Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

The title of this offbeat Canadian feature, which echoes Beethoven's "Thirty Two Variations in C Minor" (one of which is heard in the film), reflects the style and structure employed by director Francois Girard in his treatment of the reclusive concert pianist and recording artist Glenn Gould (Colm Feore). Between intertitles borrowed from the lexicon of classical music (the Prelude, the Fugue, the Theme and Variations), Girard weaves together a series of impressions, interviews, and dramatizations in an attempt to find cinematic correlatives for musical forms. The result is less a biopic than a meditation on creativity, isolation, and the nature of communication i...