A new documentary wants to take you deeper into space than you have ever been before. Memory was a script that Dan O’Bannon started in 1971, abruptly hitting a wall at page 29. But after the idea gestated for several years, it ultimately took the form of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Alien. Now we get a first look at the poster.
Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentaries — most recently 78/52, about Hitchcock’s Psycho shower scene — have interrogated cinema’s cultural ripples. If MEMORY – THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN were only a comprehensive account of Alien’s origins — ancient myths, comic books, H.P. Lovecraft, sci-fi movies, and parasitic wasps — it would still be fascinating.
How did Alien lodge itself so indelibly into our cultural imagination? Philippe’s real interest lies in the deep resonance of myths and our collective unconscious. The strange symbiotic collaboration between Alien creators O’Bannon, Scott, and H.R. Giger suggests a greater synchronicity across history, art, and storytelling, a synchronicity that gives us the Furies, creatures of Renaissance painting, and even chest-bursting aliens.
Propelled by a pure joy of cinema (and sociology), the film is strewn with unearthed archival material, designs, and story notes. It’s safe to say you’ll never think of Alien the same way again.
MEMORY World Premieres at The Sundance Film Festival on January 24th, at The Egyptian Theatre at 9:45PM. It is very proudly Sundance 2019’s Opening Night Midnight film.
