Saturday, September 10, 2011

Get Bach to where you once belonged

Borrowing movies from the library, it's better to get them on DVD, because you don't have to deal with rhe rewinding rigamarole. But sometimes curiosity gets the better of one even when the film is only available on VHS. Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould was one such case.

It came out in 1993. partly financed by the CBC. Colm Feore, who plays the eccentric musical figure, has also done a lot of B-movie villains. That's not too surprising. His Gould is cerebral, cunning, and a little arrogant, the way a good Bond villain is. It just happens that he's a benign character. (And if he were evil he'd probably be too smart to explain his deathtraps.)

It's an unusual movie. Not weird, because nothing weird happens. But it has a fittingly playful structure which makes it enjoyable to watch.

2 comments:

susan said...

I hadn't heard about this movie previously but it sounds pretty interesting now that I've seen the clip. It caused quite a stir when he originally retired from performing concerts and even though I was pretty young at the time I do remember how famous he was. If we can find it on dvd (no vhs player) it would be fascinating to see.

Yeah, those Bond villains were always a little too sure of themselves.

Ben said...

I wish I could say that the observation on Bond villains was original to me, but if you Google "Bond villain stupidity" you'll see that it's an idea that's been kicking around for a while.

Since Canada considered him to be something of a cultural ambassador, I can imagine the news was a big deal. The movie is apparently out on DVD, and I recommend it. It spends a little time on his "The Idea of North" radio piece too, which I've heard on WFMU.