32 Short Films About Glenn Gould

Starring:Colm Feore, Derek Keurvorst, Katya Ladan, Devon Anderson, Joshua Greenblatt, Sean Ryan, Kate Hennig, Sean Doyle (III), Sharon Bernbaum, Don McKellar, David Hughes, Carlo Rota, Peter Millard, John Dolan (II), Allegra Fulton, Dick Callahan, Guy Thauvette, R.D. Reid, Conrad Bergschneider, Gerry Quigley
Director: François Girard
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

François Girard originally conceived 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould as a biography to try to explain the bizarre genius of the master pianist who stopped touring in 1963 at the height of his success. The 32 parts play out key moments of Gould's life without stringing them together. They go from realistic (a scene in a Hamburg hotel in which Gould turns a maid on to the wonder of music) to nihilistic (a segment solely made up of the drugs Gould presumably took). Stratford actor Colm Feore is quite good as the slyly introverted, soft-spoken figure, although this film is more of an examination of loneliness than of music. The key question is, Does this docudrama enlighten us better than a straightforward documentary on Gould would? Probably not. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews:

Eccentric Biopic For An Idiosyncratic Performer.......2007-06-16

Perhaps you are a Gould devotee or perhaps one with little patience for his many oddities or the cult-ish devotion showered upon his legacy. For either case this biopic tastefully illuminates some of his major obsessions and choices: the decision to stop performing in public, his self-important opinions on the role of the artist in society, his delirious love of music and the sharing of it...

This amalgam of short vignettes sidesteps the many trappings of cinematic film bios. Gould is never sentimentalized and the filmmakers never try to embellish or over-interpret the fact that Gould's personae was, an remains, a difficult nut to crack. The short films recreate significant moments in his life, interviews with associates, and more mundane events that nonetheless sparkle, such as one in which Gould prompts a housekeeper to listen and ultimately engage in this music. By the end you feel you know something more about him, yet you hardly know him, a truth many film bios feel an urge to manufacture their subject's motivations. Indeed, the lead actor is never shown playing the piano. More importantly, you feel Gould's connection to the music, and its infectiousness will make new fans of many who see this.

A different kind of biopic: the Gould variations.......2007-04-18

Usually most films with biographies of famous people have mostly the same structure: born, struggle, die - but this movie is different. It is obviously based on the Goldberg Variations, or, in this case, the GOULD variations. We see 32 different aspects of Gould's life: from his obsessions with medication to the way he was fascinated with conversations in a diner - that led to his audio documentaries. It is interesting, different storytelling. One of my favorite biopics!

A real treat.......2007-03-01

It is a shame this DVD is out of print. I have an old VHS which I've enjoyed immensely and would dearly love to get a fresh copy. The film offers a very unusual look at an unusual musician. Gould always was a bit of a recluse, with a lot of strange habits. Colm Feore does a wonderful job of capturing the great pianist and composer, famous for his interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Gould had an ear for a panoply of sounds as well as music, which is captured in the scenes of Gould listening into the talk swirling around him in a diner. The short films capture a wide range of moods, summing up as best as one can Glenn Gould's enigmatic life.

Not short enough.......2006-06-24

Based on my back-of-the-envelope calculations, this has 37 more short films about Glenn Gould than I'm willing to watch.

The film won awards because it should've. .......2006-02-07

Colm Feore is excellent as Glenn Gould, and there is the film. There are some wonderful musical interludes and visual interpretations, but Feore is the film.
Now, does the film cover every aspect of Glenn Gould's life? No. But what biographical film ever does? I've read a couple biographies, and some entertaining facets of Gould's life were missed. The characters he created and performed as weren't even mentioned but his wit and warmth as a human being were expounded upon by people who actually knew him--now that is valuable, seeing and hearing the people who were touched by that great pianist.

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