 thirty two short films about glenn gould is a 1993 film about the pianist glenn gould played by colm feore. the film's screenplay was written by franÃ§ois girard (who also directed) and don mckellar. the film does not present a single narrative, rather a series of thirty-one short films. these include documentaries (five interviews with people who knew him), re-creations of scenes from gould's life, and various odd items (such as "gould meets mclaren", in which animated spheres reminiscent of those in norman mclaren's animations move to gould's music). the segments range in length from six minutes to less than one minute. according to girard: "as gould was such a complex character, the biggest problem was to find a way to look at his work and deal with his visions. the film is built of fragments, each one trying to capture an aspect of gould. there is no way of putting gould in one box. the film gives the viewer 32 impressions of him. i didn't want to reduce him to one dimension." the soundtrack consists almost entirely of piano recordings by gould. a notable exception is the overture to wagner's tristan und isolde. it includes pieces famously linked with him, such as bach: the goldberg variations, and the well-tempered clavier, as well as others which are less so. the film won four genie awards and best canadian feature film at the toronto international film festival. the structure and style of the the simpsons episode "22 short films about springfield" (first aired april 14, 1996), is inspired by this film. it was also used in an animaniacs short entitled "ten short films about wakko warner". the title also inspired cory arcangel's piece "a couple thousand short films about glenn gould" which constructed the goldberg variations out of clips of notes from youtube. ==segments== # aria # lake simcoe # forty-five seconds and a chair # bruno monsaingeon: musician and collaborator # gould meets gould: text by glenn gould # hamburg # variation in c minor # practice # the l.a. concert # cd318 # yehudi menuhin: violinist # passion according to gould # opus 1: a composition by glenn gould # cross
1993_films Canadian_films Canadian_musical_films Films_about_classical_music_and_musicians Films_set_in_Toronto Genie_Award_for_Best_Picture_winners Glenn_Gould Musical_films_based_on_actual_events