Memory: The Origins of Alien (read our review) premiered on opening night of Sundance. The documentary by Alexandre O. Philippe traces the collaboration of Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger and features scholars offering new analysis of the classic space horror film.

Of note, there have often been sexual metaphors identified in Alien, from the phallic xenomorph to the changing of Ripley from a male to female character. Memory has many analysts suggest that the hierarchy of the company and the Nostromo represents a subconscious guilt on the men of 1979 for their contributions to an oppressive patriarchy, something that is only just now becoming common in general discussions.

“When a movie becomes as successful as Alien does, at a time when it goes against the grain – which it was going against the grain of the friendly, cute, cuddly alien that I think people were ready for at the time -what does that mean? What does that say? It says to me that there were certain ideas and images that we needed to process as a collective, that we needed to start thinking about as a collective,” Philippe told us. “In that sense, yes, I think the patriarchal guilt that was in our society, and I’m talking about an unconscious guilt… it’s something we still need to work through. There’s an imbalance there that we still need to work through.”

“I don’t think it was necessarily a MeToo movie,” Philippe continued. “I think it was unconsciously a MeToo movie. I don’t think Dan O’Bannon, Giger, Ridley Scott, Brandywine or Fox set out to make a movie that was going to address those ideas in a conscious way. I don’t think that when people went to the theater in 1979 and watched the film, I don’t think that they immediately came out saying, ‘Oh my Gosh, this is a movie about patriarchal guilt.’ But I think it resonated with audiences precisely because those were ideas that unconsciously were already in our society, that now 40 years later, interestingly enough, we’re starting to talk about.”

When I was in film school in the ‘90s, I heard all the theories that the Derelict ship the Nostromo crew explore was a uterus and that they crawl through the fallopian tubes. That one is not specifically explored in Memory, however. Perhaps in a future documentary?

“I think the sexual imagery of Alien, you could make a whole other film about that,” Philippe told us.

“You look at the design of the Derelict and the entrance to the Derelict and the caves and the eggs, the head of the xenomorph. It’s all there. It’s overly sexualized imagery but I think that comes from Giger, and again I think his style resonated with Dan O’Bannon not because of that. I think his style resonated with Ridley Scott not because of that but because of the Lovecraftian influence. There is no question to me that Alien would not have been the success that it was without this universe that Giger created. That’s what’s so great about it. When you crack it open, it speaks to our ancient past. It speaks to mythology. It speaks to very overt ideas of sexuality and subversions of sexuality. It’s all there so Alien is so resonant I think for all of us for different reasons.”

Some of those reasons also date back to Francis Bacon’s painting Fury, which itself shares mythology with legendary creatures. Philippe filmed a scene of Furies waking up on the Nostromo to introduce these concepts.

“It comes back a little bit later on when we circle back to Francis Bacon and the Furies,” Philippe said. “I didn’t want to keep hitting the nail on the head so to speak. To me, it was about establishing mood and tone right off the bat, and establishing ideas and themes that were going to be explored throughout the film. To me, it creates immediately a major dramatic question. What are the furies doing on the deck of the Nostromo? Why are they being summoned to life? What’s going on? What is the connection with Alien? Will Linn with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, immediately makes the thesis statement that the alien is very much a fury that is here to correct an imbalance? That, to me, is the prologue to the film. It creates this dramatic question. What is the connection between the Furies and the Alien? What makes Memory a mythological take on the movie? Then it becomes a slow burn of trying to understand that connection.”