5 Contributions by: Lee Adams

4. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, 1993

It’s virtually impossible to capture the complexity of a person’s life in just a few short hours, which is why many biopics are so unsatisfying. François Girard avoids this problem by ditching the usual format altogether, creating a rich tapestry of evocative vignettes that gives us a real sense of who the famous concert pianist actually was. The short films never show Gould playing the piano, although we do have one short sequence filmed inside the instrument during a concert, and another eccentric moment of him shot in X-ray while in full flow. These internal moments give us the sense that music was part of his very being. Colm Feore delivers a generous performance, playing Gould as a verbose eccentric who is constantly amused by the normal rhythms of human life while being forever detached from it by his genius.