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A Brief History of Errol Morris

Errol Morris has been responsible for some of the quirkiest American movies of the past quarter-century. His latest foray into the outer reaches of human esoterica, Mr Death, is one of the highlights of this year’s incredibly strong collection of documentaries, and it provides the occasion for Kevin Macdonald’s hugely entertaining look at Morris’ past work.

An accomplished cellist turned serial-killer researcher, Morris only discovered his true métier when Werner Herzog ‘stole his landscape’ – Plainfield, Wisconsin – for the 1977 feature Stroszek. In retaliation, Morris threatened to make a documentary about Californian pet cemeteries. Herzog promised that he would eat his shoe if Morris completed the project. Twelve months later, the German director was casseroling said boot at the première of Gates of Heaven.

The unclassifiably strange Vernon, Florida followed, after which potential funding dried up and Morris moonlighted for a time as a private investigator. This day job proved prophetic, as his next feature, The Thin Blue Line, a filmic investigation of an appalling miscarriage of justice, solved a murder and freed an innocent man from Death Row. Almost incidentally, it was one of the great American films of the 80s.

His next project, A Brief History of Time, was a portrait of celebrity physicist Stephen Hawking as well as an adaptation of Hawking’s bestseller, a book Morris perversely describes as ‘a thinly disguised romance novel’. 1996’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control was promoted as a ‘low-concept’ film (one that could not possibly be summed up in 25 words or less) and contained some of the most gorgeous images of the filmmaker’s career.

Morris is candid and diverting throughout, whether he’s explaining the rationale behind his unique ‘interrovision’ camera or expressing amazement at the credulity of audiences; and he’s clearly in control of the portrait – his sole Hollywood feature, The Dark Wind (1991), is tellingly omitted from Macdonald’s survey. Morris’ unfinished and abandoned projects are arguably more intriguing, and this brief history finds time for a couple of them, notably Weirdo the Super Chicken, the mere mention of which reduces Werner Herzog to fits of giggles.

Macdonald’s One Day in September also features at this year’s Festival and is clearly indebted to the formal innovations and narrative impetus of Morris’ The Thin Blue Line. — AL