Film highlights Henry Darger's Art and Life

Recently making its New York debut at a benefit evening for the Folk Art Museum, In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mysterious Life and Art of Henry Darger is a feature-length film focused on the prolific painter and writer who is arguably Chicago's best-known Outsider. Directed by Jessica Yu, winner of a 1997 Oscar for her documentary about the polio-stricken writer Mark O'Brien, the film was produced by Susan West, known for her work with Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson. The 82-minute documentary, which was in the works for five years, is well-researched, slick and fast-paced. However, it also brings up some problematic issues related to the use of the artist's work, especially in a number of animated sequences based on his paintings. The film opens next month in New York and then will appear across the country in a limited theatrical run.

Little is known about the day-to-day activities of the reclusive Darger, who lived for over 40 years in the same single-room apartment and died quietly in 1973 at age 81. But Yu manages to construct a surprisingly vivid portrait of the man, based on interviews with his landlord, Kiyoko Lerner, who also controls his estate, as well as with several other neighbors and acquaintances. Apropos of Darger's work, which is centered on angelic child protagonists, the Vivian Girls, a voice-over by child actress Dakota Fanning tells the story of the eccentric loner who had no family and few friends or acquaintances. He was a janitor by day and dedicated artist and writer by night, spending many hours feverishly typing pages of his epic novel, In the Realms of the Unreal, which grew to 15,000 pages by the time of his death, and producing large, elaborate paintings on paper related to themes in the book.

In one absorbing segment, neighbors describe the many voices that were often heard coming from Darger's room. He seemed to be entertaining a crowd, but in fact talked and argued heatedly with himself while he worked, using a variety of vocal guises. Yu is also highly successful in relaying a coherent description of the narrative of Darger's vast novel, which involves a convoluted tale of good versus evil.

The film is of special significance for its unique footage of Darger's studio, which the director was able to shoot five years ago, before the room was dismantled and much of its contents dispersed. Visible are the teetering stacks of hand-bound manuscripts and sketchbooks packed with drawings and paintings. Also seen are his typewriter and art supplies, as well as much dusty bric-a-brac, including numerous Christian objects and images that covered every available surface.

However, a major problem arises in the film's use of animation. In the last two years of producing the documentary, Yu hired a team of seven animators in an attempt to bring Darger's paintings to life. A number of his panoramic images, including several battle scenes, are featured in sequences in which figures, animals and fanciful creatures walk, talk and fly. The pulsating colors in the back grounds and the jerky movements of the characters in these scenes closely resemble the brilliant work of the Czech-born designer Heinz Edelmann for the Beatles's 1969 animated film, Yellow Submarine.

The animation in Yu's film, though, seems counterproductive. It may add to the film's popular appeal, but paradoxically it has the effect of diminishing and limiting the movements and actions that are so vividly suggested in Darger's paintings. Yu goes way over the top when the Vivian Girls are shown, in a montage sequence, strolling though the streets of modern-day Chicago. Examples like this may explain why many artists and artists' estates refuse to extend copyrights to filmmakers working on artist biopics--witness recent docudramas about Picasso, Bacon and Pollock. It is especially troublesome to see these liberties taken with an artist's work in an otherwise serious documentary. One wishes that Yu could have resisted the temptation to use animation and simply panned across Darger's works, as she does to good effect elsewhere in the film. In a talk following the well-received screening, the director seemed almost apologetic about the animated segments, saying that she tried to remain true to Darger's vision by not adding new elements to his images, the Chicago street scenes notwithstanding.

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