Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786306011018
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 6306011013
Label: Polygram USA Video
Manufacturer: Polygram USA Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Polygram USA Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 26, 2000
Running Time: 110 minutes
Sales Rank: 68746
Studio: Polygram USA Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 26, 2000
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Based on a pair of delicious character portraits by The New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, 'Professor Sea Gull' and 'Joe Gould's Secret,' Stanley Tucci's film is an often lovely study in opposites that never quite realizes the delicate complexity of Mitchell's rich essays. Tucci plays Mitchell, a transplanted southerner in New York with a honey-smooth lilt and a careful detachment from the world. When he sketches a profile of disheveled bohemian Joe Gould (Ian Holm at his scruffy, scrappy best) for The New Yorker, he inadvertently becomes a part of the volatile little man's life, and the chaos shakes up his carefully ordered world. As in his first film, Big Night, Tucci shows a sensitivity to performance and an easy naturalness in his direction, and his evocation of 1940s New York is understated but beautiful. Holm creates a vivid firecracker of a frustrated artist, an explosive personality whose character quirks add an almost aggressive edge to him. Gould is never cute, but Holm creates a sad sympathy for his frustration. But the real story is Mitchell's troubled relationship with the man and his own guilt and responsibility when he 'escapes' Gould. There's a quiet melancholy when we discover Joe Gould's secret, but in a way it's only the prologue to Joe Mitchell's secret. Tucci's careful, precise direction is heartfelt and well meaning, but never cracks Mitchell's social mask to reveal the man underneath. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Marvelous little film
Joseph Mitchell wrote"Human interest"pieces for the New Yorker magazine back in the 1930s...It was his interest in"Professor Seagull"aka Joe Gould,that led,long years later,to this film..Gould,either a con-man or a madman(and possibly both)claimed to be writing"an oral history of the world",a mammoth work alledgedly based upon conversations and observations of those Gould encountered on his travels around New York City..That ,perhaps,his manuscript might not be anything at all like Gould claimed,apparently did not dawn on Mitchell when he was writing his two New Yorker articles about him,and Gould,for his part,liked the attention the articles gave him which,in the end,contributed to Mitchell's estrangement from him..
This film,directed by and starring Stanley Tucci is a true gem.
Rating: - Brilliant evocation of an era
Tucci is an inspired director and actor. This film depicts with sensitivity and brilliance the relationship between a writer and his subject. The "grammar" of the film, camera angles, editing, symbolism, etc., is the best I've seen in years.However, it is much too artistic and subtle to appeal to a general audience. Tant pis! Congratulations Tucci! Please keep at it.
Rating: - A psychological slant
I'm surprised no one mentions Joe Gould's obvious psychological problems. His own mother recognizes his difficulties when he is a very young boy. Gould's brilliance was as profound as his lack of boundaries and thought disorders. The dreadful trouble 'other' people eventually have when a person is not able to recognize normal adult 'self' boundaries is slowly and agonizingly developed in the film by all who care for him, especially in Joe Mitchell and the amazing Patricia Clarkson. Joe M's sense of guilt about his own desire to withdraw to more normal distances and responsibilities grows with each encounter following the publishing of the article. He slowly realizes Joe G's affections and dependencies on him and Gould's inabilities to follow up on his success to make a better life for himself. Ian Holmes is absolutely magnificent in his portrayal of madness!!!!! Stanley Tucci's emotionally profound moments build to the incredible conversation scene in the psychiatric hospital with the now medicated and more personally aware Joe G. who speaks of himself 'as a mad person'. Joe M. realizes how much he missed/did not see of Joe G's 'total self' experience when he wrote. He used Joe G's madness for his own clever aggrandizment and had no full awareness of the man or of the impact his relationship and his writing would have on this man's delicately built 'positive' life style. The most 'whole' description of Joe Gould's value was spoken by Susan Serandon: "Joe G's gregarious, exhibitionistic, ... Read More
Rating:  - A story does not end when the writer finishes writing...
I watched "Joe Gould's Secret" without knowing that it was based on a true story, but was not surprised when that turned out to be the case because this 2000 film from actor/director Stanley Tucci rings true. Tucci plays Joe Mitchell, a columnist for "The New Yorker" magazine in the early 1940s who had a chance encounter with a Greenwich Village bohemian eccentric named Joe Gould (Ian Holm). His reporter's curiosity piqued, Mitchell asks around a bit and finds that Gould claims to be writing an epic Oral History of New York, an almost daily record of the conversations he has each day with the forgotten ordinary folks of the great metropolis (the Oral History has to be capitalized; that is clear from the way Gould and his friends talk about it).
The notebooks containing this million-word history are secreted around the city with the various artist friends who provide Gould patronage by listening to him and making monetary contributions to the Joe Gould Fund. The rationale for their indulgence is articulated by the painter Alice Neel (Susan Sarandon) who tells Mitchell, "I have always felt that the city's s unconscious is trying to speak to you through Joe Gould."
Mitchell discovers that Gould is a walking contradiction, capable of both quick bursts of anger and madness as well as perceptive insights into the human condition. He proves his credentials at being a superb listener by doing a Henry Higgins and telling Mitchell he was born in North Carolina based on a single ... Read More
Rating: - A literary genius.
This historical comedy-drama is based on the true story of Joe Gould, a bohemian eccentric who was a fixture in New York's Greenwich Village from his arrival in 1916 to his death in 1964. Gould, who claimed to be a graduate of Harvard, would cadge drinks and subsist on catsup as he regaled patrons of neighborhood saloons with stories, poems, opinions, and his imitation of a seagull. In a 1942 New Yorker profile by journalist Joseph Mitchell, Gould spoke of his life's work, a book entitled An Oral History of Our Times, which he claimed would be eleven times longer than the Bible, contain a variety of overheard conversations from throughout the years, and document the decline of 20th century culture. Mitchell kept tabs on Gould, and tried to introduce him to publishers who might put his work into print, but nothing ever came of it, and it wasn't until Gould's death that Mitchell discovered the surprising truth about his friend.
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