This week we watch a non-linear film tilted Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. This film took thirty-two vignettes that concern some aspect of Glenn Gould's life. Vignette is that in theatre and script writing, these are short, impressionistic, scenes that focus on one moment or gives one impression about a character, an idea or a setting. Each of these thirty-two shorts are glimpses into the life of Gould, they are like puzzle pieces that we, because of the non-linear aspects, are forced to piece together the life of Gould. It was 32 shorts that were all different from each other, which helped to bring out the theme. It is possibly named after a musical piece that Gould did an interpretation on, Bach's Goldberg Variations. Because these vignettes are broken up into various sections it was more interested than if it were linear. The shorts demand out attention in order to make connections between the disassociation of these clips. In order for us to understand the irrational we must use the irrational thought to explain it.
I think that this was done beautifully in Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. We are drawn in to the film by the various clips and the beautiful music that we hear. The beat of the video draws us to want to learn about this man who in this documentary tells his own story. This man seems to interview himself. He holds his interviews by telephone. While he is on a phone conversation he talks through out the night to himself while the person on the other side of the line has fallen asleep. On a play of what was going on, he would introduce his own thoughts by asking himself a question, and then he acted out the answer. This helped us to understand who he was and helped us look at him subjectively.
This man was a genius, in his musical abilities many were awed. It could be said that isolation can breed genius but genius can breed isolation. Is it possible that this is what happened to Gould? Who knows what could have been going on in his mind? An outward appearance that we get of him is his clothes. He would wear layers of clothes even in the summer time to prevent from catching a cold. There is a short where we see all the various pills Gould was taking trying to balance each other out shown in various shapes, sizes, and color.
The music that we hear is what connected Gould to the rest of the world but at the same time it kept him separated from it. Technology was able to help Gould perfect his music. There is a clip where Gould is in a recording studio and we are listening to a play back of a recording he just made. He says that after listening to it that it is almost good. The recording seems to takes the soul out of music. He decides that he wants to re-record the track, so he prepares to play, but we don't see him play. The show is about a piano player but we never saw him playing the piano. It is possible that he hated the instrument that he is most known for. You would think that since this is a documentary about a piano player that you would get to see him play, but you don't. Is this out of respect for him, he is so into his music that it was about him and not his music. It could also be that the film is not about him but about who he was. A genius mind is very complex and often difficult or hard to understand. I think the film does well to try and portray the randomness of a genius mind in the style of non-linear film where we are forced to use our own minds to make the connections in the life of Glenn Gould.
I think that this was done beautifully in Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. We are drawn in to the film by the various clips and the beautiful music that we hear. The beat of the video draws us to want to learn about this man who in this documentary tells his own story. This man seems to interview himself. He holds his interviews by telephone. While he is on a phone conversation he talks through out the night to himself while the person on the other side of the line has fallen asleep. On a play of what was going on, he would introduce his own thoughts by asking himself a question, and then he acted out the answer. This helped us to understand who he was and helped us look at him subjectively.
This man was a genius, in his musical abilities many were awed. It could be said that isolation can breed genius but genius can breed isolation. Is it possible that this is what happened to Gould? Who knows what could have been going on in his mind? An outward appearance that we get of him is his clothes. He would wear layers of clothes even in the summer time to prevent from catching a cold. There is a short where we see all the various pills Gould was taking trying to balance each other out shown in various shapes, sizes, and color.
The music that we hear is what connected Gould to the rest of the world but at the same time it kept him separated from it. Technology was able to help Gould perfect his music. There is a clip where Gould is in a recording studio and we are listening to a play back of a recording he just made. He says that after listening to it that it is almost good. The recording seems to takes the soul out of music. He decides that he wants to re-record the track, so he prepares to play, but we don't see him play. The show is about a piano player but we never saw him playing the piano. It is possible that he hated the instrument that he is most known for. You would think that since this is a documentary about a piano player that you would get to see him play, but you don't. Is this out of respect for him, he is so into his music that it was about him and not his music. It could also be that the film is not about him but about who he was. A genius mind is very complex and often difficult or hard to understand. I think the film does well to try and portray the randomness of a genius mind in the style of non-linear film where we are forced to use our own minds to make the connections in the life of Glenn Gould.
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