Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
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VHS Tape Cover Information Actor: Colm Feore, Derek Keurvorst, Devon Anderson, Joshua Greenblatt, Katya Ladan Director: François Girard Writer: Don McKellar Writer: François Girard Producer: Amy J. Kaufman Producer: Barbara Willis Sweete Producer: Daniel Iron Writer: Glenn Gould Writer: Nick McKinney Edition: VHS Tape Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; French (Original Language) Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC Running Time: 98 minutes Release Date: 1998-01-28 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Publisher: Sony Pictures Studio: Sony Pictures |
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VHS Movie Reviews of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Movie Review: Trash
Summary: 1 Stars
This film is a terrible, irresponsible, disrespectful, sensational, pretentious piece of garbage. It is more concerned with the improbabality and eccentricity of Gould's genius than with the nature of that genius. The manner of this films depictions are directly contradictory to the ideas Gould so emphatically expressed himself. He was a decidely unromantic person, and he loathed the circus act position imposed upon the instrumental virtuoso. This film, in essesnce, strives to bring him back out, put him back on the stage, so that we may stare in awe at the inhuman spectacle of genius. This robbery of humanity is precisely the thing that Gould reviled so strongly about the concert platform. It shows a clear lack of genuine respect, or valid insight, into the mind of this artist to make a film such as this. For example, the scene in the diner when he shown "discovering" the contrapuntal potentential of layered speeking voices, and presumably experiencing a quiet epiphany, nd the next scene (short film) shows him listening to the prelude to the idea of North. It is arranged to show a serendipitous discovery of a profound idea. However, Gould discovered his idea of contrapuntal radio through far less romantic conditions (as he reveals in an interview): he needed to fit his documentary into a time slot! The voices would not fit if edited in strict linear progression, so he decided to overlap them, and subsequently he decided that this technique had further potential. I grant a director liberty to alter facts perhaps, but only if they are altered in such a way that they are still true to superceding ideas. In this case, it is a wanton invention for the sake of sensationalism.
The form of the film in general is ridiculous and pretentious. Cut a film into many short films has only one innate virtue, and it is one for the director, not for the piece itself: it allows the director to connect the segments very loosely, so he needn't laber over conceptual chesiveness--a freedom one does not have when venturing a linear narritive. I would not say that not linear forms are necessarily bad, but they are guilty until proven innocent. They must be justified.
The way "Glenn Gould interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould" was directed (I think the short film was titled "Gould meets Gould") betrayed very poor craftsmanship and an immature preoccupation with artyness. This would have been much more powerful shot as conventionally as possible: cutting between two shots of the same actor--one as Gould-interviewer, and one as Gould-interviewee. This would have expressed the humor of gould's idea much better, and would have been all around more interesting than the melodramatic setting concocted in the film.
Another thing: Bruno Monsangeon speaks perfect english, and Yehudi Menuhin is American (he even struggled with his french!) There is absolutely no good reason why they should have been interviewed in french, as the rest of th film was in English. That was very stupid.
I apologize, but I could really go on forever. I reccomend Gould fans see this film just so you know what I am talking about. (although from the looks of the other reviews, you will probably disagree with me.)
Incidentally, the Red Violin also sucked.