Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer

First and foremost, this is an essay -- dry and not the least bit cinematic (somewhat appropriate considering its subject but let's not get carried away here). What redeems it partly is the end, which uses its subject as entry to philosophical inquiry. If there are holes in the ability of these photos to provide a whole depiction of something in action, are these holes to an extent not mirrored in not only cinema but even our own powers of empiricism?

Makes for dry viewing, yet it is undeniably edifying on the topic of Eadweard Muybridge's work. Features the most deadpan performance of Dean Stockwell's career.

Intelligent commentary on the life and work of one of the really interesting and quasi-incidental figures of the late nineteenth century. Substantial for an hour long film.