Erich_Zann's Full Review: Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
My opinion of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould comes with a bias of having revered Glenn Gould as the most phenomanal pianist/philosopher of the 20th century. I have since that time reformulated my opinion of Mr. Gould, and this movie only enhances those characteristics which I find so distracting from a pianist who is given more credit than he deserves. This review is more about the man than the film, so continue with that in mind.
Background: While I was studying to become a concert pianist, I looked up to Gould as a master. I wanted my playing to sound exactly like Gould's. So I studied about this man, listened to as many recordings as I could get my hands on, and mimicked his playing as closely as possible. I believe I experienced something similar to those who first heard his extraordinary performance of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach (the 1955, not the 1982) in that I had never heard Bach played so damn well! It was literally a jaw-dropping performance.
Thus, my bias in watching this movie, a film that I've been trying to get my hands on for years, is that I once felt so passionately about Gould only to later realize that I had, like so many others, looked up to a man as a great pianist, when in all reality, he was a great player of Bach, little more. Gould was an arrogant, self-centered man; this is hardly disputed. And this film only goes to emphasize that.
If Gould was self-centered, than a movie about his mind isn't so much about him, as it's about him pondering himself, and this, my friends, is what is so annoying about this film. A biography is one thing -- a 2 hour tour de force about Gould's thoughts about himself is laborous. I have given this movie a four star rating, and I will say it's a great film because the concepts regarding the film itself are phenomenal. This film is edgy and even avant-garde in places. But it's subject matter is questionable, not from a film perspective, but from a biographical perspective in that the person of Gould is less than desirable.
Gould as a pianist is showcased in this film through the emmense soundtrack that accompanies it. Gould's playing is heard throughout the film -- there are very few parts that piano music is not heard either in the forground or the background. But again -- this is a blessing and a curse. In "45 Seconds and a Chair" the Bach Invention that is played is literally amazing, as is the rest of the Bach performed during the movie. Again, Gould is a Bach player. But Gould literally butchers Schoenberg's Gigue in the Suite for Piano, Op. 25. Schoenberg's other piece of music performed in the movie is the first piece in the "Six Little Pieces for Piano" op. 19, and again, Gould manages to interpret it as though it were written 200 years previous, by Bach.
And so it is. Gould wished all music was Bach's music, and couldn't, or didn't, understand that there IS music that wasn't contrapuntal, and there IS music that shouldn't be played contrapuntally. Though Schoenberg was essentially the father of atonal counterpoint, this came about only having progressed through the romantic period, something which Gould apparently couldn't understand.
By the end of the movie, everything regarding Gould, as portrayed, was literally grating my nerves. I suppose, to be brutally opinionated, the movie portrayed Gould as a misunderstood master of the arts, which he sharply was NOT. Gould was a master of counterpoint, a master of Bach, little more. While this film would make Gould and all his eccentricities a character who completely justifies himself in everything he does, a study of Gould reveals that this was not the case: despite the fact that Gould wished he could justify himself, he couldn't.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me in this film was the scene in the phone booth, talking to someone about Schoenberg's (factual) paranoia of the number 13, and then having the audacity to compare himself to Schoenberg in that respect, as having a similar fear. Nowhere else in Gould's life demonstrates a *legitimate* fear of 13, only when he finds that he can elevate himself to the legend of Arnold Schoenberg does that come out!
Again, this is not necessarily a critique of the film. It's a critique of Gould, and that is my bias. If your interested in watching a film about the mind of a misunderstood pianist, by all means, I recommend this movie highly. But there IS much more to the life of Gould than what is portrayed here. Moreover, this film is about Gould's opinion of himself, which is drastically different than those around him.
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