DARK STAR: H.R. GIGER’S WORLD Documentary Opening May 15; In St. Louis June 5

After a successful film festival run, the definitive documentary DARK STAR: H.R. GIGER’S WORLD opens in theaters across the U.S. and Canada starting on May 15th, released by Icarus Films and KimStim.

Surrealist artist H. R. Giger (1940-2014) terrified audiences with his Oscar-winning monsters in Ridley Scott’s ALIEN. Sci-fi, horror, music, album covers, tattoos and fetish art have been influenced by his dark, intricate paintings and sculptures depicting birth, death and sex.

Both a mesmerizing introduction to Hansruedi Giger’s oeuvre and a must-see for Giger devotees, Belinda Sallin’s definitive documentary DARK STAR: H. R. GIGER’S WORLD shares the intimate last years of the artist’s life and reveals how deeply he resided within his own artistic visions.

The film will play in St. Louis from June 5 – June 10 as part of the Webster University Film Series.

Click here for a complete list of upcoming engagements.

How did Sallin come up with the title?

After the first few times I visited him in Oerlikon, Hansruedi seemed increasingly like a fixed star to me. He stayed in his house, hardly ever leaving. He could only be lured out of his house for a meal at a nice restaurant, or for one of his responsibilities of course, like a book signing or an exhibition opening. Otherwise Hansruedi stayed in his house, that very unusual home of his.

Anybody who wanted to visit Hansruedi or plan an exhibition with him, publish a book or make a film with him, as I did, had to go to Oerlikon. There Hansruedi would sit at the kitchen table, master of his own world. His friends, assistants or business partners all orbited around him like satellites. That’s how the title came to me: Hansruedi, the Fixed Star of his World, a Dark Star. DARK STAR – HR Giger’s World.

There was also a film in the ’70s entitled Dark Star, directed by John Carpenter, written by Dan O’Bannon. O’Bannon became a good friend of Hansruedi in the late ’70s. He wrote the script for Alien, of course. When Ridley Scott set out to find an artist to draw and design his monster and the alien planets, O’Bannon showed him Giger’s book “Necronomicon”. All Ridley Scott said was, “That’s it!” Shortly afterwards, Scott, O’Bannon and Giger wrote film history together. I really like the fact that our film title includes a reference to that time.

Behind the shuttered windows and ivy-covered walls of his residence in Zurich, Switzerland, DARK STAR brings viewers into Giger’s mysterious realm: from the first skull he was given by his father at the age of six, to macabre dinner parties with his close-knit team, to the grisly souvenirs from his time spent on the ALIEN set and reminiscences about model Li Tobler, Giger’s one-time muse, whose suicide reverberates throughout his work.

The film also addresses Giger’s complex relationship to the art world, where he defied traditional categories and embraced commercial projects for musicians including Debbie Harry, Korn, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Dead Kennedys.

Fittingly enshrined in a museum dedicated to his work, Giger’s output includes sculpture, painting, drawing, film and architecture, integrating meticulous technique with a instantly-recognizable sensibility that has inspired generations of nightmares.

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