Word: goulding
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Until Harvard Professor of Geology Steven Jay Gould launched an attack in the November 28 issue of The New Yorker. Gould, a leading evolutionary biologist, hit the mark when he denounced The Bell Curve as a "manifesto of conservative ideology." The book is not an academic treatise in social theory and population genetics, he argues, and furthermore "the book's inadequate and biased treatment of data displays its primary purpose--advocacy...
...Gould isn't afraid to challenge the basis of The Bell Curve's questionable research, something which many of his colleagues have shied away from. Lay reviewers, he notes, have let themselves become frightened by the statistics and charts thrown at them by Murray and Herrnstein, materials which are filled with errors and misapplied research...
...Gould's overwhelming need to flee from the world reached a climax when he decided not to perform live. His obsessive-compulsive nature overcame him, and he descended into the private world of the studio. It is this decision that created Gould's legendary persons--as he became even more remote, the myths of his life increased. At the same time, it suggests the hermetic and elite manner in which Gould lived his life. The brutal facts of Gould's life serve to emphasize the destructive aspects of his genius. He turned obsessively in on himself, and this voracious introspection...
...technique, the scope of the film is compelling. The director inserts a series of montage images. X-rays dancing on the screen are woven amidst shots of the crazed. Gould writing in his diary the cold statistics of his medical health. Shots of a NASA flights are mixed with various interviews with people who knew Gould's peculiar persona. Not only are these effective diversions a way of introducing the musical variation of the film itself, but also they serve to highlight the odds and ends of the pianist's existence. The facts are here, but they are woven within...
Colm Feore gives a remarkable performance as Gould. With every move, he suggests Gould's restless quirks and passions. He is both detached and present, tender with a sheet of music, harsh in his judgments and the pain he inflicts on his body. The score of the film is--unsurprisingly--superb, with Gould's actual recordings providing the framework. Life and the artist are given to us but with this successful minimalist style, leave us enough room to ponder the madness and strange sensibility of Glenn Gould...