Natan

Directed by Paul Duane and David Cairns **** IFI, 6.10pm

Hats are vigorously doffed to Paul Duane and David Cairns for unearthing an extraordinary, largely forgotten story and investing it with such eccentric energy in this superb documentary for the Arts Council's Reel Art strand.

Even committed cineastes may struggle to make anything of the name Bernard Natan. Born in Romania, this imaginative, hard-working innovator moved to Paris and – after questionable beginnings in early (ahem) exotic cinema – became one of the driving forces in the advance of Pathé pictures. He was an innovator in colour and sound. He produced an early version of Les Misérables. Then, as the occupation loomed, his life fell messily about his ears.

Not content with assembling first-class talking heads and battering archive footage into smooth montages, the Irish directors have worked hard at granting Natan a ghostly presence in their strange film. Wearing a massive, faintly grotesque fake head, a fantastic version of the protagonist lurks forlornly in the film's more obscure corners. Sombre music from Seti the First adds further sinister colour to the creation.

History has granted Duane and Cairns a slippery structure that allows the film a reinvigorating charge when it appears to be winding down to a sombre close.

In recent years, it has been suggested that Natan's involvement in silent-era pornography was more extensive than had previously been believed. Duane and Cairns allow such doubts to circulate, but the film retains faith in its fascinating subject throughout. Surely, our hero would never have done that to a duck. Would he?

Excellent stuff.