Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
| Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | François Girard |
| Produced by | Michael Allder Niv Fichman Barbara Willis Sweete Larry Weinstein |
| Written by | François Girard Don McKellar |
| Starring | Colm Feore Derek Keurvorst Katya Ladan |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | English/French |
| Box office | $1,567,543 (USA) |
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is an award-winning 1993 film about the piano prodigy Glenn Gould played by Colm Feore. The film's screenplay was written by François Girard (who also directed) and Don McKellar.
The film does not present a single narrative, rather a series of thirty-one short films. These include documentaries (five interviews with people who knew him), re-creations of scenes from Gould's life, and various odd items (such as "Gould Meets McLaren", in which animated spheres reminiscent of those in Norman McLaren's animations move to Gould's music). The segments range in length from six minutes to less than one minute.
According to Girard: "As Gould was such a complex character, the biggest problem was to find a way to look at his work and deal with his visions. The film is built of fragments, each one trying to capture an aspect of Gould. There is no way of putting Gould in one box. The film gives the viewer 32 impressions of him. I didn't want to reduce him to one dimension."[1]
The soundtrack consists almost entirely of piano recordings by Gould. A notable exception is the overture to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. It includes pieces famously linked with him, such as Bach: The Goldberg Variations, and the Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as others which are less so.
The film won four Genie Awards[2] and Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The structure and style of the The Simpsons episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" (first aired April 14, 1996), is inspired by this film. It was also used in an Animaniacs short entitled "Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner".
The title also inspired Cory Arcangel's piece "A Couple Thousand Short Films About Glenn Gould" which constructed the Goldberg variations out of clips of notes from YouTube.
Segments [edit]
- 1. Aria
- 2. Lake Simcoe
- 3. Forty-Five Seconds and a Chair
- 4. Bruno Monsaingeon: musician and collaborator
- 5. Gould Meets Gould: text by Glenn Gould
- 6. Hamburg
- 7. Variation in c minor
- 8. Practice
- 9. The L.A. Concert
- 10. CD318
- 11. Yehudi Menuhin: violinist
- 12. Passion According to Gould
- 13. Opus 1: a composition by Glenn Gould
- 14. Crossed Paths
- 15. Truck Stop
- 16. The Idea of North: a radio documentary by Glenn Gould
- 17. Solitude
- 18. Questions with No Answers
- 19. A Letter
- 20. Gould Meets McLaren: animation by Norman McLaren
- 21. The Tip
- 22. Personal Ad
- 23. Pills
- 24. Margaret Pacsu: friend
- 25. Diary of One Day
- 26. Motel Wawa
- 27. Forty-Nine
- 28. Jessie Greig: cousin
- 29. Leaving
- 30. Voyager
- 31. Aria
- 32. End Credits
References [edit]
- ^ The Film journal. Pubsun Corp. 1 January 1994. p. 130. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
- ^ Genie Award. "Canada's Awards Database". www.academy.ca/awards/. Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
External links [edit]
- Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould at the Internet Movie Database
- [1] Script - Dialogue Transcript
