Movie #5........................."In the Realms of the Unreal"

Movie #5 "in the Realms of the Unreal" --- a documentary on the life of Henry Darger, janitor by day, artist/writer extraordinaire. Here is a very poor man, a recluse, whose life was lacking, living in one poor house or home for the mentally ill after another. His life seemingly empty but then..............so rich with this made up world he developed. One story after another, made up society full of wars, 7 beautiful women and their travails. The movie gets bogged down a bit with reading lengthy passages from what he has written , but it could be I was a bit tired tonight. Really, I can say I have never seen a movie like this --- one of a kind film about a one of a kind man. After he died in 1972, they found this huge manuscript (and they mean huge --- the longest "novel " in existence, with all the illustrations about this made up society (move over Faulkner). Wow, makes me want to look up more about him, and isn't that what a film is supposed to do. And he lived in Chicago!

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In the Realms of the Unreal(2004) NR

By day, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor who had few -- if any -- friends. But at night, he became a literary artist with a unique vision. Darger's 15,000-page novel is a wonderland of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against child-enslaving men. Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine and the work of talented animators, this film tells the story of Darger's hidden world.