Rating: 
Summary: I mean, HOW COOL IS THIS!
Review: I have played and loved the piano since I was a child. Gould has always been an enigmatic force in my musical landscape. Brilliant, at times amazing, but always somehow distant.There is no getting around his brilliance (genius is not wrongly used) and the power of his musical personality. But then there are also those interpretations that are just beyond eccentric. However, I can't help listening to them and learning from his playing. His playing is compelling even when I disagree completely - sometimes angrily. This wonderful movie uses vignettes to tell the story of Gould, well, impressionistically. It is like a movie by Degas. A simple narrative about him would be so much more misleading. I don't pretend to be a scholar on Gould or to even know much about his biography. But this movie lets us hear his music as well as catch some of his life. I particularly loved #6 Hamburg because it works on many levels and tells us many things about a view of Gould. The only thing I wish is to see something like this done with footage with the real Gould. It wouldn't be as poetic, but somehow seeing the real Gould responding to music is better than even the best acting. Just terrific! Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: A film more than a documentary
Review: I was expecting a documentary of Glenn Gould, ie, with exclusive footage of Gould, short interviews, etc. What I got is a 'film' about Gould acted out by another person, Colm Feore. For those who are not familiar with this film like me, please be aware of this fact before you buy it. Otherwise, this film is tastefully done, employing Goldberg Variations to link the different segments together. One extra note for those using a region-free DVD player: this DVD works fine on both of my region-free DVD players (of different brand names).
Rating:
Summary: Totally Remarkable--and NOT just for snoots!!
Review: It would be utterly ridiculous to give this film anything less than five stars. Classical music snobs who believe the film doesn't give enough "insight" into Gould's day-to-day life are missing the point. Gould himself didn't have much time for classical music snobs, by the way.
This is a totally original film that incorporates marvelous acting, densely-layered cinematography, and a variety of technical and emotional details seamlessly. It is not a dry, interview-style documentary, nor is it an overly artsy-fartsy "biopic." This film is subtle yet overwhelming, beautiful yet quiet, and (for me at least) life changing. My appreciation for and understanding of music grew exponentially after I saw this movie.
Ultimately, I believe that "32" belongs to the avid moviegoer who doesn't spend a great deal of time at the symphony. Its complexity and originality will show you how music enables us to be truly *alive*. The Bach is only secondary.
Rating:
Summary: Abstraction Does Add Up
Review: Like Wallace Stevens "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," this film uses abstraction to get at the essence of Glenn Gould. As a work of art, the film adds up to a complex and compelling portrait of one of the great eccentrics of the 20th century, and I still can recall the scene in the dinner where Gould hears the musical pattern in a cacophony of voices as one of the great telling moments. Narrative takes many forms, and those who are willing to go outside the linear will find these 32 stories are more than the sum of the parts.
Rating:
Summary: A film to be viewed as though listening to Bach.
Review: Rather than telling the "story" of Glenn Gould, this film seeks to give his essence, his art, in the way that Bach gave the essence of his feelings through his music. After seeing the entire film, the viewer comes away with a much better understanding of Gould, his personaltiy, and his art, even without learning the details of his life. Although some knowledge of the music he played, particularly Bach and Beethoven, will add greatly to the enjoyment of this movie, it is not essential for an appreciation of the film or of Gould himself. Several of the "short films" are especially moving. In one, as Gould prepares for what will be his final live appearance, he interacts with a stagehand, who is genuinely moved by his performance and by the man. In another, he shares his first hearing of one of his own new recordings with the maid in his hotel. She is at first perplexed and concerned at his insistence that she listen, but the music itself, and Gould's own involvement in listening to it, then bring her to a new understanding of what she's witnessing. All in all, a wonderful film, especially for lovers of Glenn Gould and the music he played.
Rating:
Summary: A film to be viewed as though listening to Bach.
Review: Rather than telling the "story" of Glenn Gould, this film seeks to give his essence, his art, in the way that Bach gave the essence of his feelings through his music. After seeing the entire film, the viewer comes away with a much better understanding of Gould, his personaltiy, and his art, even without learning the details of his life. Although some knowledge of the music he played, particularly Bach and Beethoven, will add greatly to the enjoyment of this movie, it is not essential for an appreciation of the film or of Gould himself. Several of the "short films" are especially moving. In one, as Gould prepares for what will be his final live appearance, he interacts with a stagehand, who is genuinely moved by his performance and by the man. In another, he shares his first hearing of one of his own new recordings with the maid in his hotel. She is at first perplexed and concerned at his insistence that she listen, but the music itself, and Gould's own involvement in listening to it, then bring her to a new understanding of what she's witnessing. All in all, a wonderful film, especially for lovers of Glenn Gould and the music he played.
Rating:
Summary: VIGNETTES, NOT "SHORT-FILMS", AND FASCINATING!
Review: Several reviews of this DVD operate under the misconception that it is intended as a documentary or as a fictional re-enactment of some short films on Gould. It is neither. The "movie" (by which I mean the integrated thirty-two vignettes) is an exploration of Glenn Gould (Pearl Harbour, Colm Feore, Storm of the Century), the Canadian-born musician who is considered to be one of the world's greatest pianists, an eccentric genius whose performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations was recorded and included onboard the Voyager space probes. By no means a conventional biography, the film's episodes rarely attempt to pin down exact events or particular dates in his life. Exceptions include his interviews, radio broadcasts, and his final concert appearance. Rather, the film shows us phases and stages of his life, from his childhood to his career as a concert performer, his hobbies - the stock market, humour, travel, and experimental radio broadcasts - and his last days, when he complained to friends and relatives of his apprehension of death. The aesthetic of the film is self-consciously arty, deliberately bizarre, and exceedingly concerned with crisp, polished sound - exactly like Glenn Gould. It runs for 100 minutes or so, which means each vignette should have an average of 3 minutes. In reality some of them are 1 minute long, and other more key sequences (like one where Gould is at a truck stop) are of 5-6 minutes duration. Very worthy purchase if you are familiar with or interested in the quirky but brilliant musician.
Rating:
Summary: VIGNETTES, NOT "SHORT-FILMS", AND FASCINATING!
Review: Several reviews of this DVD operate under the misconception that it is intended as a documentary or as a fictional re-enactment of some short films on Gould. It is neither. The "movie" (by which I mean the integrated thirty-two vignettes) is an exploration of Glenn Gould (Pearl Harbour, Colm Feore, Storm of the Century), the Canadian-born musician who is considered to be one of the world's greatest pianists, an eccentric genius whose performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations was recorded and included onboard the Voyager space probes. By no means a conventional biography, the film's episodes rarely attempt to pin down exact events or particular dates in his life. Exceptions include his interviews, radio broadcasts, and his final concert appearance. Rather, the film shows us phases and stages of his life, from his childhood to his career as a concert performer, his hobbies - the stock market, humour, travel, and experimental radio broadcasts - and his last days, when he complained to friends and relatives of his apprehension of death. The aesthetic of the film is self-consciously arty, deliberately bizarre, and exceedingly concerned with crisp, polished sound - exactly like Glenn Gould. It runs for 100 minutes or so, which means each vignette should have an average of 3 minutes. In reality some of them are 1 minute long, and other more key sequences (like one where Gould is at a truck stop) are of 5-6 minutes duration. Very worthy purchase if you are familiar with or interested in the quirky but brilliant musician.
Rating: 
Summary: Should not be listed in this category
Review: These are short pieces of movies about Glen Gould not paino music performences. You don't see any real Glen Gould playing piano in this DVD. In that regard I am dissapointed or I might have been misled to think these are some documentary films about Glen Gould. Actor Colm Feore's performences in #6 Hamburg and #9 LA Concert are two of the interesting pieces to see. But in my opinon this DVD should not be listed in the Musucal and Performing Arts category where most people buy DVD's are ofter watch the performences again and over again such as Glen Gould's Goldburg Variations. I centaily will not watch this DVD again.
Rating: 
Summary: Trash
Review: This film is a terrible, irresponsible, disrespectful, sensational, pretentious piece of garbage. It is more concerned with the improbabality and eccentricity of Gould's genius than with the nature of that genius. The manner of this films depictions are directly contradictory to the ideas Gould so emphatically expressed himself. He was a decidely unromantic person, and he loathed the circus act position imposed upon the instrumental virtuoso. This film, in essesnce, strives to bring him back out, put him back on the stage, so that we may stare in awe at the inhuman spectacle of genius. This robbery of humanity is precisely the thing that Gould reviled so strongly about the concert platform. It shows a clear lack of genuine respect, or valid insight, into the mind of this artist to make a film such as this. For example, the scene in the diner when he shown "discovering" the contrapuntal potentential of layered speeking voices, and presumably experiencing a quiet epiphany, nd the next scene (short film) shows him listening to the prelude to the idea of North. It is arranged to show a serendipitous discovery of a profound idea. However, Gould discovered his idea of contrapuntal radio through far less romantic conditions (as he reveals in an interview): he needed to fit his documentary into a time slot! The voices would not fit if edited in strict linear progression, so he decided to overlap them, and subsequently he decided that this technique had further potential. I grant a director liberty to alter facts perhaps, but only if they are altered in such a way that they are still true to superceding ideas. In this case, it is a wanton invention for the sake of sensationalism. The form of the film in general is ridiculous and pretentious. Cut a film into many short films has only one innate virtue, and it is one for the director, not for the piece itself: it allows the director to connect the segments very loosely, so he needn't laber over conceptual chesiveness--a freedom one does not have when venturing a linear narritive. I would not say that not linear forms are necessarily bad, but they are guilty until proven innocent. They must be justified. The way "Glenn Gould interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould" was directed (I think the short film was titled "Gould meets Gould") betrayed very poor craftsmanship and an immature preoccupation with artyness. This would have been much more powerful shot as conventionally as possible: cutting between two shots of the same actor--one as Gould-interviewer, and one as Gould-interviewee. This would have expressed the humor of gould's idea much better, and would have been all around more interesting than the melodramatic setting concocted in the film. Another thing: Bruno Monsangeon speaks perfect english, and Yehudi Menuhin is American (he even struggled with his french!) There is absolutely no good reason why they should have been interviewed in french, as the rest of th film was in English. That was very stupid. I apologize, but I could really go on forever. I reccomend Gould fans see this film just so you know what I am talking about. (although from the looks of the other reviews, you will probably disagree with me.) Incidentally, the Red Violin also sucked.
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