The many varied works of theater artist Robert Wilson are the focus of the documentary "Absolute Wilson." 'Absolute Wilson' Director: Katharina Otto- Bernstein Rating: Not rated but contains brief nudity, adult language.

The late Susan Sontag called "Einstein on the Beach" one of the great works of the 20th century. She should know; she saw it 40 times.

If theater artist Robert Wilson had done nothing but that, he would have earned his place in theater history, she said. But he did (and continues to do) much more, typically against all odds, as the documentary "Absolute Wilson" demonstrates.

Wilson was told his ground-breaking spectacle "Einstein," written with composer Philip Glass, should be staged in a downtown loft somewhere. He ignored the advice of the National Endowment for the Arts, decided to raise the $1 million to mount the production at the New York Metropolitan Opera and sold out in two days, subversively placing the $2,000-a-seat high rollers next to the patrons who plunked down $2 for their tickets.

When he told his father, who uncharacteristically came to New York from his home in Waco, Texas, to witness the triumph, that he had fallen short of the $1 million, the elder Wilson said, "Son, I didn't know you were smart enough to be able to lose $150,000."

Wilson was a slow learner as a child, struggling with stuttering and a processing disorder which made learning difficult. As a boy, his only friend in the segregated South had been the African-American son of a woman who worked for his family. He went to college as a pre-law student, to satisfy his father, but woke up one day and decided he wanted to be an artist and, by the way, he was gay.

That was the start of his liberation which led him to the Pratt Institute -- a professor recalls "he never did the assignments that I gave, he made up his own" -- and back to Texas after graduation, where he tried to commit suicide and landed in a mental institution, a blip on his road to success that would nevertheless be reflected in the avant-garde shows he staged.

He worked with patients in iron lungs, launched a center that brought together artists of all stripes, tapped the creative core of an autistic teen, staged a non-stop weeklong performance in Iran, conceived a 12-hour opus for the Olympics examining civil wars, joined forces with Tom Waits and William Burroughs, and shattered long-held conventions about what a theatrical experience should be like. As musician David Byrne says, Wilson's work "makes 98 percent of other theater look hopelessly old-fashioned."

Just as Wilson is not your typical theater and opera director, "Absolute Wilson" is not your typical documentary although it is purposely not avant-garde.

Written and directed by Katharina Otto-Bernstein and edited by Bernadine Colish, it deftly demonstrates how Wilson's real-life experiences and artistic vision are reflected in his sometimes surreal stage designs. They often resemble paintings come to life.

Otto-Bernstein, aided by a treasure trove of photos, films, videos and reviews, says in the press notes that she used the triangle as her guide in constructing the film: two timelines, past and present, starting far apart and meeting in the end. She divided Wilson's life into acts and after each one bounced back to the present day.

But it's not just Wilson weighing in. His sister talks about him, as do composer Philip Glass, opera star Jessye Norman, critics and executives connected to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation.

Wilson is a perfectionist who works and travels nearly nonstop and seems to exasperate even the world-class Norman who suggests Wilson thinks performers are "slothful" if they put in less than a 12-hour day. Another grouses that he's never satisfied. "He wants more forever and ever."

He knows what he wants, and now moviegoers will, too.

Opens Friday at the Harris Theater, Downtown.