32 Short Films About Glenn Gould Review

An unconventional, episodic biopic of the Canadian concert pianist Glenn Gould which offers wonderful music and some amazing sound trickery. One sequence, set in a truck-stop, which conveys an impression of what it must be like to have the perfect hearing of a genius musician, is absolutely bravura on an aural level. Otherwise, it’s a fascinating mosaic of a very strange man: Gould was a pill-popping hypochondriac and obsessive who quit live performing in the middle of a brilliant career and was diverted by bizarre radio documentaries and stock speculation. Most likely to appeal to Bach-on-CD buffs, the film (or rather films) make Gould accessible to the most casually interested.