Laurence Olivier: A Life.

Acknowledged by critics, the public, and his peers as the greatest actor of his day, Sir Laurence Olivier created a gallery of performances uniquely his own. The one criticism that dogged his career--that he was a "technical" actor, rather than a "feeling" one--stemmed from a chameleon-like ability to alter his looks with makeup and his voice by changing pitch and accent. Examining some of his most noteworthy roles--a blond, brooding Hamlet; stalwart King Henry V; seething, Gypsy-like Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights"; seedy, down-at-the-heels Archie Rice in "The Entertainer"; arrogant Roman aristocrat in "Spartacus"; Nazi war criminal in "Marathon Man"; malevolent, crookbacked Richard III; and Othello, played in blackface without being the least bit demeaning--confirms his amazing grasp on technique, but one wonders what his detractors were watching when they claimed he lacked feeling. The external, physical attributes of his characters simply formed a self-contained inner theater in which the magnificent actor portrayed his roles.

This stunning documentary/biography, shot in 1982 to commemorate Olivier's 75th birthday, primarily is a wide-ranging interview with London Weekend Television's Melvyn Bragg conducted over a number of weeks in the actor's home, garden, and various theaters. Olivier is alternately surprisingly open (except where he resolutely declines to discuss the physical and mental illnesses of his second wife, Vivien Leigh), sly, and frequently self-deprecating, delighting in telling tales of his foibles and failures more than his lifetime of successes. Artfully interspersed are clips (sometimes frustratingly brief) of his stage and screen performances, newsreels and still photographs, and interviews with such friends and colleagues as Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir John Gielgud, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., director William Wyler, playwright John Osborne, and Olivier's third wife, actress Joan Plowright.

The bottom line is a fascinating portrait of a master craftsman and the art of acting painted on a canvas spanning six decades. A half-hour documentary sometimes can seem interminable when the subject is dull. This one runs more than two and one-half hours, yet the moments fly by. A great actor can hold his audience enthralled, even when just talking about himself.