Documentary Review Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

Squaring the Circle (The Story of of Hipgnosis) (2023) 

Directed by Anton Corbijn 

Written by Trish D. Chetty 

Starring Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney

Release Date June 7th, 2023  

Published June June 1st, 2023 

For many, the idea of art, what art could be, it's transformative properties, the way it can shape your perception, sprang from seeing a striking image on the cover of an album. I can distinctly recall seeing the cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here in a friend's record collection when I was 10 years old and being fascinated by the image of a man on fire shaking hands with another man who was not on fire. It's an image both striking and yet simple, the notion that the record industry can burn an artist with a handshake and a smile. 

Regardless of what this image says about the band or the music on the record, that cover, and so many more esoteric, bizarre, and compelling images, helped to shape many young minds. That particular image that dazzled my young mind was created by the most prolific and influential graphic designers in the history of the music business, Hip-gnosis, the team of Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson. Starting at University in the mid-1960s, Storm and Po were an inseparable team. Each taught each other different aspects of design and their ideas blossomed from a shared love of turning reality and sense on their heads. 

Director Anton Corbijn is among many who can count Hipgnosis as a major influence on their work. A music video director, Corbijn is uniquely qualified to document the history and fascination surrounding the legendary art pioneers at Hipgnosis. He does just that with the remarkable, exhaustive and terrific new documentary Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis). Through exclusive interviews with Storm and Po and the giants of the music industry who employed them, we get to learn the fascinating stories behind the most talked about, remembered, and beloved album covers in the history of music. 

From the late 1960s through the early 80s, Hipgnosis was the go-to team for creating album art so good that it could sell records on its own merit. If you're a fan of Pink Floyd, then you can thank Hipgnosis for creating the images you've always associated with Pink Floyd. The cover of Dark Side of the Moon? That was Hipgnosis. That wonderful photo of a cow on the cover of Atom Heart Mother? That was Hipgnosis. That tripped out cover for 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, Hipgnosis. I could go on and on but you should just see Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) for yourself. 

Storm Thorgerson emerges as a fascinating character, a cantankerous, unpredictable and often rude man who earned the love, loyalty and enmity of the biggest rock stars in the world with his blunt assessment of their artistic desires. He had a habit of walking off Hipgnosis projects if he felt the artist wasn't listening to him or exerting too much control over the idea. He loved working with the band 10 CC, a rare band that let Storm loose to make his weirdest and often most expensive ideas come to life. 

Find my full length review at Beat.Media 

Movie Review The American

The American (2010) 

Directed by Anton Corbijn 

Written by Rowan Joffe 

Starring George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten 

Release Date September 1st, 2010 

Published August 30th, 2010 

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat, before I am accused of having a short attention span or lacking a classic or European or Asian movie education. I have been a critic for more than 10 years and my patience has been tested on more than one occasion. Over the years I have worked to expose myself to the works of Antonioni, Truffaut, Bergman, Renoir and many of the great masters of European cinema.

I have seen both American and Italian westerns and many classic samurai dramas. I have just the education and patience needed to assess the new George Clooney movie "The American" which takes its influences from these varying classic approaches. With that out of the way, influences aside, "The American" is a yawning, empty chasm of a movie. Boredom encapsulated in over 100 minutes of film stock.

George Clooney plays a man variously referred to as Jack, Edward and Mr. Butterfly. In a stunner of an opening sequence we watch him assassinate a pair of men trying to kill him and before this sequence is over we think we know all that we need to know about this dangerous and calculating killer. Unfortunately from there it's all downhill. In at attempt to evoke a meditative state director Anton Corbijn sucks the life out of this character and his star, advising Mr. Clooney, it would seem, to internalize his performance to a degree where inscrutability becomes incomprehensible stillness. 

Many will admire Clooney's restraint; I was left baffled as to what I was supposed to find fascinating about this character beyond his handsome face and seeming ability for violence. The approach is meant to be meditative, restrained and calm to a point of almost complete stillness, a style that Euro cinema goers have, in the past, admired but that Americans, like myself, find dull and ponderous. However, I don't chalk this up to some continental divide, rather; I am willing to bet that just as many European audiences will find "The American" as mind numbingly dull as I did.

By the second time we watch George Clooney assemble a gun meant for another assassin, played by actress Thekla Reuten, patience will have been tested to the breaking point by repeated scenes of Clooney driving, parking, the back of his head as he's lost in thought and a most tedious and ultimately meaningless conversations with an Italian priest (Paolo Bonacelli) that drags the already stagnating film to a complete halt.

The scenes featuring the priest could be lifted entirely from the film and not affect the plot in any fashion. It's not that the scenes are completely pointless, an assassin without an existential crisis is a villain and Clooney is not necessarily a villainous killer. The problem is that the Priest character is about as engaging as a brick wall. On top of that we don't really know what Clooney's motivations are or whether indeed, he has an existential crisis to explore. The character is so quiet and brooding that he becomes obtuse and incredibly boring. 

"The American" is at times a very good looking movie with gorgeous actresses often in states of undress and the handsome Mr. Clooney repeatedly seen working out sans shirt. The eroticism is good but like everything else it lacks energy beyond its mere presentation. The same goes for the Cinematography which is often striking but often quite distracting, rather than being impressive, the cinematography by Martin Ruhe overtakes many scenes. Italy is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and invites gorgeous visuals but because the rest of The American is so dull, the scenery becomes both an oasis and a distraction. 

Mistaking meditation for pacing and stony silence for style, "The American" is an inscrutable bore that pretends toward being a high class, Euro influenced, thriller. I am a huge fan of George Clooney but "The American" is not Clooney at his best but rather at his most affected and dull.