Although MULTIPLE SIDOSIS is often discussed in the context of the other amateur films on the National Film Registry, one viewing is enough to confirm that it transcends its "amateur" designation. Filmmaker Sid Laverents's favorite multimedia gadgets, his vaudeville background, and his training as an engineer--not to mention one of his wife's boldly patterned blouses, a metronome, and a few pairs of Mickey Mouse ears--are all pressed into service for this sui generis musical short.
The film starts out as a deceptively simple narrative, in which Sid's obliging wife Adelaide presents him with that new reel-to-reel audio recorder he's been wanting ("Oh, boy!"). Having caught the tail of an inspiration, though, Sid can't rest until he's used not just the tape recorder, but his 16mm camera, his skilled whistler's pucker, and every musical instrument in the house to create an increasingly complicated rendition of the jaunty tune "Nola." At the end of the movie, you won't be able to get that song out of your head--and you also won't be able to get your head around how Laverents pulled off the staggeringly complicated camera-work and coordination necessary to combine over a dozen different flawless performances of the tune in MULTIPLE SIDOSIS. Best of all, this is a film that can actually be seen--either on VHS/DVD compilations you can order from Laverents himself (still making movies now, in his nineties), or in the lush 35mm restoration done by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Amateur or not, MULTIPLE SIDOSIS is singularly worthy of film lovers' attention.