Summary:
Answering a distress call from a far off planet, the crew of the mining ship Nostromo come across the egg of a bizarre alien species. Director Ridely Scott enlisted Swiss artist H.R Giger to design all aspects associated with the Alien and its environment while Ron Cobb and Chris Foss were hired to design the human side of the film. Though equally striking, it was Giger’s gruesome surrealist vision which reverberated the most with audiences, influencing Science Fiction design for years to come.
Analysis:
“From the outset, it was Giger’s unique vision, a blend of nightmare surrealism with industrial design, that seemed to lift Alien out of the conventional, his creations shaping and challenging its production values. Alien is a perfect example of an image-driven film. (Raw, 2009:78)Raw, L. (2009) The Ridley Scott encyclopedia. USA:Scarecrow Press Inc.
Release:
1979
Director:
Ridley Scott
Screenplay by:
Dan O’Bannon
Produced by:
Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill
Genre/subgenre:
Science Fiction, Horror, Monster
Country:
United States
Cast:
Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerrit, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto
Selected Director Filmography:
The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Robin Hood, Prometheus (In-production)
Related Films:
Alien series, The First Men in the Moon, The Thing from Another World, The Thing, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Sunshine, Xtro, Star Wars franchise, Predator, Alien vs Predator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Contamination, Inseminoid, Solaris, Dune, Moon
This publication is excellent.
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