Tuesday, May 13, 2014

VALE H. R. GIGER

It's fair to say that Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) would be nowhere near the film it is were it not for the illustrations and designs which Giger put together for it (which included the adult alien, the facehugger, chestburster, derelict spaceship/pilot and more). His designs mesmerised me as a 15 year-old, seeing them in the pages of magazines like Cinefantastique and Starlog around the time ALIEN was released, and I quickly went on to learn more about him after buying Giger's Alien, as well as the making-of book (The Book of Alien). Giger's work was beautiful yet ugly, horrifying yet sexual, disturbing yet endlessly fascinating. And the man himself, with his pale skin, grey locks, black clothes and often draped in a full length black leather coat, was almost as transfixing and interesting as his work.