In continuation of the theme of "master" artists who have inspired/helped moviemakers, I will be going over in this blog probably the oddest, yet most successful, example their is. Today's artist is the Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger. I will start by saying that I do not enjoy surrealism in the least, and Giger's work brings surrealism to a whole new level. However, his contribution is definitely worth noting.
Giger helped create the greatest, and most famous (other than Godzilla), movie monster in history, the alien from Ridley Scott's masterpiece Alien. It was his work that inspired the moviemakers to attempt to create the most ferocious, yet rather odd-looking alien, that could still be taken quite seriously. Giger was asked if he would not only let them work off of his designs, but was asked to be a part of the moviemaking group. He contributed to the work as a whole, and was awarded the 1980 Academy Award for "Best Achievement in Visual Effects." This is even more impressive when one considers what it took to actually create the monster in the movie, which icluded from my understanding, plastic tubes and other rather crude materials. Yet it was a grand success. The pervasiveness of his work in Alien would carry on to James Cameron's Aliens. While it is true that surrealism can be very hard to bring to the big screen, the fact that they were able to use such odd pieces of art, and yet able to bring it all together into an understandable whole, is a testament to the moviemakers, and to Giger's imagination.
This is the "H.R. Giger Environment"
No comments:
Post a Comment