview with Richard Dawkins, Oxford University, about his new book, "Unweaving the Rainbow." A conversation with Stanley Tucci, Filmmaker and Actor, Susan Sarandon, Actor, about their new film, "Joe Gould's Secret." A conversation with Alain Ducasse, Chef/Restaurateur.

Joe Gould's Secret [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Average customer rating:

A story does not end when the writer finishes writing...

Joe Gould's Secret [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Stanley Tucci
Manufacturer: Lauren Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, 'Professor Seagull,' bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret. SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s),

Customer Reviews:

A story does not end when the writer finishes writing..........2006-05-16

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