Re: [F_minor] "Glenn Gould: Extasis" and Another DVD Question

["DJ Were-Panda" <vnvlain@gmail.com>]

Hi Anne,
Regarding the first part of your question...I actually own Extasis, Russian
Journey and Life & Times and have seen them all.  Unfortunately, the
direction for all three documentaries was very poor.  However, this issue is
not exclusive to Extasis, but documentaries under Kultur films in general.
When the documentary has a lot of live clips of the artists in action, the
producers/editors can mitigate it's lack of film direction by sprinkling
those clips generously throughout the film.  However, especially in the case
of Russian Journey where there are very little visual record of GG playing
at the venues in Moscow and Leningrad, the director added scenes (such as
having an actor playing GG in different interpreted scenarios, and zooming
into the empty piano on the stage in beat to the soundtrack of GG's playing)
in an attempt to make the film more interesting.  After 30 min, the repeated
use of those techniques made the film very bland and cliche, and therefore
boring.  I think one of the reasons is because Kultur can't really afford
good directors because it is catering to a fairly limited audience (and
therefore limited funding).  This is rather unfortunate, because there were
great eye witnesses in the film with incredible stories, but bad direction
can make their words drone.

Regarding your second question...I have no idea why they would stop printing
32 Short Films.  That is really weird IMHO.

My all time favorite is still Two Portraits.  It's too bad we never got to
see that more candid side of GG in the later films.

Cheers, Bing
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