Dark Star: HR Gigers Welt (2014) Reviews

• Great Documentary

  helloamazon2014-11-18

  Great documentary which premiered a few months after HR Giger died. Unfortunately, it was started when HR Giger health was already clearly deteriorating. The interviews with him are quite short, many are with his personal and professional entourage. The storytelling is not very linear, some old footage from Giger's youth and the movie work are mixed in. You will see more interview clips with Giger himself in these segments. As an introduction and indicator if this movie is interesting to you, watch the short movie 'HR GIGER HOME MADE' (available on YouTube), it uses the same setting in Giger's house and garden. I would recommend this movie to all (surreal) art lovers, especially those who might have a prejudice and only know his body of work but not the person and artist behind it.

• Strange and compelling doc.

  jdesando2015-05-29

  Just what you might have expected: HR Giger's home is a museum of the macabre. The celebrated creator of the Alien monster and a painter, sculptor, and architect as well, Giger inhabits a world of gargoyles and monsters, straight from his imagination to us. Dark Star: H R Giger's World is an intriguing documentary sometimes as weird and inscrutable as his mind. It certainly doesn't burden the audience with analysis. As director Belinda Sallin tracks us through the baroque museum that is his Zurich house, we see a phantasmagoria of monsters from Egyptian-monarch-looking portraits to old skulls, one of which he dragged around by string when a young boy. While the camera passes his Oscar on a shelf, the spare narration overall gives no nod to this achievement (Oscar for best visual effects for Ridley Scott's Alien), typical of the documentary's minimalist approach. Appearances by his collaborators like Gabriel Fischer, a metal musician, sometimes refer to the artist's kindness, and they occasionally give insight into the psycho-sexual, violent undertow of his startling images. The now humble man appears as if in the aftermath of a stroke, moving and speaking slowly and deliberately, but always kindly as he autographs body parts and throws off a sly smile or two. Perhaps the purpose of limiting explanation about his work is to let the array of deeply symbolic creations out of his subconscious speak for themselves, almost defying analysis. Although Freud would have a holiday assessing Giger's innermost demons, Giger's expressionism remains delightful impressionism for viewers.

• I'm sure obsessive fans of his will be more than pleased.

  Hellmant2015-10-01

  'DARK STAR: H.R. GIGER'S WORLD': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five) A documentary film exploring the life, and work, of the popular Swiss painter, sculptor and set designer (known as) H.R. Giger. The film focuses on Giger, at the age of 74, when his health was severely deteriorating. It was written and directed by Belinda Sallin, in her feature film debut, and it contains multiple interviews with Giger, as well as his friends and work associates. I found the movie to be extremely slow-paced, even boring (at times), but still, definitely, visually pleasing (like the majority of Giger's work). The movie takes place in the last days of Giger's life, shortly before he died (on May 12, 2014). The filmmaker interviews Giger, and follows him around, watching him slowly do day-to-day things. Sallin also interviews Giger's wife, and multiple co-workers, and friends of his, as well. A lot of the visuals are filled with Giger's beautiful art. The film, like I said, is really slow paced, to a somewhat painful extent; I found my thoughts drifting (a lot)! It is interesting, getting to know Giger, if only just a little, in his final days of life. It's also cool to see that he was a 'cat person', like me! I can never really get tired of looking at his fascinating art, too; but I wish there would have been more time spent on 'ALIEN', or 'SPECIES'. Although I was bored, I'm sure obsessive fans of his will be more than pleased. Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/NdWU81GeyN4

• No English Subtitles for the English Speakers!

  xanderdeafman2019-02-27

  Don't bother watching this crap, there's no subs for the people speaking in ENGLISH, when others who spoke different languages got English Subs, totally unfair for us deafs who wants to understand this fricking documentary, thanks a lot for wasting our time! Sick of this Audistry biases!

• The Final Days...

  poe-488332016-08-21

  Not unlike CRUMB, DARK STAR: H.R. GIGER'S WORLD gives us a glimpse into the day-to-day life of a singular talent- and in what turned out to be his "final days," as it were. I've always wondered why filmmakers didn't make greater use of Giger. Imagine a train, designed by Giger, entering a tunnel also designed by him. Or cave sets connected by tunnels on an alien world that lead to... Gigerland Underground- the bowels of the planet itself. Of all the possibilities, the most intriguing to me would have been to see Room 101 from George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR designed by Giger: imagine the long walk down the corridor to THAT room, every step of the way looking like a hallway in his home. Brrr...