Word: gould
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould...
...first, the faint buzzing blends in with the crisp notes and trills of Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's "Prelude in C Minor." Perhaps the tape is a bad copy, or the stereo is acting up again. Then the distracting noise grows louder, more insistent, until it can no longer be dismissed as a mechanical error. In fact, it is Gould singing along with his own performance as he always did on the stage and in the recording studio. Throughout his search for technical perfection, he hummed along audibly and slightly off-key. In many ways the odd combination...
Divided into 32 vignettes, the film borrows its structure from Gould's first and most famous recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations." Through a series of interviews, animated clips and dramatized scenes from Gould's life, the film attempts to present a multi-faceted portrait of the pianist, but with mixed success. A common theme links the "Goldberg Vairations" together, each revealing a new subtlety in the melody or voice in the harmony; in the film Gould is the main theme, but not every vignette contributes to the depiction of Gould's life or character. As a result of this...
...sympathetic interviews with collegues, friends and family give the film a quasi-documentary touch. The conversations soon reveal that even the people closet to Gould could not explain his numerous eccentricities, a fact that leaves many questions unanswered yet seems appropriate at the same time. Rather than trying to psychoanalyze the pianist, the film seems content to keep the theme of Gould open to interoperation. The film derives much of its humor from the ongoing bewilderment and second-guessing of his friends. Why did Gould insist upon wearing a scarf, hat and gloves throughout the summer...
...Cocktails for Two sold two million records. Four years later, the holiday jape All I Want for Christmas (My Two Front Teeth) sold 1.5 million copies in six weeks. Jones cinched his renown with a high-rated radio show and an exhaustive skein of one-night stands. Chester Gould and Al Kapp put him into their comic strips. Movies and TV beckoned. For a decade, Lindley Armstrong Jones was the maestro satirist of the Hit Parade -- and a crucial influence on such musicaliconoclasts as Stan Freberg, Ernie Kovacs, Tom Lehrer and Frank Zappa...