Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer

There are many pleasures in this film aboutthe 19th century photographic pioneer, not least that of seeing a complicated subject laid out with crystal clarity. With the aid of multiple cameras, Muybridge made tiny strips of film containing consecutive shots of humans and animals in motion - embryonic moving pictures, in fact. Andersen dwells on all angles of interest, from the technical through to the philosophical and the sociological. Muybridge himself had many personal quirks, too: he shot his wife's lover (but was acquitted of murder), and he documents his animal models with more care than the humans (excepting some of the women). Andersen, previously a sly parodist of underground styles, brings to the material the ironist's penchant for brevity and suggestive implication; his film is a delight.