A major experimental film by Michael Snow, probably the greatest living Canadian artist, made in collaboration with Carl Brown (1991). The title refers to the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, and the film is intimately concerned with the sources and physical ingredients of film images, as well as the violence entailed in their production. Surprisingly close in some ways to the work of Stan Brakhage, at least in surface appearances, this is both provocative and beautiful, like most of Snow’s best films (e.g., Wavelength, La region centrale, So Is This). (JR)