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A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 2 wins & 6 nominations total
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- All cast & crew
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Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
[last lines]
[end title cards]
Title Card: After Darger's death in 1973, the Lerners decided to share their discovery of his work, preserving his room and its contents.
Title Card: Since then, Henry Darger's work has been exhibited and collected worldwide. His art has inspired the creation of paintings, poetry, music, and works in theatre, dance, and opera.
Title Card: The room was dismantled in 2000.
Featured review
Lost Battles
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.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
helpful•42
- tedg
- Jul 17, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $417,120
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $15,477
- Dec 26, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $417,120
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
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Top Gap
By what name was In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) officially released in Canada in English?
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