The lookers

Michael Almereyda scopes out William Eggleston's view

By Cheryl Eddy

cheryl@sfbg.com

The first moments of William Eggleston in the Real World are deliberately mysterious. The acclaimed photographer prowls a dark street, pointing his camera into store windows. Cars audibly whiz by in the background. Just when it starts to get uncomfortable, director Michael Almereyda's self-conscious voice-over kicks in. Suddenly we're up to speed (Eggleston is on assignment, snapping Gus Van Sant's Kentucky hometown), and the ensuing interlude in a taqueria (decorated with a sad-looking cardboard stand-up of Humphrey Bogart, which Eggleston immediately focuses on) has enough context to make it no weirder than it already is.

Ten minutes in, we get the obligatory history of Eggleston, including his landmark 1976 Museum of Modern Art exhibit – a critically reviled show dubbed "perfectly boring" by the New York Times. Of course, perceptions have changed. Almereyda (whose previous films include Nadja and the Ethan Hawke Hamlet) quotes Eggleston as saying, "I am at war with the obvious," and the artist's singular way of capturing the everyday is undeniable: drive-in signs, the inside of an empty oven, and the gazes of ordinary people all become what Almereyda accurately describes as "mysteries hiding in plain sight."

The photos may be fascinating, but Eggleston himself is just as intriguing – a hard-drinking player in horn-rims whose speech rarely rises above a mutter. At times, the doc captures so much of Eggleston's personal life that it becomes almost embarrassing; other moments careen into the surreal, as when Eggleston's drunk gal-pal slurs about elephants while "Shiny Happy People" blares on the stereo.

Almereyda rarely engages his subject in direct interviews (and thankfully avoids talking-head art experts); the closest he comes is filming Eggleston during a postlecture Q&A at the Getty Museum. And there's a reason for that: Near the end of the film, as the pair sit in a Memphis BBQ joint, Almereyda presses Eggleston, attempting to tease out a deeper, emotional reaction. "You can't really talk [about art]," the photographer explains with trademark curtness. "It doesn't make any sense."

WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD Jan. 27-Feb. 2; 2:15, 5:20, and 8:25 p.m. Balboa Theater 2620 Balboa, SF $6-$8.50 (415) 221-8184 www.balboamovies.com