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The Mindscape Of Alan Moore (Disinformation/Koch, 2003) D: Dez Vylenz, w/ Alan Moore. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNNN
Next year’s big-hype superhero movie, Watchmen, comes from the graphic novels of Alan Moore. So did From Hell, V For Vendetta and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The movies vary in quality the graphic novels are brilliant. Watchmen is a complex, morally ambiguous, character-driven piece long on intimate moments and short on splashy set pieces. The movie probably won’t do it justice.
Moore’s world view is as rich as his novels. This documentary covers his no-hope English childhood, moves through a view of his own work and all art as magic – meaning that art, like magic, attempts to effect changes in consciousness – and expands that to the cultural impact of the accelerating growth of information.
Along the way, Moore has a lot to say about his work, comics, movies, erotica, the shape of society and human transformation.
It’s stimulating stuff, and Moore has the seeming artlessness of the skilled storyteller.
Behind the author’s talking head and often replacing it, director Dez Vylenz goes for atmospheric images and graphics and occasional illustrations from Moore’s comics. Despite a little micro-budget clunkiness, this works well to illuminate the ideas, create structure and provide a sense of forward motion.
The extensive illustrator interviews on disc two provide fascinating insight into creative minds and lift the package into an exploration of creativity that goes well beyond a simple portrait of an interesting man.
EXTRAS Disc one: Selected-scene director commentary Easter egg (at end of chapters menu) making-of doc director, FX artist and composer interviews. Widescreen. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese subtitles. Disc two: Interviews with five Moore collaborators and one comics historian. Widescreen. Essay booklet.
