In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) User Reviews

Whose little girl are you?

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 8/10 · 17 January 2005]

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS CONTENT WHICH SOME READERS MAY FIND SEXUALLY DISTRESSING.

Henry Darger (1892-1973) remains the most startling exemplar of 'outsider art': art created by an individual who has absolutely no contact with the formal art world. Darger, a native of Chicago, suffered an extremely abusive childhood ... in which he was institutionalised in an asylum for feeble-minded children, even though he may have been of above-average intelligence. He spent almost his entire adult life as a janitor in a Catholic hospital, never earning more than $25 weekly. During these decades, he obsessively attended Mass thrice daily (four times on the Sunday) and typed a 15,000-page novel which nobody has read in its entirety. (I've read four pages of the impenetrable typescript which resides at the American Museum of Folk Art: that's all I could manage.) What has brought Darger so much posthumous attention is his artwork: obsessive drawings of little girls, brightly coloured, on long sheets of butcher's paper. Many of Darger's girls (traced from better artists' work) wear elaborate frocks. Others, drawn free-hand by Darger, have bizarre animal appendages: butterfly wings, rams' horns. Speaking of appendages: many of these little girls are naked ... and they have little-boy penises. Darger's murals and his multi-volume novel document a fantasy realm in which heroic little Christian girls are eternally at war with pagan soldiers.

Jessica Yu's documentary 'In the Realms of the Unreal' (a shortened version of the title of Darger's novel) attempts to make sense of Darger's life, art and obsessions. Darger was not precisely a recluse: he appeared in public but interacted very little. Because Yu has no footage of Darger, and only a handful of photographs of him, she resorts to re-enactments. We keep hearing a male voice-over that purports to be Darger, speaking about himself. Only in the end credits do we learn that this is an actor (Larry Pine), reading fictionalised narration scripted by Yu. The immensely talented child actress Dakota Fanning also narrates: the decision to use a little girl for this task is exactly right, and Fanning reads her material splendidly ... but Yu has written text for her which sounds improbably mature from such a young narrator.

Yu interviews a surprisingly large number of the very few people who actually knew Darger. (They disagree on how to pronounce his name.) I agree with the interviewee who theorises that Darger drew penises on his little girls because he was entirely innocent (and ignorant) of the female anatomy, and he sincerely believed that little girls' sexual equipment looked like little boys'. Many of the little girls in Darger's art (and in his novel) are tortured or brutally murdered by men in military uniforms with mortarboard hats, yet it's clear that Darger's sympathies are with the little girls. He seems to be repelled, not aroused by the violence which he fictionally inflicts on them.

I thought I knew all the weird stories about Darger, but this documentary springs a new one. Apparently, when Darger was alone in his bedsit, he was overheard through the walls by his landlords and the other boarders: having loud arguments with himself, speaking in different voices and accents, sometimes in unknown languages. It wouldn't surprise me if Darger had multiple personalities. Also, I hadn't known (until I saw this film) that Darger's imaginary world was so detailed that he kept lists of the casualties on his fictional battlefields, and financial accounts of the warfare's expenses ... both of these figures exceeded the thousands of millions!

I was intrigued to learn that the Chicago-born Darger attempted to reinvent himself as Henry Dargarus, native of Brazil (where the nuts come from). This behaviour is absolutely typical of someone who experienced long-term sexual abuse in childhood, and who desires a new identity as a means to blot out those memories.

For most of his life, Darger lived in one room of the house of Nathan Lerner, an aspiring artist in his own right who ultimately made his impact in the art world as the curator of Darger's work. Lerner's widow is interviewed here. Yu mentions that the Lerners eventually subsidised Darger's rent, but doesn't mention that they later made a fortune by auctioning many of Darger's girlscapes after his death.

Filmmaker Yu scrupulously documents Darger's obsessions. One of these was for weather patterns, specifically storms. (Darger was present when a cyclone levelled an Illinois town in 1913.) Another of his obsessions was rather odder. In 1911, a five-year-old Chicago girl named Elsie Parobek was abducted and strangled; the case remains unsolved. Darger was in Chicago at the time, age 19, and he obsessed over this girl for the rest of his life. Some Dargerphiles theorise that he may have killed her. But there is no evidence for that, and Yu's film commendably sticks to the known facts.

Was Darger a paedophile? From what I've read, I believe that he was sexually aroused by little girls (and may have wanted to *be* one), but that his desire to protect girls (including Parobek) was sincere, and that he would have been genuinely repelled by the thought of sexual activity with children. We can't know for sure, but Darger was almost certainly a virgin when he died, precisely one day after his 81st birthday.

'In the Realms of the Unreal' uses several gimmicky visual devices. The decision to make animated cartoons from several Darger murals is a good one, and the stiff-legged 'lazy' animation technique used here is appropriate to the material. Less commendable is Yu's decision at several points to use new artwork that paraphrases Darger's themes; audiences will mistake these images for actual Darger artwork. I'll rate this powerful documentary 8 points out of 10.

Still at a Distance

[lostcheerio · 7/10 · 11 April 2006]

Henry Darger was a janitor. He lived in one room. He cleaned a Catholic hospital for fifty years, and then died with a 15,000 page manuscript and yards and yards of artwork, unknown and unpublished, in his room. You can find out more about Henry Darger and his life work, chronicling the adventures of "The Vivian Girls" at the Henry Darger entry on Wikipedia.

"In the Realms of the Unreal" is a documentary about his life. The narrative comes through a few different sources: There are interviews with those who knew of Darger in his last days, including the landlords who discovered his work. There is an old man's voice reading Darger's autobiography. There are pieces of Darger's novel. Then there is a narrator who is about 5 years old, providing a little summary and connectivity now and then. The visuals behind the readings are sometimes photos of relevant locations, like the state farm where Darger spent his late childhood, or the hospital where he worked most of his life. Sometimes they are stills or animations of Darger's artwork.

The life of Henry Darger is fascinating. It's especially intriguing to think that there are people around us who are silently, secretly living these incredibly rich and complicated internal lives. It's sad that Darger was never "discovered," but even that sadness is complicated. I'm not sure what the world would have done with him, had we known what he was about. His was not the type of art that's comfortable to package and sell. Hard to contemplate a lonely old man drawing pictures of naked children, unless you put it in the context of his whole life. Not easy to reduce to a few key words.

The movie was kind of distancing. I came away knowing more about Darger but I felt unsatisfied somehow, like some primary source had been held back, like everything had been too filtered, too disjointed. Maybe it just goes with the subject matter -- Darger was a recluse, not open to interpretation or summary. The most meaningful parts to me were the pieces read from his autobiography. It was surprisingly kind, chatty, a bit apologetic, and patient. No bitterness. No angst. Isn't that strange.

A Strange Documentary About An Even-Stranger Person

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 5 December 2006]

This is a very, very strange story and even a different kind of documentary. From what I could see here, scanning the reviews, most of them were not favorable toward this.

Myself, I found it slow in the first but more and more fascinating as it went on. It's just so bizarre, it's hard to know what to think as you watch this. When it was over, I found I was glad I took a chance on this DVD and will watch it again. But - it's not a happy experience.....and it is a bit haunting.

I would just comment on a few things: 1 - I agree that, considering the subject matter and strange character (Henry Darger) whom this is about, this documentary should have been more interesting; 2 - I did not object to the artwork coming to life on occasion. It added badly-needed interest to the presentation. You never quite knew what you were going to see next, and I liked that; 3 - I enjoyed the two main voices, those of Larry Pine and Dakota Fanning. Pine voiced Darger as an adult and Fanning was the narrator and represented the Vivian Girls. Although young for this kind of role and vocabulary, Fanning is an exceptional young actress and seems to handle to everything well. Both did an outstanding job and the two complemented each other nicely, too.

4 - I disagree with those who assumed Darger had no idea the physical difference between men and women, which is why he drew penises on the little girls. Come on - how naive can you be? Everyone - even shut-ins - knows the difference, whether one is celibate his/her own life or not. People see nudity throughout their life, even in the most innocent of places such as statues in public parks, museums, galleries, almost anywhere. He knew. Lord knows why he drew what he drew but let that remain his business. 5 - The more one listens to this account, the more insane Darger appears. I wasn't totally sure of that until he went into his "weather" phase. Holy smokes, this man had problems! It's sad, in a way, and is a prime example of how much an imprint your childhood has on the rest of your life. With a "normal" childhood, with a loving mother and father, would Henry have been a "normal" adult?

Anyway, I found his book - from what Dakota and the others read from it - somewhat boring and definitely depressing, to be frank. To me, in addition to being immense adventure story it is, it was just as much - if not more - simply a long diary of man wrestling with his tortured soul.

Definitely recommended, but know what you're in for.

A Different Kind of Beautiful Mind

[jiffyxpop · 7/10 · 24 May 2004]

I remember hearing about Henry Darger several years ago, but the article I read back then was brief and I was disturbed by images of little girls being strangled in his art. I was eager to see a documentary that would more fully explain his art. I thought the film did a very good job of providing insight to his work - how his traumatic early life led to the themes of his obsessive artwork, how the torture of the little girls probably references his own feelings of feeling tortured in his own life, clues to why he drew penises on all his little blonde girls --"the Vivians," his basic sense of himself as an "innocent," his attempt to adopt children, how he created a secret world for himself, complete with talking to himself in different voices, etc. A much more interesting look into mental illness in some ways than the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Compelling and Visually Intriguing

[pythonking · 9/10 · 3 February 2004]

The Henry Darger story is fascinating, and it made a terrific documentary for Jessica Yu and her animation team. She approaches it partially as a narrative, partially as a fantasy, and overall as as documentary. The animation is beautiful as it really transforms us in the world of Darger's artwork and life. There is rarely a dull instant in the piece, and I found myself just awed at this beautiful piece.

Nice to see such an attentively made introduction to such a bizarre outsider figure

[crculver · 7/10 · 14 September 2018]

IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL is a 2004 documentary film by Jessica Yu introducing the life and work of Henry Darger. A major figure of "outsider art", Darger's work was only discovered after his death when his landlords found thousands of pages of text and paintings in his room. Through his long life, he was known to his few friends and associates only as a janitor in a local hospital. Secretly, he wrote a massive manuscript chronicling the rebellion of girl slaves in a fantasy world, painted with watercolors of the heroines and battles.

Yu has chosen three main narrators for the documentary. A little girl (Dakota Fanning, even) narrates Darger's biographical facts, while excerpts from Darger's autobiography are reads by an old man (Larry Pine), and texts from his fantasy epic are read by some fellow with a radio play delivery. In addition, we find interviews with people who knew Darger. Kiyoko Lerner, his landlady and now the caretaker of his legacy, is of course featured, as are some of his neighbours and an altar boy from his church. While everyone reports him to be an odd fellow, Yu avoids the controversial issue of Darger's mental health, preserving the ambiguity of whether he was mad or a mere eccentric. Similarly, the relation of Darger's work to sexual frustrations or the possibility of sexual abuse as a child are left out. But this is a mere introduction, and it's reasonable to expect the viewer to move on to other sources for contentious matters. My only real complaint is that Yu is not always content to let Darger's paintings speak for themselves. Rather, she has animated certain of Darger's scenes, which I feel distorts the paintings to a degree. While I think the film does not deserve a one-star rating for this as another reviewer awarded it, it is troubling.

Nonetheless, all in all this is a fine presentation of a remarkable figure. And if Darger's intrigues you, I'd recommend also discovering Adolf Wolfli, a Swiss madman whose life and work resembles Darger in several years.

Enter the realms of the unreal!!

[jjo999 · 10/10 · 22 January 2005]

This was a very impressive documentary. Although it was different from the films I generally go to see, I remained interested in Henry Darger's life throughout the whole movie. He was portrayed as quite an interesting person. As a child, he is taken to an asylum and thought to be insane. When he finally escapes this life, he becomes a janitor and later, a part of the army. His neighbors play an important role in the movie because they describe his personality and what they knew about him. It was interesting to hear each perspective. Much of what they had to say about him was the same, but some of it varied at least through word choice which I felt was significant because it revealed each of their attitudes toward who they thought he was. Henry Darger's artwork was amazing. The illustrations of the Vivian sisters provided insight into his eyes. The most impressive thing was how the lives of these girls seemed to represent his life and feelings toward it. If you are interested in learning something, I encourage you to see, "In the Realms of the Unreal."

Lost Battles

[tedg · 17 July 2010]

Henry Darger was a man damaged in childhood who went on to lead a reclusive, long life. As with many of us, he pulled into a fantasy world. Unlike nearly all of us, he found a way to reify that world in text and images. He had no intentions of ever sharing I am sure, but share we can. He is known first for his eccentricity, then his paintings which really are quite remarkable. They illustrate his alternative world where pure little girls formed the army of good against evil. Evil clearly was close to the "real" world. And Darger himself appears in the stories he wrote to supplement the images. And of course he is in the images as well. It is a fascinating story and possibly highly cinematic. There are some facts of his life that were good to learn; and very effective to hear so many conflicting memories of the man. It is valuable to see the images. Some of them are absolutely hypnotizing, especially in the context. But gosh this filmmaker makes so many bad choices. Although the story has no explicit sexual flavor, it is quite close to perverse. My own view is that the world and the girls as he imagined them were tokens of otherworldliness so abstract and pure that they need to be admired for the clean purity. Having Dakota Fanning narrate as one of the Viviane Girls, and with practiced childishness, tips the balance from abstract to absolutely dangerous. A big mistake. The fellow that narrates Darger's inner voice is profoundly wrong too. A narrator could work. Animating the drawings could work. But gosh, either you need to fully buy into the world and enter it as Darger would, or you have to set a platform in between him and us that has some solidity. We have to know who and where we are. This filmmaker does not do that, skipping from place to place with no anchor, no coherence. If the man is about anything, it is coherence. It would have been good to know that some of the "witnesses" here basically stole the man's legacy and became wealthy as a result. Their recall is colored by some pretty crass motives.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Innovative Treatment of the Subject Matter

[scd20 · 7/10 · 4 January 2005]

Jessica Yu's documentary, is described as "the mystery of Henry Darger." Indeed, as Yu reveals, from her interviews with the people who were closest (and have survived by 30 years) the passing of Henry Darger, her subject was an intensive reclusive, private individual who resided nearly entirely in the realms he had constructed for himself.

In many ways, Yu's journey into the Darger's mind feels like a visit into the mind of a child both in terms of Darger's naivety and his curious creativity. It's not surprising, really, given Darger's intense interest in the thinking of children. Then again, perhaps it is surprising to witness an adult perpetually perceive his surroundings in a so child-like a manner and the interest in children is then but a natural out-growth of Darger's state itself.

What makes the film interesting is Yu's mysterious subject: the imagination of the mysterious Henry Darger. What makes the documentary brilliant is the manner in which the subject is treated. By animating the paintings for which Darger is so famous and by playing out scenes from the epic battles in his epic novel, Yu ingeniously takes the viewer into the mind of the subject for much of the documentary. The result is that Yu is given the room to present Darger's work with empathy rather than the pity or disdain it would have received in less-subtle hands. A quintessential example of this technique is conveyed in the sequences where the viewer learns how Darger, from his hermetic existence, created his paintings without a mentor or peer with whom to communicate.

A fascinating documentary handled with delicacy. 9.

Sean

The Fruits of Loneliness

[cestmoi · 10/10 · 2 February 2005]

What a find for the unsuspecting moviegoer. The story is already known: damaged young boy turns into damaged and embittered adult who seeks refuge in a fantasy land influenced by school books, children's literature, and some classics. The result is a monumental work of words and illustrations that result in fame...in death...as an outside artist. The film itself is beautifully made. After ten minutes the doubts that the filmmaker can make this nearly on-liner work is erased, and the world of an unhappy, naive, angry, talented man is joyfully received. Great conceit animating the work, wonderful rendering of the artist's subtle colors (think Bonnard, Vuillard,) and a truly touching look at the soul of a true outsider in every respect. Ah yes, we love the children, always have...on our lips, but in life it has been, and remains, something else.

Interesting work, but the film doesn't do it

[villianlasegunda · 7/10 · 31 July 2006]

Herny Darger seems to be a strange and lonely man, but sadly none of the people interviewed in the film can give us any insight into his life. The film-makers deliberately set their contradicting comments about him next to each other so that the audience is aware of how little any person actually knew him. But because it is true that no one knew him in the least, it seems impossible to make a satisfying documentary about him and his work. The illustrations from his stories are animated, and the narration is done by a little girl (Dakota Fanning) so that the whole thing is very surreal and actually slightly magical. But the fact remains that seeing his work is probably the only real way to get any insight about him or his inner workings, while seeing this movie will only make you want to do just that.

The Most Extreme Example Of Outsider Art

[Seamus2829 · 9/10 · 27 March 2009]

With the recent focus on outsider art,somebody must have figured that Henry Darger was a natural. Darger was a janitor and well known introvert for years. What was not known (at least until after his death in 1973),was that Darger kept a series of stories & paintings, as a continuing account of a realm of fantasy that only Darger could relate to. Vast volumes of paintings & text were found in the cramped apartment that he lived in for years (he had little family & had less than no use for the company of other people). Jessica Yu's film attempts to tell Darger's story (with extracts of his writing read by the likes of Dakota Fanning,and others). This film is a "must see" for anybody with an interest in art (especially outsider art). As this film is independently produced,it carries no MPAA rating,but does contain a bit of mature subject matter (mainly in the way of some of his paintings depicted that has nudity).

Precious little to work with.

[TrickTaylor · 6/10 · 25 February 2008]

Boy oh boy did I want to love this movie. I am fascinated by the secret lives of everyday people, especially those who seemingly have been forgotten by society. The story of Henry Darger and his massive, secret work of fantasy should have been a sure thing. Unfortunately, the movie had precious little to work with and came off as confusing and slow.

What makes this movie intriguing is also its biggest barrier, and that is that there are only 3 known photos of Darger, and few, if anyone, who really knew the man. You could feel the struggle as the filmmaker tried to tease 80 minutes out of 3 photos. Darger did leave behind an autobiography and more than 15,000 pages of a fantasy novel, but I wanted to see Darger, and that could not be provided.

Darger is notable for leaving behind said volumes, and the fact that nobody knew he was working on it. What a surprise it must have been to realize that the forgotten man had produced such wondrous works. The film does a nice job of weaving personal accounts from Darger with details about his story. One can clearly see that he used the story as an outlet to deal with his own confusing existence. Unfortunately, the story isn't enough to hold one's attention, and eventually turns into ramblings of a recluse. I would have liked a sturdier thread holding this together. The good stuff was there, just not told very well by the filmmaker.

In the end, In the Realms of the Unreal was interesting in spots and far too tedious in others. The main character could never be illustrated fully and we are left to learn about him through his confusing stories and the flimsy accounts from people who barely knew him. What began as prime subject matter melted into a desperate exercise to make a full length movie.

Too Much for Too Much

[jp1713 · 4/10 · 21 January 2005]

The *subject* of Darger and this film about him are two different things. Rather than coming at Darger as someone who understands outsider art let alone Darger, Jessica Yu has the eye of the typical person who is "fascinated" by Darger's story. She just happens to have access to capital and the means to make a movie.

This isn't meant to harp on Yu or her film-making abilities which are okay, but she lacks an emotional connection to the story outside of being "blown away," just like everyone else. In fact, I heard Yu describe her fortuitous discovery of Darger... but that's all it was. Unlike, say, Franklin Rosemont, who's been writing about Darger waaaaay before any of the critics or "experts" of late. What was Rosemont's impetus? He was a Surrealist...

The film itself is, I hate to say it, rather boring. Pedestrian. I also completely agree with the viewer who said that everything was in close up - it makes for a monotony that's palpable.

As is, this film should have been no longer than 45 minutes. It is simply far too long and monotonous...

One can only imagine what a film about Darger might have been if made by, say, Bunuel. It would have made all the difference. It would have hinted at the marvelous in the mundane, rather than been fascinated by a car wreck with a spectator's eye. As it is, it is "accomplished" and "polished". That's about it.

Maybe one day they'll make a movie about my unpublished 10, 000 page fantasy novel...

[wandereramor · 6/10 · 7 March 2012]

Henry Darger is a fascinating figure -- one of those extreme characters whose private artistic output is at the same time strange and familiar, a collection of strange obsessions born out on paper. There have probably been a lot of people pouring their anxieties into private fantasies, but none of them had quite the tenacity or strangeness of Darger.

Jessica Yu's film In the Realms of the Unreal is fascinating, then, inasmuch as it's a film about a fascinating individual. Yu loosely sticks to the standard documentary format, with lots of talking heads and voice-over narration. There are some artistic touches, some of them successful (the strange animation), others of them less so (the child voice over). On the whole it's a competent documentary on the subject, if perhaps a bit overlong, but little more. In the Realms of the Unreal is probably a good introduction to Darger, but if you've already read a couple articles on him, there won't be much new there.

An incredibly touching, disturbing, enlightening and beautiful story

[tomgillespie2002 · 8/10 · 6 September 2012]

Henry Darger, an unassuming, reclusive janitor, working and living in Chicago, died at the age of 81. To his landlady and neighbours, he was a simple man, who rarely conversed with them, and died in 1973 a lonely man, with no family or friends to speak of. Before he passed in a nursing home, a neighbour visited him, telling him that he had seen Darger's work, and was deeply impressed. He replied: "It's too late now." His landlady, Kiyoko Lerner, entered Darger's small flat to clear it and found, to her amazement, rows of manuscript, along with hundreds of accompanying paintings. The book, a fantasy world constructed over decades, was over 15,000 pages long, and completely unique to the unknown inner world of the man.

Darger had created a totally specific world, titled 'The Realms of the Unreal', that told the story of the Vivian girls, and their adventures during many Christian-led wars, the Glandeco-Angelinnian War, caused by the child slave rebellion. The paintings, constructed with various mediums and methods, illustrated this fantasy world, using collage, ink and paint, and he collected images, xeroxing many particular images over and over, to portray his beloved Vivian girls. With no exterior life, and a lack of social skills, Darger had lived completely within this inner world, where he kept intricate details and charts detailing the events in the "realm", and documented the wars - including names, dates of soldiers deaths, the costs of each of these wars: immensely detailed, impeccably assembled.

Whilst the actual reality of Darger's life is difficult to portray - only three photographs of him exist - he did begin a diary of his life after he retired. His life was one of desolation, separated from life, he was a devout Christian; he seemingly never had a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, but wanted deeply to have children. Many of the images he left behind hint at a man, whose asexuality, seems to be more about naivety. Often, naked little girls are portrayed in the paintings as having penises. This could point to a complete lack of knowledge of gender difference. However, without any actual input from the man, it is difficult to fully understand, and we can only speculate - it would be easy to accuse the man of unnatural desires, but I think this may be a cruel conclusion.

Jessica Yu's film is constructed of interviews with the few neighbours (I can't say they knew him, as clearly no one did), and a narration by Dakota Fanning - Larry Pine also recites passages from the Darger diary, expressing his inner desires. Visually, Yu uses Darger's paintings, animating the figures, and constructs a narrative largely connected with the stories in the book. It is an incredibly touching, disturbing, enlightening and beautiful story, but one which is tainted by many insidious conclusions and speculations. I saw this about five years ago, and it never really left my mind. The opportunity to watch it again filled me with questions as to whether it would touch me quite as much. It's hard not to be moved by this story. After all, Darger created one of the most colossal, detailed, and epic pieces of outsider art that I have ever encountered. A portrait of a damaged, complex person, who never really had the opportunity to share his body of work, until his death. Posthumously, his work is now displayed for the public. In 2001 the Henry Darger Centre was opened in The American Folk Art Museum in New York.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Amazing.

[onepotato2 · 7/10 · 1 January 2010]

I had no idea what this was when I clicked 'play' in Netflix. I'm extremely glad I watched it. Henry Dargers life follows the same narrative pattern as Joseph Cornell. Outsider artist Henry Darger originally disturbed me because his work involves such troubling topics. Best to steer clear I thought. Instead, this clever, compelling documentary was so excellent it forced me to reassess Darger. It is extremely inspiring to see what an arrested mind, mired/grounded in a seemingly unpromising but very specific & limiting milieu (1950s Catholicism in Chicago) could accomplish. The early moments showing the work itself, leaves you tantalized as to an explanation of his technique to overcome his lack of an artistic background; it soon follows. The interiority of Dargers effort and psychology is truly impressive. The toiling over a life's work for personal goals is humbling.

My only problem with the documentary is that I found the first 45 minutes so exhilarating, that the rest of it couldn't compare and just seemed to linger there taking up space. But perhaps that just means there's more to get out of it, next time I watch it in a few months. The approval of hipsters is an irritating coda to the piece.

What great luck that Darger's work (like that of the Philadelphia Wireman) was saved by those who stumbled across it. What a good omen to stumble across it on New Years Day.

Hypnotic trip into the mind of an artist

[dbborroughs · 9/10 · 11 September 2005]

Henry Darger was a man few people knew when he was alive. Indeed even the people who knew him can't agree on how to say his last name. He was a solitary man who spent most of his time living in a world of his own creation, and which he put into a 15,000 page novel, several hundred paintings, journals and autobiographies, all of which was discovered when he was dying. Darger is now hailed as a great artist of the outsider school, and this is his story.

Or his story as near as anyone can tell. Using Dargers art and mostly his words from his novel, journal and autobiography this film takes you into Dargers mind. Its a strange world shaped by poverty, cruelty and a stay in a mental hospital when he was young. The movie plots the parallel courses, (or single course?) of his life and the novel which he began in 1909 and continued working on for almost 70 years. Its a strange tale of little girls battling an evil empire in the name of Christianity. Its a wild dream like story.

The film itself is dreamlike.There is no talking heads pontificating about Darger's work there is simply Darger's word and occasionally the remembrance of someone who knew him. This is portrait of the artist as a man, since no one knew the artist as artist until after he had died. After about twenty minutes of being lost in the paintings and words one begins to feel unrooted and begins to drift off as in a dream. Its a strange experience similar to being trapped in the mind of someone else. Its amazing.

Actually this is an amazing film that is probably as close to being inside the artist as you can get. Especially considering the work he left behind is obviously so incredibly personal and relates to the trials and tribulations of his own life. Who need drugs to go on a trip?

If there is a flaw is that the film is a bit too long. Its a brief 79 or 80 minutes and could use some trims, though I don't know where. The over length is a problem solely in that it too long in some one else's head and it becomes a bit disconcerting.

See this movie. I'm certain it will show up on PBS and its on DVD so if you want to see something that will get you out of your head awhile, or if you want to see something that will teach you about some one new see this film. Turn off the lights, take the phone off the hook and surf in some one else's mind for a while.

Interesting to contrast this film with "Ray."

[xavrush89 · 8/10 · 9 February 2005]

I saw "Ray" in a second-run theater just before I saw this documentary about Herny Darger. It is interesting to think about these two men together. Ray had a handicap, but his mother made him learn to live and move independently. Darger was NOT handicapped, but was labeled treated as if he was mentally disabled. Ray became very wealthy, had a fruitful career, and eventually lived in a mansion. Darger never made more than minimum wage and could not even afford to have a dog. Ray's talent was celebrated the world over, Darger never left the Chicago area except when he was sent to an asylum. Many people have viewed the film "Ray" and it has renewed interest in its subject, while a mere fraction (1/20th at best) of people will see this film, many of whom had never heard of him before.

Yet both men are considered geniuses in their own way. The thing is, many people can accept the joyous genius of Charles's music more than they can celebrate the odd efforts of Henry Darger (who amazingly lived eight years longer than Ray). So here we are in 2004 with two movies about two vastly different men, one of whom got his kudos in life and one who did not. Only in death did anyone find out about his talent, yet they have both left their marks.

I found myself relating more to Darger's story, even though there are only a few people left walking this earth who've met him, and hardly any pictures of him exist. Maybe it's because more of us actually fit into the unknown, under-appreciated Darger category, than the category of those who received the accolades (albeit well-earned) that Charles did. Viewing this film, I was so glad to know that Darger existed, and that at least a few people were paying attention.

Very engrossing documentary

[sunga · 9/10 · 8 March 2005]

I found the story of Henry Darger to be fascinating. The documentary style was a bit different from many I've seen. The animation of the Darger's artwork was an interesting touch and I appreciated the creativity of that choice even though I didn't always enjoy the results.

I also found it interesting that for the first half of the film you never see an interview with a live person, although you are hearing from different voices. I almost wanted it to stay that way through to the end, but I do like to see who's talking.

Overall, this film makes me think about how many extraordinary people are hidden just below the surface of the ordinary everyday world in which we live.

I hope that I will have an opportunity to see a display of Darger's work in the future.

An amazing story poorly told

[pwhitely · 4/10 · 16 July 2005]

The story of Henry Darger is one that could have been told on film using only his own words and images. Director Jessica Yu has instead decided to create her own work of "art" by animating Dargers' illustrations and adding special effects. When the viewer is given the chance to see the frightening, beautiful works of art they move and flow through their composition and design, without additional "direction". By the time this film was nearing its end I found myself listening to the audio only.

Imagine your most tormented dreams and then think about a self important Vanity Fair editor adding their creative touch to them and I think you will know what I mean. It is sad that this is one of the few works documenting such a unique person.

A labor of admiration years in the making - fascinating documentary about Henry Darger, his life and art

[ruby_fff · 8/10 · 17 March 2005]

Documentary features are getting stronger every year. German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer's "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time" (2001) literally withstood the test of time, especially with DVD now available, increasing the circle of appreciation manifold. I look forward to the release of "In the Realms of the Unreal" on DVD. It is, pardon the pun, "out of this world." The world of Henry Darger, you might say, is all in his head. We're lucky that he, a self-taught artist, put the images down on paper, illustrated with story text all penned (more than 15,000 pages, single-spaced typed), and co-incidence or not, his landlord couple (Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner) discovered his body of work posthumously after his passing in 1973. A solid following resulted in museum exhibits and gallery displays of his art work collection.

"In the Realms of the Unreal" (the same title Darger gave his written story) is a fascinating documentary produced by filmmaker, writer-director Jessica Yu. This is no mere documentary - it's full of animation, carefully put together by a team of seven animators, solely using Darger's illustrated elements to depict Darger's "story of seven Vivian girls - angelic sisters" fighting against "the evil Glandelinian army - child enslaving men." Henry Darger's watercolor and color pencil drawings are full of intricate details. He may be living singly in his room, but he's not alone at all. My interpretation of Darger's drawing of the imagined additional male organ to the seven little girls in distress is that he wanted the girls to be able to breakthrough the 'bondage,' the 'trapped' state they were in and have more 'testosterone' to make them strong enough to fight back. To be female 'warriors' with strength of a man's.

The talking heads of the people interviewed in his neighborhood were insightful. It's up to the audience to interpret however one receives the information. Being in the world of Henry Darger is a fascinating experience, enhanced by the animated documentary under the masterful conception of Jessica Yu. The back story about Yu is also refreshing. I learned on IMDb that Yu is a master in fencing and she got involved in film-making as a bridging thing to do in between her fencing activities. The online websites (wellspring.com; acer-access.com) are well-organized: plenty of notes on Henry Darger and his art, and director's notes; collection of Darger's drawings, gallery notes and news.

With Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's "Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids" (2004), Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" (2004), Errol Morris' intensely relevant documentaries of the times, French actor/film producer Jacques Perrin's "Microcosmos" (1996), "Winged Migration" (2001) and "Himalaya" (1999), not forgetting Mark Moskowitz's "Stone Reader" (2002) and Dana Brown's "Step Into Liquid" (2003) - documentary feature films are thriving more and more. I've yet to catch Ross McElwee's "Bright Leaves" (2003).

Wow!!!

[kane-121 · 10/10 · 6 December 2008]

I never even knew Henry Darger existed until, out of curiosity, I added this video to my Netflix instant streaming queue. I was captivated the entire time. What an amazing (and at times, heartbreaking) story about such a wonderfully strange and enigmatic individual. The mix of historical photos, Darger's own drawings and words, and interviews with people who actually knew him weave together to form a compelling story that serves to remind us that, no matter how far we may try to pull away from the world around us, we still leave our mark on this world and may very well affect the lives of those around us.

I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who has an imagination. Simply... unreal.

A wonderful, unusual documentary, very faithful to its subject

[malsperanza · 8/10 · 16 August 2009]

A brilliant documentary, which wisely avoids the speculations about Darger that most of the books on him are prone to. There is no *evidence* about Darger's sexuality, nor any about his psychological status. This film covers the known information about Darger thoroughly and coherently, while also capturing something of the magic of his art and his invented world. I am so tired of casual, sloppy claims made about Darger, based on nothing but the speaker's own opinions about the work. Similarly, art scholars have rarely treated Darger's work well--labeling it "outsider" or trying to fit it into the Pop movement, or something.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this film has none of that crap. Yay for no bloviating talking heads! Instead, it pieces together and interweaves Darger's biography with a sketch of the saga of his novel and the artworks that go with it.

In addition, the filmmaker has found some connections between the known facts of Darger's life and his art--the source of some of the names of recurring characters, for example. Some of the info in the film does not appear in any of the books, as far as I can tell. Good research was done here.

If I have any quibble, it's that the full story of "The Adventures of the Vivian Sisters in the Realms of the Unreal" is not clearly set forth. The story has a narrative line and many episodes. There's a geography, with city and nation names. There are numerous kinds of monsters and many side stories. This was not described as fully as I'd have liked. And a little more of the details of the art would have been nice. I imagine that rights for reproduction of the artworks in the supplemental "gallery" were restricted to just a few works. That's a shame. But at least this was not the Ken Burns blahblah treatment.

Oliver Twist??

[canyoufeelthis · 8/10 · 15 January 2006]

Maybe it is just because I have to do an assignment on Oliver Twist and I was extremely stressed over it while watching this movie, but was it just me who thought their lives were very similar? Maybe not completely, just the first few years of his life. He also mentioned Dickens quite a bit in the movie. I am definitely using this film as a means of entertainment for my assignment. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the movie so I'm not really sure if there was anymore similarities between the two, would someone care to tell me. But from what I did see I thought it was an incredible movie, even the way they showed it was amazing. Maybe some of you could put your input on this.