It’s very hard to explain one’s enthusiasm about a film or particular piece of film because one is steered by the sum of one’s life experience at that point, and everyone’s experience is different. I will try and explain why the below clip is one of my favourite films of all time. It crosses all genres from documentary to science fiction.

Earlier this year a happy, extraordinary 1931 piece of 35MM film was discovered in Lincoln Center Archives, New York, of Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa “driving” a car against back projection images on a visit to Hollywood. Einstein never drove in “reality,” nor did Picasso. Marcel Marceau said, “Genius does not drive.” Hollywood magic fixed that.

Although Einstein and Elsa were not actors they do some excellent acting here. Einstein handles the wheel exceptionally well as he confidently navigates various landscapes, time and space. I think only the creator of the Theory of Relativity would know how to handle driving through a forest and a Hollywood nightclub at virtual light speed. Long before Star Wars, Einstein demonstrates how to survive time jumps with a nonchalance that might startle Han Solo.

By 1931 Einstein was more world famous than any celebrity so that may explain his totally relaxed attitude in front of the camera during this very special effects shoot.

According to the contemporary report in the New York Times, German technicians convinced Einstein to do the shoot and he was delighted with the result. Warners destroyed the negative, but Einstein was given a print, so we miraculously have it for posterity.

Einstein’s theory was about time, space and gravity and it has changed humanity’s history, albeit many people still do not understand what he did. This clip is a metaphor in a way for his theory. When you look at it, pretend it is not “faked.” Pretend it is actually happening. Elsa and Albert certainly are reacting as if it’s “real.” The jumps in time and space elegantly demonstrate viscerally Einstein’s theory. The “German technicians” who shot this knew what they were doing.

One hundred years from now this clip will be studied as the greatest physicist of all time stars in a little movie about himself, his marriage, his theories, Hollywood, fact and fiction, and the process of film-making. In this sense it might be the greatest short documentary ever made.

It even transcends film itself and becomes history.