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In his films "Gates of Heaven" (1978) and "Vernon, Florida" (1981), Morris investigated the stories behind two pet cemeteries and a community of eccentric swamp-dwellers, respectively. In his 1988 film, "The Thin Blue Line," he focused on the case of Randall Adams, a Texas man wrongly convicted of murder. With "A Brief History of Time" (1992), Morris adapted Stephen Hawking's book about the origins of the universe. And his 1997 project, "Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control," was the study of a topiary gardener, a lion tamer, a mole rat researcher and a robot designer.

His recently released documentary, "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.," is the semi-tragic story of a diminutive, pocket protector-wearing man (Leuchter) who designs execution equipment for prisons across the country. Leuchter's world comes crashing down on him when he becomes affiliated with the Holocaust denial movement.

As with his other films, in "Mr. Death" Morris dissuades viewers from making hasty assumptions about his chosen subject. While the absurd historical revisions Leuchter proclaims about the Holocaust are gently but emphatically rebuked, Morris patiently pursues the bigger issue at hand: Fred Leuchter himself. How has this delusional man, fueled by 40 cups of coffee a day, become totally convinced of his own infallibility?

Recently, I arranged to meet Morris at the Carnegie Deli in midtown Manhattan. When he arrives, he emanates intensity and quickly proves to be nearly eccentric enough to appear in one of his own films. I ask if meeting him at the Carnegie was a bad idea and he smiles broadly.

"I used to live on 54th Street between Broadway and 7th, which my wife called the 'deli district.' We lived over the Stage Deli," Morris says, gesturing down the block. Pregnant pause. Bad memories of pastrami? I ask. "Well, it's not as though someone holds up a pastrami sandwich and I cower in the corner and beg for mercy ... but it's close to that."

As we're seated inside, I make some lame excuse about the Carnegie's central location being its primary asset and feebly offer a contingency plan. Morris launches into a Carnegie Deli monologue. "On one of my last visits here, it occurred to me that it must be the site of a number of unpleasant episodes. You know: thrombosis, coronary infarction -- you name it. So I asked a waitress, 'Have you ever seen anyone die? You know, just slumped over their six-pound sandwich dripping with fat. I mean, have you ever seen anyone just fold over into their plate of food?'"

"And she said, 'Not really, because they usually make it out of the restaurant,'" Morris says, suppressing laughter, "and they get as far as Smiler's [a New York convenience store chain], going for the antacid, before they keel over."

In the spirit of the moment, I offer a few "Why I don't eat at my local delicatessen" stories, one of them involving a bloody Band-Aid in a sandwich, which has Morris smiling with approval. Finally, having exhausted the topic of deli gore, I segue to one of Morris' other obsessions: mass murders. He brightens immediately.

"I started interviewing murderers when I was at University of California, Berkeley," he tells me. "That's, in fact, how I met Werner [Herzog, the film director]. I was interviewing Ed Kemper in Vacaville. Do you remember Ed?" he asks cheerfully, as if Kemper were a mutual friend. I say I'm familiar with Kemper's work. (The California serial killer was convicted of eight counts of murder in 1973.) "I interviewed Ed Kemper a whole bunch of times," Morris continues. "He fascinated me. Werner was really quite taken with Kemper as well. And, unfortunately, he then got the mass murder bug from me." After a long pause, Morris adds, "A lesson for all Jews, never tell a German your deepest innermost secrets."

I introduce the subject of Ed Gein and Morris' close personal relationship with the ghoulish grave robber turned murderer. It was back in the late '60s when Gein turned "women into furniture," as Morris delicately puts it. He was so taken with Gein's bizarre series of crimes that Morris dropped out of the doctorate program in philosophy at Berkeley to relocate to Plainfield, Wis., the killer's hometown, and moved in with Gein's next-door neighbors. "I liked Ed," Morris states calmly. "There was something incredibly naive about him. Maybe that's something I just like or have an affinity for -- the naive and appalling." It is a quintessential coupling that succinctly sums up most of his films.

Morris shifts his weight and leans slightly forward. He has something remarkable to say and he's making sure I'm ready. Our brief discussion of Gein has led us to the bedrock of Morris' approach to his craft. I set down the complimentary kosher pickle I'm eating. Morris begins.

"I was taken to the Wisconsin crime lab to see the [Gein] artifacts, and at the time I was still kind of a graduate student of philosophy, dogged by one of those perennial, philosophical questions: What is real? It's the ontological question." Morris pauses for dramatic effect. "One of the guards at the Wisconsin state crime laboratory at that time gave me one of the most compelling definitions of what is real. He took me into the room of Gein artifacts and pointed to the cane chair where Ed had removed the cane and sewn in the buttocks of a woman. And without any trace of irony the guard looked at me and said, 'You can tell it's real, because you can see the asshole.'"

I'm relatively stunned, but Morris marches on. "So, when anyone ever asks me about my films or whatever -- is it real? Somehow that definition flashes through my head."

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