A Brief History of Time

The documentary follows Stephen Hawking along two lines: the ideas he built about black holes and the beginning of time, and his own life. His mother, his sister, colleagues and students speak; Hawking's own voice comes from his computer. The film is not interested in summarising the book. It is interested in how a thought is formed: it does not build Hawking as a figure of pity, and says almost coldly that the illness left him nothing to do but think. The form is Errol Morris's own: scenes constructed in a studio, speakers looking straight into the lens, recurring visual motifs and a design slightly detached from reality. This is not observational documentary but a built one. Philip Glass wrote the score, and its structure of repetition accompanies the film's account of time directly. It won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992. Who it is for: viewers who like science storytelling and Morris's form. Who it is not for: anyone wanting to learn physics. The film does not explain the theory in detail, and a viewer who has not read the book will find parts of it left hanging.