Leading from
a) Pitof's movie "Vidocq" was released in 2001. It featured the 19th Century detective Vidocq hunting down an ancient alchemist who was using magical means to kill various people. Vidocq tracked the alchemist to his layer where hung many dozens of bodies inverted from the rafters and their blood dripped down a network of pipes and ducts into an iron womb like tank below to feed this strange featureless mirror mask inside. There was an idea from a script by Joss Whedon for Alien Resurrection in which in there was in the queen alien's lair , many the victims upside down in cocoons with their blood dripping down into the pool where the Queen lay with her womb about to give birth to the Newborn and the blood was feeding the Newborn creature.
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| Sylvain Despretz conceptart for the queen's layer in Alien Resurrection |
b) Pitof worked in the special effects department for Alien Resurrection and was a well known collaborator of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's having worked in his previous films. In fact there were talks with Pitof with the idea that he would be directing the fifth installment for Alien, but he bowed out and made his detective action movie Vidocq. Seeing the movie, one might wonder if he actually borrowed at least one idea from the Alien Resurrection production and expanded on it. The film enabled the director to have a brief stint with Hollywood with his ill received movie Catwoman. Vidocq over the years, despite not being a film much talked about years later did retain a cult following.
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| hanging dead bodies in Vidocq |
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| inverted head of hanging dead body in Vidocq |
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| visible arms of a hanging dead body in Vidocq |
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| inverted hanging dead body in Vidocq |
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| blood trickling down into bowls |
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| bowls collect blood that enter an iron womb |
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| the alchemists lair |
c) The Alchemist mask leading to the Deacon?
And then looking at the ways ideas flowed further into the distance of time, one might look at the possibility that this film Vidocq might have been a noteworthy movie to take notice of when it came to exploring the future of Alien concepts as much as it did for me. I personally had the idea of having an alien with this creature's featureless face because it got to the point where thinking about the face of the Alien, one had to step back and realise that there was no way to make any further impact beyond what Giger had given us with the Alien's face in cinema.
In 2012, the images of the Proto-Alien are revealed as designed by a group of designers followed Ridley Scott's ideas and the head is seen by numerous people to resemble a cycling helmet with a smooth featureless face. This creature was nicknamed by Ridley Scott as the Deacon and he thought that the point of the head was the evil Deacon's mitre. I thought that the answer I had for designing a new face seemed to reach a similar situation. And this mask of the alchemist ended at the top in a point slightly like that of the Deacon's but not at long
