Filmgoers who are familiar with the eerie surrealism of the late Swiss artist Hans Rudolf Giger will be unsurprised to learn that he lived in a dim, labyrinthine home packed to the rafters with artwork, books, and all manner of macabre mementos. As depicted in director Belinda Sallin’s new documentary Dark Star: H. R. Giger’s World, the artist’s house is a character in its own right, a goth cousin to The Royal Tenenbaums’ 111 Archer Avenue. Shot in the final year of Giger’s life, when he was 74 and in deteriorating health, Sallin’s film roams the creaking halls and stairways of the artist’s sanctuary. The space is evocative, but not sepulchral: Family, friends, and assistants come and go, and every room seems to conceal someone occupied with Giger’s correspondence, finances, or extensive archives. Sallin’s prowling, observational approach leaves one with the unshakeable impression that the house is an outward manifestation of the artist’s mind: an ebon maze buzzing with activity.
This approach is of a piece with Dark Star’s overall character, in that the film is an impressionistic celebration of the artist, rather than a biographical summary. Those viewers who are unacquainted with Giger’s work will not learn much beyond the broad strokes. Loosely chronological, the documentary touches on his years as an underground artist of posters and album covers, his breakout, Oscar-winning design for the film Alien, and the gradual solidification of his reputation as a creative icon. Giger’s colleagues enthusiastically explain the appeal of his work, but the weakened artist offers few words of his own. Nonetheless, he alone acknowledges what goes unspoken among his courtiers: His life is ending, but he is satisfied with it. Dark Star accordingly possesses an unmistakably elegiac quality, and Giger aficionados will likely find it a stimulating but melancholy experience.
Dark Star: H. R. Giger’s World will screen nightly at 7:30 p.m. from June 5–10 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium, 470 East Lockwood. Admission is $6 (cash only). Alien, the film that catapulted Giger to international fame, will screen on June 11.
