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Joe Gould's Secret (2000)

Joe Gould's Secret (2000)

Drama
Release Date: 2000, January 21
Directors: Stanley Tucci
Cast: Steve Martin, Stanley Tucci, Ian Holm, Patricia Clarkson, Hope Davis, David Wohl, Celia Weston, Alice Drummond, Harry Bugin, Sarah Hyland, Susan Sarandon, Mark Casella

Overview:

Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull," bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret.