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The Surreal World of Alejandro Jodorowsky  E-mail
Monday, 19 November 2007 19:00
The Films of Alejandro Jordorowsky

DVD Box set

"El Topo"
"The Holy Mountain"
"Fando Y Lis"
(Abkco Films)
abkcofilms.com

Watch our interview with "El Topo" director Alejandro Jodorowsky:

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In the early '70s, I discovered Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky; I don't recall just how but I knew why...he made one the weirdest and most Jungian films ever made, "El Topo"(1970). I was an impressionable kid then but that film was unforgettable, not just because of the nudity which did impress (and was a shocker at the time) but for the sheer strangeness of it all.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono helped to arrange his mystical western's release and distribution in the US through Beatles manager Allen Klein.

His next film, "The Holy Mountain" made in '73 (or "La Montaña Sagrada") was no less surreal—it extended Jodorowsky's cache as one those inventive directors that pushed the envelope at every turn. Entirely financed by Lennon and Ono, it was the most expensive Mexican film production to date (with a budget of $1,500,000).

"El Topo" was so controversial that movie houses would only  screen it late night. Back then the only people who would venture to see a film at that hour were the heads—stoked on whatever it took to stay up late—and were those who would appreciate (or think they appreciated) what Jodorowsky was trying to say with his films.

Of course, I wasn't the only one who was both shocked and impressed with the power of his vision—this film became the first to be featured as a midnight special and its success spawned the trend.

The three features he directed then—"El Topo," "Holy Mountain," and "Fando Y Lis"—all dealt with the magic of the absurd with characters and scenes that were both unbearable to watch and yet were vibrant and strangely beautiful.
{mos_ri}



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