Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

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Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

Released Jun 7, 2023

1h 41m

Documentary

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92%

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49 Reviews

84%

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Celebrated photographer, creative director and filmmaker Anton Corbijn's first feature documentary SQUARING THE CIRCLE (THE STORY OF HIPGNOSIS) tells the story of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey "Po" Powell, the creative geniuses behind the iconic album art design studio, Hipgnosis, responsible for some of the most recognizable album covers of all time. They formed Hipgnosis in Cambridge during the ferment of the sixties and became rock royalty during the boom time of the seventies. They conjured into existence sights that no one had previously thought possible, produced visuals which popularized music that had previously been considered fringe, and were at the white-hot center of the maddest, funniest and most creative era in the history of popular music. During this period, record companies didn't dictate to acts like Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney what their LP covers should look like -- Storm and Po did. They made money; they lost money. They did great things; they did silly things. They fell out bitterly; they made up. They never played a note, but they changed music.

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Critics Consensus

If it's nowhere near as distinctive as the groundbreaking work of the studio that inspired it, Squaring the Circle remains an informative primer on The Story of Hipgnosis.

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Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

A fascinating and suitably maverick snapshot of a richly creative moment in music history, told through a couple of disreputable hippies who designed some of the most iconic album covers of all time.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 16, 2023

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Leslie Felperin

Financial Times

Corbijn, originally a band photographer himself, gets high-quality anecdotes out of the interviewees and there are enough scandals and spilled beans to distract from the fact that this is a pretty conventional talking-heads-and-archive-footage affair...

Rated: 3/5

Jul 14, 2023

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Hipgnosis played a huge part in persuading us that albums were what an educated consumer prefers, and not silly jangly singles.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 12, 2023

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Calum Baker

Radio Times

Overall, the film certainly succeeds as a portrait of two under-sung but significant late twentieth century artists.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 25, 2024

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Annette Basile

FILMINK (Australia)

Absorbing and occasionally poignant, Squaring the Circle has much to offer a general audience, but rock palaeontologists will be especially enamoured.

Rated: 18.5/20

Oct 24, 2023

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Ard Vijn

ScreenAnarchy

It should not be a surprise that as a subject for his first documentary film, the Dutch director chose a legendary design studio known for iconic sleeve art. What may be surprising is how enjoyable and generally light-hearted the end result is.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 26, 2023

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JasoV

Great Music, Interesting Stories.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/21/23

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Rodney M

if you love 70's classic rock, this is a must see. a beautiful slice of 70's culture, represented by the people that lived through it and survived to tell the story.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/21/23

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Cassy B

What a gift of art and music history! I grew up on this music and looking at these covers not knowing what was behind them. Great telling of the creative genius and interpersonal relationships that delivered art in the most unique way! There were funny, sad and poignant stories aplenty! So glad to enjoy the theater showing.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/21/23

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Mister Peaches

The film was a quite good dive into the formation, work, and demise of Hipgnosis and featured great interviews with many surviving members of the bands they worked with, and a few personalities they didn't. I would've gone higher, except I got the feeling they didn't quite know how to end it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/21/23

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Kim

Great documentary film!! Any child of the 70s, anyone interested in design or photography with regard to iconic album covers will love this story. Well done, interesting, exciting! A MUST SEE!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/29/23

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Michael Antony A

Mikey’s Film Review: Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) (2023) Vinyl collectors and fans of Classic Rock will surely love this exceptional talking heads style documentary currently streaming on Amazon. Directed and filmed in striking black and white by famed Dutch photographer, music video creative Anton Corbijn (Depeche Mode, U2, Herbert Grönemeyr, Metallica…), it’s a fascinating insight into a unique artistic relationship and a body of work that will very likely never be matched - or seen again… Using archive footage, past and current interviews with founders Storm Thorgerson (who passed away in 2013) and Aubrey Powell (now 78), we discover the process and ocassionally elaborate (make that outrageously expensive!) path they took to create some of the most iconic LP art in the history of music. From their lowkey inception to their own ‘Rockstar’ emulating indulgences, between 1968 and 1983 Hipgnosis were THE go to creative team for album covers. At their peak, they were treat like ‘Rock Royalty’ and could demand a fee of £50,000 per work… Pink Floyd started the ball rolling and in quick succession Hipgnosis were soon taking commissions for Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Black Sabbath, Wishbone Ash, UFO, Bad Company, AC/DC, Scorpions, The Nice, Paul McCartney & Wings, The Alan Parsons Project, Yes, Humble Pie, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Electric Light Orchestra, Rainbow, Styx, Al Stewart, XTC and even Def Leppard… New interviewees include both fans of their work (Noel Gallagher) and those who were there and ocassionally a part of the creative process (Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Graham Gouldman). In the end they made loads of money… and they lost it too. They made some truly iconic images and they made some outlandish, ridiculous decisions. It worked because they were a brilliant contradiction of ideas in a time where an ‘anything goes’ attitude prevailed. Noel Gallagher suggests a reason why many of us still share an affection for their work: “It was an affordable art collection of the working class”… Maybe that’s true. Can you remember the last time you looked at a piece of art in an exhibition in the way that we once devoured and perused our album covers? Me neither… Mikey’s Film Rating: 4/5*

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/23/25

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Anton Corbijn

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Synopsis

Celebrated photographer, creative director and filmmaker Anton Corbijn's first feature documentary SQUARING THE CIRCLE (THE STORY OF HIPGNOSIS) tells the story of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey "Po" Powell, the creative geniuses behind the iconic album art design studio, Hipgnosis, responsible for some of the most recognizable album covers of all time. They formed Hipgnosis in Cambridge during the ferment of the sixties and became rock royalty during the boom time of the seventies. They conjured into existence sights that no one had previously thought possible, produced visuals which popularized music that had previously been considered fringe, and were at the white-hot center of the maddest, funniest and most creative era in the history of popular music. During this period, record companies didn't dictate to acts like Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney what their LP covers should look like -- Storm and Po did. They made money; they lost money. They did great things; they did silly things. They fell out bitterly; they made up. They never played a note, but they changed music.

Director: Anton Corbijn
Producer: Trish D Chetty, Ged Doherty, Colin Firth
Screenwriter: Trish D Chetty
Distributor: Utopia
Production Co: Raindog Films
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: British English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 7, 2023, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $111.4K
Runtime: 1h 41m

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