Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky
Over the weekend and early this week, I watched two of the movies made by a cult icon in Cinema, Alejandro Jodorowsky. After watching the first movie, I was very impressed and downloaded two more of his movies. Most of the information next will be from Wiki.
1.Who he is?
“Alejandro Jodorowsky is an actor, playwright, director, producer, composer, mime, comic book writer and psychotherapist born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents of Russian origin. In 1973 he adopted Mexican citizenship, but some years later he was naturalized as French. He is particularly known for having directed a handful of esoteric, surreal and shocking films, and for having written several comic books.”
His style is very true different. He made movies around the same time as Fellini, Passolini and Brunel, so it is not the first time I watch a movie which was done in unorthodox manner, but what was beautiful about these movies was the way it was edited and directed, which is something unique to Jodorowsky .
2. Panic Movement
” In 1962 he created the Panic Movement, together with Roland Topor and Fernando Arrabal in Paris in 1962, the group concentrated on chaotic performance art and surreal imagery. Jodorowsky dissolved the Panic Movement in 1973, after the release of Arrabal’s book Le panique.”
So as with many directors of the era, he was involved in change. The majority of directors who made movies in the 60’s and 70’s are still to date some of the most impressive, original and unique directors the world has ever seen, and they have not been replaced yet, though some new and upcoming directors have come to the forefront, mostly from Asia.
3. His films
“His most famous film to the outside world are El Topo (the mole) and La Montaña Sagrada (The Holy Mountain). El Topo is a mystical western, was his second film and is now considered a cult classic. John Lennon and Yoko Ono helped arrange the film’s release and distribution in the United States through Beatles manager Allen Klein.
Jodorowsky’s third film, La Montaña Sagrada (The Holy Mountain) (1973), was entirely financed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. At a projected budget of $1,500,000 (in USA dollars), it was to have been the most expensive Mexican film production to date. The film reportedly cost only half that amount.”
I watched both movies and I enjoyed them both. El topo is better in my opnion than Holy Mountain as it is more raw, and better flowing, while Holy mountain is a bit more artistic, yet still enjoyable, especially the middle part. Other than the typical nudity, violence, odd story line, and artistic flare that you can expect in similar movies, Jodorowsky does something I have not seen before in movies, which is use cripples, amuptees and other handicapped people in major roles and parts of his movies.
Since that time, the director has had a few movies out, but was not really known to many. He wanted to Do a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, with several major stars, but that project did not go through, and many of the people who were working on this project, ended up working on the David Lynch version.
Until recently, his movies were not available to the public, but in 2007, his three major movies were released on DVD after a 30 year dispute with ownership and distribution.
I highly recommend people who enjoy movies that are different and are used to films of the 60’s and 70’s to watch his movies. The torrent links for the two above mentioned movies are next, but note that you should get a better quality soon once the DVDs are out, or you can purchase the DVD’s from Amazon.
More information can be found on the director online of course.
A small tidbit before ending the post, “On December 3, 2005, he officiated at the non-denominational marriage ceremony of friend Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese (real name: Heather Sweet) at Castle Gurteen in Kilsheelan, home of artist Gottfried Helnwein, in Tipperary, Ireland. Manson has stated that Jodorowsky influenced his entire visual style.”
Purgatorian Post #1039
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