M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity

M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity is the story of world-famous Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972). Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form. Two of his sons, George (92) and Jan (80) reminisce about their parents while musician Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash) talks about Escher’s rediscovery in the 1970s. The film looks at Escher’s legacy: one can see tributes to his work in movies, in fiction, on posters, on tattoos, and elsewhere throughout our culture; indeed, few fine artists of the 20th century can lay claim to such popular appeal.

Graham Nash. Escher was the first artist Nash grooved on in the mid-1960s while he was singing with the Hollies, the musician revealed in the documentary. One evening another rock star, the Animals’ Eric Burdon, stopped by Nash’s London house with a book, “The Magic of M.C. Escher.” They took some LSD, and Nash’s world was never the same.

Once, when a woman called Escher, saying, “Mr. Escher, I am absolutely crazy about your work. In your print ‘Reptiles’ you have given such a striking illustration of reincarnation,” he responded simply: “Madam, if that’s the way you see it, so be it.”