Review by John Packman.

Few musicians in recent history have been as influential, or as reclusive, as ex-Walker Brother and current avant-garde composer Scott Walker. Stephen Kijak's documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man traces the trajectory of Walker's career from teen idol to refined torch balladeer to dissatisfied cover artist to dauntingly introspective experimentalist. Kijak is granted more access to Walker than anyone probably has been in 20 years, and the singer is refreshingly verbose regarding his aesthetic and professional choices, especially for someone who has demurred the spotlight for so long. There are a lot of blanks in Walker's story that he seems uninterested in filling in, so Kijak turns to the musicians who claim him as an influence - including David Bowie and Damon Albarn - and has them tell their own Walker stories.

Admittedly, all this can get a bit mundane, as when we are treated to the audiovisual spectacle of watching other people listen to Walker's records and scratch their muso chins accordingly, or when Walker's music simply plays over trippy-screensaver renditions of his cover art. What redeems this deficit in structure is the music itself, which is astonishing: Walker possesses a booming, unearthly tenor, and his compositions, whether Jacques Brel-inspired ballads or the dissonant operatics of his later work, are appropriately cinematic. Here is the rare film that is just as vivid if you watch it with your eyes closed. The man himself comes across as humble and thoughtful, one of the few avant-garde artists eloquent enough to provide insight on his work to the uninformed. Notes for a sequel: More Walker, less of everything else.

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
Stephen Kijak | UK | 2006 | 95min

Sun. Sept. 30 | 6:20pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Tue. Oct. 2 | 11:30am | Empire Granville Theatre
Thur. Oct. 11 | 4:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre