Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (12A)<!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

"He's got a way of disappearing", someone says of Scott Walker at the beginning of Stephen Kijak's documentary, which tries to account for the elusive, fragmentary career of pop's mystery man. It mostly fails, but tells an interesting story along the way of how a pin-up of the Sixties retreated from stardom and, instead, pursued an increasingly enigmatic line in sonic and lyric experiment. David Bowie, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Marr are among those solicited for a view, which is generally reverential, even awestruck, in the face of Walker's achievements - what Julian Cope once styled his "godlike genius". The man himself, interviewed here, is a thoughtful, self-effacing and pretty intense character, though Kijak never gets behind his defences and doesn't inquire into his problems with alcohol ("the imbibing", as Walker refers to it), which may have explained those long disappearances. A treat, nevertheless, to hear that amazing voice, a ghostly, sonorous boom that sometimes feels like the loneliest sound in the world.