Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

     While most would not think of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould as being a non-fiction film in any respect, this experimental movie portrays the true to life essence of who Glenn Gould was. Growing up playing the piano, Glenn Gould was a real life person who explored the ivory keys in new and interesting ways. Known for his eccentric behavior, Gould shied away from the media, only permitting a small handful of interviews to be conducted. Upon watching these interviews, it becomes clear that the portrayal of this maestro is honest and true.

     Documentarians have a sacred rule to portray their subjects. When it comes to making a narrative movie based on another's life, this same rule applies. Although Thirty Two Short Films may not be a purely cinema verite style of movie, it constructs its narrative with the same ideas in mind as a documentary: tell someone's story and have their personality come out. The film combines both non-fiction and fiction as it employs several interviews of people who knew Gould in real life as well as manufactured interactions involving the actor who plays Gould in the film. Audience members will walk away from this film knowing about Glenn Gould, a real man who was nearly unreachable, but became familiar through the medium of cinema.

     Music was a key facet that was central to Gould's being. The makers of Thirty Two Short Films knew that this individual interpreted music in a different way than most people, and they appropriately included sequences of experimental animation to a classical piece. Director Francois Girard commented, ""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." Music was one of the biggest aspects of Gould, the reason why Girard included classical pieces in nearly each segment of this film.
     Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould successfully combines the documentary with the narrative, the conventional with the interpretational. It does not attempt to make a case for Gould, but rather portray the character in an honest way. This movie reminds documentarians that it is okay to experiment with form and discover truth in interesting, unconventional ways.