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Classic DVD: 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)

November 26, 2010 in Film | Permalink

Feore approaches the camera during the spare opening of Franςois Giraud's wry biopic.

The stark opening sequence of Franςois Giraud’s brilliantly impressionistic 1993 biopic, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, is an extremely long take of the eponymous classical pianist walking across snowy terrain, beginning as a mere dot in the distance until he’s ultimately in close range of the camera. The scene might be too unsubtle if it wasn’t so offbeat: It’s the filmmaker boldly saying that he will idiosyncratically reveal the titanically talented and remote musician, who abandoned the concert hall for a brief and doomed life of seclusion and eccentricity.

As the title suggests, the film is divided into vignettes, alternates narrative and documentary, allows its lead (Colm Feore) an understated yet suitably unusual performance, and makes plenty of time for odd yet literally titled sequences like “45 Seconds and a Chair.” There’s just as much attention paid to the tics, neuroses and small obsessions that made Gould who he was as there is to his grand moments.

That’s not to say that Giraud glosses over the Canadian musician’s dramatic times; he just doesn’t accentuate them with a heavy hand, needlessly punctuating and underlining. In the key scene that recalls Gould’s last concert, there’s an air of deadpan and matter-of-factness. The whole thing just sort of sneaks up on you, as life often does. (Available by streaming on Netflix.)

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