Re: GG: Moovic? Musies? On Blending Art Forms

[Kristen Immoor <kimmoor@mindspring.com>]

At 3:55 AM -0400 7/29/97, Peters/Podlesnik wrote:
>Hi all:
>
>Thanks for your responses. I agree with all of your choices. Sheryl, yes, I
>know the Kieslowski color trio. Of course, for GG, the title of the film
>would have to be "Battleship Gray". Maybe "Nocturne in Neutrals"?

     I am joining this thread ridiculously late, but I've been installing
my new OS for the last day or so and haven't had time to concentrate.
     Someone (I've forgotten whom) mentioned Tim Burton in this thread. How
ironic, and yet how true that Tim Burton the filmmaker would so closely
mirror Glenn Gould the recording artist. Anyone willing to defy modern
convention by producing something as obscenely difficult as "The Nightmare
Before Christmas," a film created entirely by hand-manipulated stop motion
animation - the cinematic equivalent of Glenn Gould's "one edit per second"
Strauss documentary - is obviously someone fanatically devoted to the
ideals of perfection and beauty. Either that, or he's a stubborn lunatic...
which I believe has also been said of our favorite piano player. Not to
mention that although Burton meticulously sketched out "Nightmare" and
directed the shots, he did none of the mind-numbing labor of creating the
animation. Similarly, although GG could call up a producer and recite from
memory every single edit he wished to have made in a recorded work, he
seldom actually put razor to tape.
     Additionally, if one were to look beyond the production standards
utilized by both Burton and Gould, one would find that Burton prefers to
live a mostly solitary and private life, much as GG did. He enjoys writing
and sketching, and his works commonly involve themes like solitude, and the
struggle of the individual in brutish society.
     Having made this correlation, let me add that I don't think Gould
would have cared much for "The Nightmare Before Christmas." With his
fondness for mimicry, Glenn probably would have preferred Rich Little's "A
Christmas Carol."  ;-)

Regards,
Kristen

______________________________________________________________________________

"I'm very much the anti-hero in real life, you see, but I compensate madly
in my dreams."

                                  -- Glenn Gould, "Toronto"