Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 15: DARK STAR: HR GIGER’S WORLD
Belinda Sallin’s tribute to the Swiss surrealist debuted at Zurich last year. Other fest engagements have included Hong Kong, BAFICI, and Sitges, among others.
HR Giger, best known as the designer for ALIEN, allows filmmaker Sallin to enter his Zurich home, a hoarder’s paradise crammed to the rafters with books, artwork, and skulls, in the months before his death last May. Foregoing a traditional biographical approach, Sallin instead primarily records the goings on in the space, with the majority of the interviews handled not by Giger himself but his wife, mother-in-law, assistant, and other members of his coterie. Anecdotes abound, many relating to Giger’s fascination with death and sex, as represented by his biomechanical spraypainted illustrations, while others get into more personal territory, such as extended consideration of his deceased first wife – though there seems to be an assumption that viewers know who she was. Some footage of the artist in his prime offers stark contrast with his present state, with his elocution particularly difficult now, its cause not explained here. While the film attempts to cover some interesting terrain – including longstanding friction between his popular work and the art world, only recently smoothed over – Sallin seems so convinced that Giger’s history is already public knowledge that she barely makes an effort to make her subject accessible to a viewer who has very limited familiarity with the man and his work. As a result, the film ultimately feels too insular to successfully connect with broader audiences, but will likely be embraced by the artist’s pre-existing fanbase.
what (not) to doc 