Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis (2022) User Reviews

Point, Shoot, Reload, and Repeat

[chenp-54708 · 7/10 · 1 February 2023]

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)" is a documentary about Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey "Po" Powell, the creative geniuses behind the iconic album art design studio, Hipgnosis, responsible for some of the most recognizable album covers of all time. This is director Anton Corbijn's first documentary feature and for the most part, it was pretty entertaining and well-informed.

Prior to seeing this I had knew about Storm Thorgerson's work and his impact with album covers and I was a big fan of Pink Floyd growing up and this documentary was pretty interesting to learn about the personal stories behind the iconic album covers, the life of Thorgerson's work, and listening to many well-known musicals explain their sides of the story and the personal impacts.

The visual presentations was pretty good, the interviews from each participants all felt purposeful and informative, and the overall experience of this documentary was a joy to watch. Some complaints I have were that since the soundtrack relies mostly on songs from Pink Floyd, some of the songs were used inappropriately where the tone and soundtrack didn't mention the scenario. Including there were some segments that could have been edited out as they felt like filler.

But the overall experience was pretty fun. Fans of Pink Floyd or well known 60s, 70s, or 80s music fans will have a good time watching this film.

Rating: B.

Great!

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 1 May 2023]

Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, T. Rex, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Paul McCartney & Wings, the Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Electric Light Orchestra, Rainbow, Styx and more. All of these artists used Hipgnosis, the English design group made up of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell, and Peter Christopherson. They became nearly as big of rock stars as the bands they did art for.

Directed by Anton Corbijn (whose work in music videos has similarities in becoming a rock star to rock stars just like Hipgnosis) and written by Trish D Chetty, Squaring the Circle gets into the artists' best-known work, such as Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon while hearing about the influence -- and what it was like to be part of that art -- thanks to interviews with McCartney, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason. Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and Peter Gabriel.

Corbijin told The Hollywood Reporter, ""At 17, I started taking photos of musicians who created the soundtrack of my youth, first for magazines and later for record covers, and then trying out moving images as a director for music videos from the early '80s onwards. It was a long road, but I eventually made feature films: my first one, Control, dealt with music I loved, and now my first documentary deals with record covers and their beauty and power, and the craziness to get there. It has been an honour to tell Hipgnosis', Storm's, and Po's, story in Squaring the Circle, which, thanks to the great team at Utopia, will be a cinema release in the first half of 2023."

This is a gorgeous film that tells me so much of what I want to know about a time and place that I want to know more about. As such, it's nearly perfect, getting across the emotions and real people behind the art that has been made nearly mythical today.

An enjoyable watch for fans of music and art

[alternapop · 8/10 · 12 December 2023]

I wasn't sure I could watch 101 minutes of this but it went by quickly. I could've watched another couple hours with these stories, although not likely in one sitting.

I laughed multiple times at the anecdotes about Storm's personality. It was great to see them told by people, musicians and friends, with firsthand knowledge and not just by fans. It was very well done.

I appreciate the work of Hipgnosis, and have been familiar with them for many years, although I prefer the work done by Peter Saville more.

Storm did design the cover for one of my all time favorite albums though, the Catherine Wheel's Chrome, from 1993.

I did not want this film to end!

[mbluth-15630 · 10/10 · 17 June 2023]

I was interested after seeing the trailer, and decided to see it, because I knew the director with the unpronounceable name is really good. I loved the film about Joy Division, and his videos are certainly way better than most.

If you're over a certain age, you're going to really love this film. If you loved Pink Floyd, and most of the album covers that accompanied the vinyl albums, you are really going to love this film. If you're curious what Hipgnosis meant, and how they got the name, yes, hope it plays in your town.

Like so much in life, the incredible success story could never make it into a feature film, because it's too ridiculous to believe. But this was real, and amazing coincidences kept happening, time and time again, making a really wonderful fairy tale, that's all true.

I see a lot of movies, and as the film ended, I wanted to clap. If you have any chance of seeing this in a theater, don't miss the opportunity.

You'll be happy you went.

These Lunatics were one the grass

[wharton167 · 10/10 · 28 July 2023]

Fascinating film about the 2 extraordinary guys who were responsible for the most iconic album cover of all time and countless others album covers from the late 60 onwards. Great interviews from the likes of Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters ,Jimmy page, Robert Plant ,Paul McCartney and many more. Some great stories behind the album covers (Animals is particularly funny) and the thought process behind them. After all these years I never understood the significance of the man on fire on Wish You Were Here Its shot in black and white and colour to dazzling effect and each time I watch it I notice something new. The film manages to convey the absolute chaos and spontaneity of there lives This harks back to a time when the album cover was nearly as important than the vinyl inside Hopefully there will be a soundtrack album as well. Anyone who laments the end of an era of truly inspiring music will love this.

Not quite as good as the art created within.

[garethcrook · 6/10 · 24 September 2023]

This documentary might seem a bit of a deep cut from the outside. The story of a design studio focused on record sleeves. Is it not all a bit boffiny. Well yes a little, but Hipgnosis do have quite a pedigree and with Anton Corbijn at the helm here, what transpires is a celebration of experimentation and creative expression. We all know the artwork. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, T-Rex, Wings... er, 10CC but who was behind it all? Storm Thorgerson has a profile doesn't he. That's the (excellent) name you think of, certainly if you've been through art school. Po Powell though might be a bit more obscure. The other cofounder, he leads us through the 60s psychedelic boom, those early fumblings as they figured things out, LSD indulgence, riding their luck and falling on their feet, all whilst playing with visuals not seen anywhere else in pop culture. There's lots of voices here though, Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters (not together of course), Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher who sums things up beautifully saying "They represent the golden age of the music business, where people believed that music was art and it could change the world. Whereas now music is a commodity". There's as much about the environment and culture they worked in as how they actually created some of these works, but there's enough to keep every viewer happy. Whether it's terrifying stories of Zep's fearsome manager Peter Grant or Peter Saville hinting his inspiration for Joy Division's Unknown Pleaures. It's a fascinating story, made up of hundreds of little stories that paint a picture of a dizzying group of artists all feeding off one another, both good and bad. Egos, excess, flying pigs.

Lovingly made documentary about a designstudio and people they made albumcovers for.

[degeling · 10/10 · 6 November 2023]

The stories in this documentary have been told before, but never quite like this. Every shot in this documentary is designed and perfectly matches the period and persons it depicts. We follow the rise and fall of design studio hypgnosis, where the story is being told by the two main designers and their in those days larger than live clients. It is very interesting to hear the memories of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul mc Cartney and others about the period where their fame and ambition was limitless and to see how everything that was once new and happening becomes old and history. Music and photography could not have been done better and is a testament to the brilliance of Anton Korbijn.

Enjoyable but straight-forward with no new relevations

[paul-allaer · 6/10 · 4 December 2023]

As "Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis" (2023 release; 101 min.) opens, we are introduced to, Aubrey "Po" Powell, one of the founders of the (album cover) art design group Hpygnosis, reminisces of what life was like in Cambridge 1966, and how he met Strom Thorgeson, the other o-founder. In their circle of friends and acquaintances were Roger Waters and David Gilmour, leading to the breakout debut album cover design for Pink Floyd's second album, 1968's " Saucerful of Secrets". At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed y none other than Anton Corbijn, best known for he working going back decades with Depeche Mode. Corbijn must've called in a lot of favors. As he gets tons of top notch rock stars to serve as talking heads, including Paul MacCartney, Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Page and Robert Plante, and many others. If you grew up in a certain era, much of this will be familier to you already. All that said, it makes for a entertaining if straightforward documentary with very few (if any) truly new revelations. Thai said, in the 15 years that Hypgnosis was active (1968 to 1983), they truly were the gold standard of rock album cover deigns, no question about it.

"Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hypgnosis" was made in 2022 but not released until earlier this years. It played a number of film festivals before starting to stream on Netflix not too long ago. The movie is currently rated 92% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Which seems a bit too high to me. Regardless, if you love(d) vinyl records, the album cover design was a crucial element of the overall album experience, and I'd readily suggest you check out "Squaring the Circle", and draw your own conclusion.

It's a story that needed telling

[tarebear-01590 · 10/10 · 7 November 2023]

This story was in the era of my tween, teen, & young adult years. I had never heard of Hypgnosis but it peaked my interest with all the Rock Celebrities and the amazing photography. With that said I feel really, really old seeing Jimmy Page with white hair and Robert Plant nearly bald. The band's tour highlights were awesome as well. I could have watched hours of this, if it had been longer. So nostalgic, so informative, so sad to see those days end because we no longer purchase and play LPs. When I was young I loved nothing better than getting an album with an amazing cover. It truly was an art form under appreciated at the time. The back stories to all of the album covers Hypgnosis created were funny, ridiculous, passionate, entertaining, and enjoyable . This documentary needed to be told. Thanks to the producers for bringing back those memories that will forever be frozen in time. I plan on watching at least two, maybe three more times.

VIEWS ON FILM review of Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis

[burlesonjesse5 · 7/10 · 18 April 2024]

2022's Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis is not so much a documentary as it is an elongated wiki page entry, a solid, elongated wiki page entry. "Squaring the Circle", well it's about an art design group from London that created album covers for famous rock artists. I mean we're talking Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Paul McCartney and Wings, the list goes on and on. "All that work has stood the test of time". Oh fo sho.

Directed by a dude known for music videos (Anton Corbijn) and filmed slightly in monochrome (that's black and white photography), Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis is shot chronologically yet at the same time, doesn't have a middle, beginning, or end. I mean you could watch this thing from any point, absorbed by how two art helmers (Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell) came up with legendary album sleeves that mostly didn't have anything to do with the bands or their catchy tunes.

"Squaring the Circle", yeah it's fascinating stuff, an earthy docu that warms you internally like soup. Don't think of it as a movie but a sort of incessant showcase. Case in point: why is a cow on the cover of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother? Why was The Nice's Elegy shot in the middle of the desert with red footballs scattered? And why does Zep's Houses of the Holy have a bunch of albino children hanging out at Giant's Causeway?

Like the stirring illustrations of Hipgnosis, there's no real structure here for "Squaring the Circle". Take it as you will. It's filmed decently however, mixing archives with interviews from Powell and Thorgerson as well as rock gods like David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, and Robert Plant (to name a few). But it also plays out like the title of Floyd's 2014 entry The Endless River, myriad, profusion-like, and without peroration. Vinyl obsessives won't care either way. Repeating "circle".

Art, from a bygone & powerful era.

[galuwatra · 10/10 · 28 January 2024]

A huge part of my childhood and most people from my generation, growing up in the 60's & 70's, was staring at album covers, reading every word of the liner notes just visually ingesting art, for art's sake. This documentary gives us a glorious, backstage, pass to the inner workings of some of the biggest bands of the era. Hearing Noel Gallagher detail about how his daughter didn't understand that album artwork was a thing was absolutely heartbreaking. We would literally just stare at the album cover while listening to the album much like we sat at the breakfast table and stared at the cereal box and read every word on the front and back and sides when we were eating cereal in the mornings. It just brought back so many great memories and the thrill of physically holding an album the smell of the album cover You felt going through the motions of opening the sleeve, putting the album on the turntable and then sitting back and waiting to hear something you've never heard. It really was a beautiful time to be a music and art lover. This gargantuan outlet for artists is now, as Noel said, just a tiny square, on iTunes.