‘Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould’

Everything that is distinctive and irresistible about this 1993 film comes through right from the start. A consummate musician who shocked the concert world by abandoning performance for recordings when he was only 32, the late Gould was too original a figure to fit into a conventional film bio. And Canadian director Francois Girard, who co-wrote the screenplay with Don McKellar, has not attempted to give him one. Instead, they’ve assembled a portrait of Gould as if it were a mosaic, combining unrelated facets of his life, personality and career. The film would be difficult to imagine without Colm Feore (pictured), who manages to make Gould seem simultaneously self-assured and erratic (KCET Wednesday at 9 p.m.).