Adventures in Perception (1971)

Whilst we do see a little of the man at work here, this isn't really a film at all. It's more of a documentary that extols the virtues of some fine rostrum camerawork used to great effect showing us a catalogue of Escher's animations. Initially examples of more straightforward imagery, but gradually many of them seem to defy just about all of the laws of physics and perception as shapes fold into and out of themselves; stairways go up and down or is that down and up. There are images within images, like watching a complex and puzzling series of eye tests - some in colour some monochrome. Geometry, gravity and symmetry feature heavily as his imagination assumes quite an astonish degree of three-dimensional thinking. There's a little rather dry narration and a nondescript score to accompany this creatively assembled montage that offers us a sense of the skill of this man at layering and giving depth and detail to his quirkily conceived works.