Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
| Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould | |
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Original Canadian theatrical release poster
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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 |
| Distributed by | The Samuel Goldwyn Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 min. |
| Language | English/French |
| Box office | $1,567,543 (USA) |
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is a 1993 Canadian film about the pianist Glenn Gould, played by Colm Feore. It was directed by François Girard, with a screenplay by Girard 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."
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 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".
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