Shadow10262000 This week we watch a non-linear film tilted Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. This film took thirty-two vignettes that concern some aspect of Glenn Gould's life. Vignette is that in theatre and script writing, these are short, impressionistic, scenes that focus on one moment or gives one impression about a character, an idea or a setting. Each of these thirty-two shorts are glimpses into the life of Gould, they are like puzzle pieces that we, because of the non-linear aspects, are forced to piece together the life of Gould. It was 32 shorts that were all different from each other, which helped to bring out the theme. It is possibly named after a musical piece that Gould did an interpretation on, Bach's Goldberg Variations. Because these vignettes are broken up into various sections it was more interested than if it were linear. The shorts demand out attention in order to make connections between the disassociation of these clips. In order for us to understand the irrational we must use the irrational thought to explain it.I think that this was done beautifully in Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. We are drawn in to the film by the various clips and the beautiful music that we hear. The beat of the video draws us to want to learn about this man who in this documentary tells his own story. This man seems to interview himself. He holds his interviews by telephone. While he is on a phone conversation he talks through out the night to himself while the person on the other side of the line has fallen asleep. On a play of what was going on, he would introduce his own thoughts by asking himself a question, and then he acted out the answer. This helped us to understand who he was and helped us look at him subjectively.This man was a genius, in his musical abilities many were awed. It could be said that isolation can breed genius but genius can breed isolation. Is it possible that this is what happened to Gould? Who knows what could have been going on in his mind? An outward appearance that we get of him is his clothes. He would wear layers of clothes even in the summer time to prevent from catching a cold. There is a short where we see all the various pills Gould was taking trying to balance each other out shown in various shapes, sizes, and color.The music that we hear is what connected Gould to the rest of the world but at the same time it kept him separated from it. Technology was able to help Gould perfect his music. There is a clip where Gould is in a recording studio and we are listening to a play back of a recording he just made. He says that after listening to it that it is almost good. The recording seems to takes the soul out of music. He decides that he wants to re-record the track, so he prepares to play, but we don't see him play. The show is about a piano player but we never saw him playing the piano. It is possible that he hated the instrument that he is most known for. You would think that since this is a documentary about a piano player that you would get to see him play, but you don't. Is this out of respect for him, he is so into his music that it was about him and not his music. It could also be that the film is not about him but about who he was. A genius mind is very complex and often difficult or hard to understand. I think the film does well to try and portray the randomness of a genius mind in the style of non-linear film where we are forced to use our own minds to make the connections in the life of Glenn Gould.

rexbasior the concept works. i like how the film is composed of individual films, yet the individual films do an excellent job of telling a singular, cohesive story. the best aspect is that we don't have to deal with the boring plot proceedings- we just fill in the blanks ourselves. learning about gould's personality through the dialogue kept my interest, but looking back, it was actually the strictly instrumental pieces that really kept my interest. fortunately gould's actual performances are mesmerizing enough on their own to really supplement the visuals. a couple of favorites off the top of my head are "man sitting in chair" and "a day's journal" (sorry, not the exact titles i think). colm feore, i've seen you in about a dozen pictures, but this is the one that made me really notice your name.

mcboo Girard succeeds where many have failed- he creates an intimate portrait of an artist without falling subject to the cumbersome confines of the narrative 'birth to death' storyline format. What better way to breathe life into a musician's 'story' than rhythmically assembling a collection of several recreated happenings, bits of documentary conversation, and performances of actual musical pieces (orchestrated works of Gould's) that each examine a particular instance from Glen Gould's life? By avoiding a typical diluted overview of the artist's entire timeline of events, Girard instead picks out specific happenings in Gould's life that each tells a story of a complex, confused, and brilliant man. These shorts are shown in a somewhat chronological order, so as not to completely ignore the fact that the collection of shorts aims to sculpt a more complete picture of Gould. Their consecutive placement being rhythmically conscious, the viewer is never lost in the experimental efforts or the non-narrative spectrum of the shorts, as they are closely followed by the more tangible aspects of Gould's life. Aesthetic elements from Gould's creative life are often carried over from one short to the next, which helps reinforce the unity as a whole of the 32 separate films. One of the most important aspects this structure brings to its audience is freeing them from the typical passive role. Instead of loosing yourself into a 2 hour story that tries its hardest to make it's viewer forget their lives, troubles, and identities by sweeping them into a fantasy world, the constant breathes between these short episodes remind the audience what they're seeing more resembles a diary from the artist rather than an alternate reality to 'forget oneself' in.Aside from the highly effective (and I believe far more suitable) structural effort of the film, the camera's language combined with the film's language is very conventional (aside from the sound editing in several cases). At times, the extremely literal usage of visual imagery falls a little flat, but it also works within its context in particular cases. Other innovations in the film stem from the content chosen (or even more so, what the filmmaker chooses not to show in several of the shorts). An excellent film for those who are humbled at the overwhelming confusion even the brilliant can carry.

crow-50 The eccentric behavior of rock and pop icons usually take center stage in the media, but here's a classical musician and virtuoso performer that literally steals the show, both in achievements and lifestyle.Glenn Gould popped pills, gave up performing live concerts because not everyone in the audience could hear the music the same way, created radio documentaries that mirrored symphonies and played the stock market like an expert. Glenn Gould was a typical hermit who only called people to talk when he was bored, he wanted to visit the arctic in the dark of winter and he donated his estate to charity.He died from a stroke at age 50, but recordings of his music have been sent into space. Glenn Gould lives on in the hearts of classical music fans and those who have seen 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.