A Brief History of Time

The universe - how did it all begin? What existed before and where does it end? In A Brief History of Time we get to take part of the physicist Stephen Hawking's journey through the cosmos and the mystery of the black holes. His research entails an enormous challenge under time pressure, since he has MS. A stream of ideas about the origins and fate of the universe, about time, man's insignificance and the existence of God. Filmed in a minimalist style in order to relate Hawking to the cosmos.

Comment:
Stephen Hawking was born on the 8th of January 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. This self-willed scientist has come closer to solving the mystery of the universe than anyone before him.

This documentary is based on the book ”A Brief History of Time'', in which Stephen Hawking writes about his life and discoveries. The book has sold in enormous editions all over the world. Explaining Hawking's theories in written form is hard. Explaining Hawking's theories in an 83 minute film would seem a watertight way of putting the audience to sleep. But the director Errol Morris chooses to do it in his own way.

The speaker voice in A Brief History of Time is Hawking's own. Stephen Hawking,
who is paralyzed and tied to a wheelchair, speaks through a computer synthesizer with a metallic voice (not unlike the sound we are used to hearing from the pop group Kraftwerk). This is his natural voice, but it gives the film a stylized character which, enforced by the visual form, is very unusual in documentary film.

All those interviewed in the documentary (Hawking's mother, sisters of schoolmates, scientists and so on) are filmed against backgrounds that feign to be their homes, but that are really very stylized settings created by the stage designer Ted Bafaloukos.
The photographer John Bailey, known for his collaboration with Lawrence Kasdan, has worked with a lighting more like that we are used to seeing in feature film.

But the most inspiring thing about A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking himself. The documentary portrays his childhood, the first teenage drinking-bouts, his to begin with unutilized brilliant mind, his increasingly sick body. When the illness eventually paralyzed Hawking's entire body, except for his brain, lungs and heart, it also provided the basis for the total concentration which through the years has given birth to thoughts that have changed modern science.

Jan Gradvall

Medverkande
Stephen Hawking: Producent
David Hickman: Manus
Based on Stephen Hawking’s book: Foto
John Bailey A.S.C.: Musik
Philip Glass: Talat språk
English