Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

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Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
DVD cover
Directed by	François Girard
Produced by	Michael Allder Niv Fichman Barbara Willis Sweete Larry Weinstein
Written by	François Girard (screenplay) & Don McKellar (screenplay) Glenn Gould (additional material)
Starring	Colm Feore Derek Keurvorst Katya Ladan
Release date(s)	September 14, 1993 (Toronto Film Festival) 26 November 1993 (USA)
Running time	98 min.
Language	English/French
IMDb profile

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is an award-winning 1993 film about the famous piano prodigy Glenn Gould. The screenplay is by François Girard and Don McKellar, and the film was directed by Girard.

As the title suggests, the film does not present a single narrative. Instead it presents a series of thirty-two short films. These include documentaries (five interviews with people who knew him), re-creations of scenes from Gould's life (with Colm Feore as Gould), 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 thirty two short films range in length from six minutes to less than one. The form is inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, which was Gould's first acclaimed recording.

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."^{[citation needed]}

The soundtrack consists almost entirely of piano recordings by Gould. It includes pieces famously linked with him, such as Bach's Goldberg Variations, and the Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as others which are less so.

The film won four Genie Awards 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 16, 1996), is inspired by this film.

[edit] External links

• Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould at the Internet Movie Database

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