Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis
Anton Corbijn views the world of British pop music in the 1970s through the prism of its brilliant album covers.
Who could ever have imagined that the creation of designs for album covers would make an effective subject for a documentary feature film? With the arrival on our screens of Squaring the Circle the answer to that question is revealed to be Anton Corbijn who with this movie turns to documentary feature filmmaking for the first time. He did, of course, give cinemagoers evidence of his interest in pop music when, in 2007, he made the acclaimed drama Control based on the life of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, but it is also the case that throughout his career music videos have played a strong role. In the circumstances he is in his element here and Squaring the Circle finds him on great form.
Despite my admiration for Corbijn’s films, I did approach this piece with doubts being somebody who paid relatively little attention to sleeve designs for long-playing records. But any reservations that I had in prospect were happily largely overcome on seeing the film. It probably is the case that, given its running length of 101 minutes, those who declare Squaring the Circle to be a masterpiece will be those who are true devotees of the design work featured here. Nevertheless, you certainly don't need to belong to that group in order to find this documentary a fascinating piece of work.
The film’s full title includes the additional wording ‘The Story of Hipgnosis’ and, if Corbijn’s skills are key to its success, so too is the fact that Audrey ‘Po’ Powell, one of the founders of Hipgnosis, is so adept and engaging a storyteller as is confirmed by his substantial on-screen appearances here. It was Powell and the late Storm Thorgerson who as graphic designers set up Hipgnosis, later being joined by Peter Christopherson who died in 2010. With plenty of archive footage available, we see something of Christopherson here and even more of Thorgerson, but the film rightly puts Powell, now in his seventies, screen centre. At the same time there are valuable contributions from other survivors of that era when in its own field Hipgnosis was king - among them are members of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and Noel Gallagher.
If in its early days Hipgnosis functioned in a small studio in Denmark Street which did not even possess a toilet, at the height of its success it was world famous and the partners were living jet-set lives. After a decade or so musical tastes changed and with that the importance of album designs for long-playing records faded. However, by then their talent had illustrated not only the commercial importance of those covers but their ability to turn out imaginative and original designs that could be considered art.
God knows that in its heyday Hipgnosis made money, but it is entirely apt that the song heard at the close of Squaring the Circle is 10cc’s ‘Art for Art's Sake.’ In the main, though, Corbijn rightly keeps the emphasis on the design work itself and on the history of Hipgnosis. The latter includes stories about how the name came about and, if ‘hip’ meant ‘cool’ and gnosis meant mystical knowledge, it feels in keeping that there are conflicting tales as to how it was chosen and by whom. The film proceeds chronologically and Powell's account is full of engagingly unlikely but true turns of fate while also revealing how he and Thorgerson were at one and the same time kindred spirits and contrasted personalities. If Thorgerson was the ideas man and Powell the photographer who was key in executing those ideas, it was also the case that Thorgerson was the controversial figure, an egoist who, as the various testimonies of the musicians seen here reveal, was equally wonderful to be with and one of the most irritating and difficult of men. But it is also argued that Thorgerson with his remarkable concepts was not just ahead of his time artistically but an original.
Squaring the Circle is all about these two men and about Hipgnosis, but that story is such that it is also a film about Britain in the 1970s. Even so, it might have emerged as a rather routine documentary so it's great to find that Anton Corbijn is the man in charge. At the very start the images feature an imaginative blend of black and white and colour which is evidence in itself that a skilled and inventive director is in charge. Then, as it proceeds, one finds that the fusion of archive footage with Powell's on-screen narrative works perfectly as do the intercut observations from the various musicians. Furthermore, this professionalism is matched by Corbijn’s obvious enthusiasm for the material. Even if the subject matter will inevitably appeal more strongly to some than to others, this film is highly successful in its own right.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Audrey ‘Po’ Powell, Roger Walters, David Gilmour, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Peter Gabriel, Graham Gouldman, Jill Furmanovsky, Peter Saville, Roger Dean, Richard Manning, Glen Matlock, Andrew Ellis, Merck Mercuriadis, Humphrey Ocean, George Hardie, Alex Henderson, Richard Evans, and with archive footage of Storm Thorgerson and Peter Christopherson.
Dir Anton Corbijn, Pro Trish D Chetty, Ged Doherty and Colin Firth, Screenplay Trish D Chetty, Ph Martijn Van Broekhuizen and Stuart Luck, Ed Andrew Hulme.
Raindog Films/Rocket Science/BMG/Hipgnosis Film Fund-Dogwoof Releasing.
101 mins. UK. 2022. US Rel: 7 June 2023. UK Rel: 14 July 2023. Cert. 15.
