1268 Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

[Finch]

A rare film biography as boldly unconventional as its subject, writer-director François Girard’s visionary portrait of iconoclastic, world-renowned pianist Glenn Gould explodes the conventions of the form to illuminate the brilliant mind and innermost obsessions of a singular artist. Across thirty-two vignettes encompassing everything from dramatic sketches to documentary interviews to avant-garde animation, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould pieces together the story of Gould’s trajectory from child prodigy to celebrated concert pianist who turned his back on public performance to pursue his all-consuming fascination with recording technology. Led by a tour-de-force performance by Colm Feore and underscored by Gould’s landmark recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Girard’s film daringly deconstructs the enigma of genius.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director François Girard, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
New audio commentary featuring Girard and cowriter and actor Don McKellar
New conversation between Girard and filmmaker Atom Egoyan
Glenn Gould: Off the Record and Glenn Gould: On the Record, companion programs from 1959 produced for Canadian television
Archival interviews with actor Colm Feore and producer Niv Fichman
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky

Cover based on a theatrical poster by Pascal Dufaux

[hearthesilence]

This was actually my introduction to Glenn Gould. I had no idea who he was until I saw this film on PBS.

[dx23]

My introduction to this film was because of 22 Short Films About Springfield

[Buttery Jeb]

I’m curious to see who they licensed this from. I always thought it was with Sony Picture Classics; but last time I checked, it seemed the rights were with Samuel Goldwyn.

If this title is now with Janus Films, hopefully more films from this pocket of Canada will be coming. In particular, I’d love to see Criterion handle McKellar’s Last Night, which is a personal favorite.

[captveg]

Feels like I've been hoping for a quality release of this film for 20 years.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Same here as I have the dvd Sony released awhile ago this century. A big favorite so I'm really happy it got the 4k upgrade.

[ryannichols7]

know nothing of this but it sounds fascinating and Atom Egoyan is on there for max Canadian points. will have to check it out

[soundchaser]

I really don't get Gould's approach to Bach - particularly his much-lauded Goldberg Variations. Is the film worth viewing in its own right, or will I be driven mad by the end?

[hearthesilence]

I think it's still enjoyable as a warm portrait of an eccentric individual. His recordings (not just the ones of the Goldberg Variations) are basically the score, but it's definitely a film and not just visuals thrown on to music, and some of the "short films" are very short indeed - IIRC one is basically a camera moving in on the actor playing Gould as he sits in a room, and it's less than a minute (maybe even 30 seconds), with the accompanying recording running the same length. (It may have been a track from his 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations, I can't remember). Stylistically it does vary - there are scenes that could fit in a narrative film (like one in a recording studio) but there are ones like the fragment I just described and the filmmakers also went out and interviewed some of his real life friends so there are parts that play like PBS's American Masters documentary series. It's a pretty fun way of explaining a life and getting to know someone where you have a whole lot of scenes portraying fragments of his life or personality and they eventually add up to the man most people probably knew. (I'm no expert on Gould so someone else will have to talk about the film's veracity or accuracy.)

[Lowry_Sam]

I remember trying to watch it once and found its form to be annoying and decided to hold off completing it some time when I was more patient. Perhaps this new edition will help me revisit it but I'm not in a rush to do so.

[hearthesilence]

I should add, I saw this at a fairly young age as someone receptive but still very green about music and arthouse cinema. I'm not sure I'd like it as much now - in memory, I feel like it could very well be a bit on the light side. It's something I'd definitely show to a younger audience though, which is probably why it seemed to be a great fit for PBS. And it certainly left an impression - I've never been without Gould's 1955 and 1981 recordings of the Goldberg Variations since then, and it was the first time I sought out any recording of Bach. I've even paid good money to see two different concert performances the Goldberg Variations, and I don't really attend that many classical music concerts.

[beamish14]

A great film. I wish some of Gould’s radio works for the CBC could have been included, though

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

Norman McLaren has smuggled himself into the Criterion Collection by way of this film, right? Unless I'm forgetting another extra featuring his animation.

[domino harvey]

I’ve seen this and it’s more or less exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t get a lot out of it, but I imagine being a fan of Gould would make it more meaningful

[Saturnome]

Norman McLaren has smuggled himself into the Criterion Collection by way of this film, right? Unless I'm forgetting another extra featuring his animation.

There's one short on Mon Oncle Antoine.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

^ Ah! Thanks for that correction. I had forgotten about A Chairy Tale being in that.

[MichaelB]

I’ve seen this and it’s more or less exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t get a lot out of it, but I imagine being a fan of Gould would make it more meaningful

My girlfriend of the time knew nothing about Glenn Gould going in, and absolutely loved it.

[cdnchris]

I’m curious to see who they licensed this from. I always thought it was with Sony Picture Classics; but last time I checked, it seemed the rights were with Samuel Goldwyn.

Though it has the Janus logo, the licensor info for this one is "Sony Classical, a label of Sony Music Entertainment."

[CSM126]

Thirty Two Beaver Films About Glenn Gould

[yoloswegmaster]

Interesting that Chris states in his review that there is DV/HDR on the disc but the specs don't make any mention of that.

[CSM126]

Interesting that Chris states in his review that there is DV/HDR on the disc but the specs don't make any mention of that.

Godzilla vs. Biollante was the same way, but was also just SDR in an HDR container. CC may not find that worth advertising.

[nicolas]

I think Chris made an error here or his player forced the disc into DV for some reason. There’s not even HDR that protects some masters’ slightly wider DCI-P3 color space (The Virgin Suicides, Godzilla vs. Biollante) on Glenn Gould, it’s plain SDR BT.709.

Here’s a BDInfo scan I found:

Disc Title: THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD
Disc Size: 65,292,766,715 bytes
Protection: AACS2
Playlist: 00003.MPLS
Size: 64,721,981,760 bytes
Length: 1:33:41.532
Total Bitrate: 92.11 Mbps
Video: MPEG-H HEVC Video / 84151 kbps / 2160p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / Limited Range / 10 bits / BT.709
Audio: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3543 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 2.201 kbps
Subtitle: English / 40.071 kbps

[cdnchris]

Ack, you're right. I did something, not sure what exactly, but i made a mistake somewhere.

(I guess that's why I thought the HDR, that wasn't actually there, was subtle!)