MORE PICTURES WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

WILLIAM EGGLESTON'S photographs are marvelous things. Mostly of everyday objects, decaying structures and people caught right before they realized they were being filmed, the pictures invest common or overlooked subjects with an eerie otherworldliness.

For the most part printed via the little-used dye-transfer process, they also possess wonderfully rich colors that, along with Eggleston's deceptively offhand-looking gifts for strong framing and composition, really turn the bland realities they depict into something altogether unique.

The photos are the best part of ``William Eggleston in the Real World.'' New York art hound and filmmaker Michael Almereyda (he directed that contemporary ``Hamlet'' with Ethan Hawke a few years back) follows the inscrutable shutterbug, now in his 60s, around to various filming locations, trips to cities and museums (including an extended visit to the Brentwood Getty Center) and places Eggleston likes to hang out at in his Memphis, Tenn., hometown.

None of this is very interesting. Watching a photographer shoot is akin to looking at paint dry. And Eggleston doesn't have much to say about his art (a Q&A session moderated by L.A. novelist Bruce Wagner yields the most instructional info, which Eggleston doles out in one- sentence answers). Plus, the guy's such a mumbler that Almereyda thought it necessary to subtitle at least half of Eggleston's comments.

The artist's life isn't all that compelling, either. Though married to the same woman for more than 40 years, he seems to have had a couple of serious girlfriends on the side, and when one of them died, we're told, he spent some time in rehab. But the film remains unclear as to whether infidelity or substance abuse have really been parts of Eggleston's life or not.

And there are numerous scenes that just drag on forever, for no reason other than to approximate the quotidian poetry of his photos in the depth-deprived medium of real-time video. The absorbing, hypnotic effect is rarely achieved. And this production has got to have the worst exterior sound recording ever heard in a commercially released picture.

If you can forgive its many faults, however, ``Real World'' does deliver a pretty comprehensive primer on the artist's career and work. But we could have learned it all in about half the time that the movie takes to tell it. And we might have come away even more impressed if all there were to look at here were Eggleston's invigorating photographs.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD - Two and one half stars

(Not rated: nudity, language)

Director: Michael Almereyda.

Running time: 1 hr. 25 min.

Playing: Egyptian, Hollywood.

In a nutshell: The fine-art photographer Eggleston proves a less-than-riveting documentary subject.