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Documentary

In the Realms of the Unreal

- The Mystery of Henry Darger

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.

Release Date : 2004-01-15

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Diorama FilmsITVS

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles : The Mystery of Henry Darger

Cast

Henry Darger

Character Name : Himself

Original Name : Henry Darger

Gender : Male

Larry Pine

Character Name : Henry Darger (Voice)

Original Name : Larry Pine

Gender : Male

Dakota Fanning

Character Name : Narrator/Vivian Girls (Voice)

Original Name : Dakota Fanning

Gender : Female

Frier McCollister

Character Name : Voice

Original Name : Frier McCollister

Gender : Male

Wally Wingert

Character Name : Voice

Original Name : Wally Wingert

Gender : Male

Mary O'Donnell

Character Name : Herself (Neighbor)

Original Name : Mary O'Donnell

Gender : Male

Kiyoko Lerner

Character Name : Herself (Landlady)

Original Name : Kiyoko Lerner

Gender : Male

Reviews

C

CRCulver

@CRCulver

2021-06-23

This is a 2004 documentary film by Jessica Yu introducing the life and work of Henry Darger. A major figure of "outsider art", Darger's work was only discovered after his death when his landlords found thousands of pages of text and paintings in his room. Through his long life, he was known to his few friends and associates only as a janitor in a local hospital. Secretly, he wrote a massive manuscript chronicling the rebellion of girl slaves in a fantasy world, painted with watercolors of the heroines and battles. Yu has chosen three main narrators for the documentary. A little girl (Dakota Fanning, even) narrates Darger's biographical facts, while excerpts from Darger's autobiography are reads by an old man (Larry Pine), and texts from his fantasy epic are read by some fellow with a radio play delivery. In addition, we find interviews with people who knew Darger. Kiyoko Lerner, his landlady and now the caretaker of his legacy, is of course featured, as are some of his neighbours and an altar boy from his church. While everyone reports him to be an odd fellow, Yu avoids the controversial issue of Darger's mental health, preserving the ambiguity of whether he was mad or a mere eccentric. Similarly, the relation of Darger's work to sexual frustrations or the possibility of sexual abuse as a child are left out. But this is a mere introduction, and it's reasonable to expect the viewer to move on to other sources for contentious matters. My only real complaint is that Yu is not always content to let Darger's paintings speak for themselves. Rather, she has animated certain of Darger's scenes, which I feel distorts the paintings to a degree. While I think the film does not deserve a one-star rating for this as another reviewer awarded it, it is troubling. Nonetheless, all in all this is a fine presentation of a remarkable figure. And if Darger's intrigues you, I'd recommend also discovering Adolf Wolfli, a Swiss madman whose life and work resembles Darger in several years.