Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58918 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

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

From The New Yorker
Glenn Gould, as scorned and revered as any figure in modern music, died in 1982. François Girard's new movie honors his strong-willed, idiosyncratic genius with a suitably offbeat approach: a bunch of little films, none lasting more than a few minutes, all of them angling for a new take on the pianist's life and work-thirty-two ways of looking at Glenn Gould. Scenes from his boyhood and professional career are neatly dramatized; the Canadian actor Colm Feore plays the adult Gould, though he never, thank goodness, tries to reproduce his manner at the keyboard. In between come interviews, dashes of animation, and even a sequence shot in X-ray. The whole enterprise is designed to skirt the traditional traps of the music movie; instead of a laborious bio-pic, we get a sly, quick-witted meditation on a character always likely to elude our grasp. The finale-a Gould recording of Bach is carried into deep space by a Voyager spacecraft-leaves you gawking. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Non-linear Story Telling at its Best
I doubted that a biography of any pianist, even somebody as eccentric and talented as Gould, could hold my attention for the length of a feature film -- even one that purports to be 32 separate films. I was wrong.

Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould is an incredible venture in story telling, in biography, in education, and an heroic attempt to show a story from multiple vantage points, using a varied set of devices.

As each of the 32 "short films" evolve, a web develops, connecting details and revealing an incredible life. We get less a biographical theory in this movie, than a larger set of questions than we dared to ask before the film began.

I found the experience to be brilliantly artistic and mentally stimulating. The cinematography builds mood and the music is unsurpassed. Definitely not an action movie--most skateboarding teenagers would rather have root canals than sit through this. Let them watch DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS or ORANGE COUNTY.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie without reservation. It earned more than the mere five stars Amazon will let me give it.

(If you'd like to discuss this move or review in more detail, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

A film to be viewed as though listening to Bach.
Rather than telling the "story" of Glenn Gould, this film seeks to give his essence, his art, in the way that Bach gave the essence of his feelings through his music. After seeing the entire film, the viewer comes away with a much better understanding of Gould, his personaltiy, and his art, even without learning the details of his life.

Although some knowledge of the music he played, particularly Bach and Beethoven, will add greatly to the enjoyment of this movie, it is not essential for an appreciation of the film or of Gould himself.

Several of the "short films" are especially moving. In one, as Gould prepares for what will be his final live appearance, he interacts with a stagehand, who is genuinely moved by his performance and by the man. In another, he shares his first hearing of one of his own new recordings with the maid in his hotel. She is at first perplexed and concerned at his insistence that she listen, but the music itself, and Gould's own involvement in listening to it, then bring her to a new understanding of what she's witnessing.

All in all, a wonderful film, especially for lovers of Glenn Gould and the music he played.

Wonderful Introduction to Gould's Work for Students
I first showed this to my students five years ago in one of those "after the holiday concert slump" moments.
At first, the seventh grade students were restless, similar to the German hotel chamber maid whom Gould forces to listen to his newly arrived recording. At the same moment she becomes riveted, the students became riveted. I showed the video over two days. After that, students were curious about Gould and his life and work. With the advent of the suggestion that Gould suffered from Aspberger's Syndrome (a neurological disorder with similarities to autism), some of my students were interested in learning more about people with this disability, especially their afflicted classmates.
I do need to stress, both to my students and even to some adults, that this is not truly a documentary. It is an art film. The man playing Gould is not Gould himself, but the actor Colm Feore. Many of the other people interviewed are truly portrayed by themselves, including Gould's piano technician, friends, and violinist Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Even with its questionable historic accuracy, it is a wonderful introduction to the works of one of the most highly regarded musicians of the last century.