Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould said: “To me, the ideal artist to audience relationship is a one to zero relationship. That’s where the moral objection comes in. First, I’m not at all happy with words like ‘public’ and ‘artist’. I’m not happy with the hierarchical implications of that kind of terminology. The artist should be granted anonymity. He should be permitted to operate in secret, as it were, unconcerned with or, better still, unaware of the presumed demand of the marketplace, which demands given sufficient indifference on the part of a sufficient number of artists will simply disappear. Given that disappearance the artist will abandon his false sense of public responsibility and his audience or public will relinquish its role of servile dependency, and never the twain shall meet. No, they’ll make contact but on a much more meaningful level. “

I know, the above quote by Glenn Gould is lengthy and pithy, but to me, this reveals a lot about who Glenn Gould really was. Intellectual, eccentric, reclusive, iconoclast – Glenn Gould is one of the most amazing classical pianists of all time. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) is a wonderful introduction to the strange genius of Gould directed by François Giraud.

Life of Glenn Gould

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is an unusual mix of documentary and acting. The story line that stays roughly the same throughout tells the tale of Glenn Gould from age 3, age 8, age 12 to adulthood. So we see (an actress Katya Ladan) who plays Glenn Gould’s mom allegedly playing piano for her son while he was in utero.

In some of the interspersed biographical documentary bits we hear from people who knew Gould. Friends, family members and other musicians talk about their conversations with Gould, and about his eccentric behavior. For example, Gould was known for wearing heavy clothing all the time. Even in hot weather, Gould would wear several layers of clothing, gloves, scarf, and hat.

The Music of Glenn Gould

Some of the 32 segments are a little weird and experimental, but the big, unifier in this film is the music of Glenn Gould used effectively as soundtrack. To hear the work of the master, especially his interpretations of Bach, are moving and correct in a way that can be almost painful in its supernatural excellence.

Recreated using biographical works on the life of Glenn Gould, we also get to hear many of the words of this extraordinary, intellectual artist who had a lot to say about everything. The actor Colm Feore is quite convincing as the adult Glenn Gould in Thirty Two Short Films.