We live in increasingly surreal times, so for the next few weeks, we'll be looking at some of the great surrealist filmmakers of all time! After starting with Spanish legend Luis Buñuel last week, this week we're jumping over to Chile to look at the career of famed surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky! Perhaps the biggest shame of Jodorowsky's career is that he's probably best known for a film he didn't make, a mind-bending adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, which was the subject ofthe 2013 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. However, within certain cinematic circles, he is a revered master of the surreal, a visual stylist quite unlike any other.
Born in Chile in 1929, Jodorowsky's childhood was marked by isolation and unhappiness, leading him to pursue many different paths to find his own happiness, starting by forming his own clowning troop called Teatro Mimico in 1947. In the 1950s, Jodorowsky moved to France where he became politically active, soon dividing his time between Paris and Mexico City where he created subversive works of art attacking the establishment. Inspired by the works of other surrealists like Jean Cocteau andAndré Breton, Jodorowsky soon became interested in film as a means for communicating his ideals to larger audiences and in 1968, made his feature debut Fando y Lis.
His follow-up film, 1970'sEl Topo,is widely regarded as the first "midnight cult movie,"andhelped establish a devoted following to whatever work he'd conjure up next. That film attracted the attention of John Lennon, who convincedApple Corps manager Allen Klein to give Jodorowsky a million dollars to make his follow-up feature, The Holy Mountain. Both films offer wildly fantastical views of the world with some less-than-subtle critique of the notion of good vs evil and religious control. They also put him on the radar of a group which had just purchased the rights to Dune and wanted him to direct the film. It put an extended hold on his career as he concocted a blatantly un-filmable adaptationwhose failure to be madeonly further sowed within him the seeds of distrust in the establishment.
Jodorowsky is also a lightning rod for controversy, not only because of the content of his films, but the way he has comported himself on set over the years. He has admitted—but later recanted—sexually assaulting actress Mara Lorenzio in a scene in El Topo, along with making many other wildly misogynist statements over the years. However, we're going to separate the art from the artist today, look athis films, and allow you to make up your own mind about his work. It's increasingly difficult to approach any filmmaker without a biased slant toward their personal lives and actions, but Jodorowsky's work is absolutely worth dissecting and discussing. Let's start at the beginning with a film that caused riots in Mexico from its very first screening...
Fando y Lis (1968)
Jodorowsky's debut feature is a hallucinogenic journey through ahellish landscape by two souls in search of enlightenment. Loosely based on a play byhis performance-art palFernando Arrabal, the film centers on Fando (Sergio Kleiner) and his paraplegic girlfriend Lis (Diana Mariscal) as they wander through a barren wasteland in search of the mythical city of Tar, where they are seeking enlightenment.The film feels like a mash-up of two different Samuel Beckett plays, "Waiting for Godot"and "Endgame," while also feeling wholly unique unto itself.By its very nature, the film is open to interpretation, though audiences upon its release in Mexico seemed united in their hatred of the film.
Like all of Jodorowsky's work, it simply has to wash over the audience as it gives them no clear indication of what emotions to bring to it, leaving the door wide open for myriad interpretations. The only thing that is clear is that Fando and Lis are in search of enlightenment and beset on all sides by external forces determined to end their quest. As you can tell from the stills of Diana Mariscal's nude scenes below, the film is full of surreal imagery, adding just a touch of creepiness to otherwise sexy moments...
While the reaction was substantially less chaotic than it was in Mexico, the film was not a success in America, with many critics writing it off wholesale. It certainly doesn't help that 13 minutes of the film were excised before its American release, but many critics were quick to pounce on Jodorowsky as a pale imitator of other directors working in a similar milieu like Buñuel and Fellini. The film ended up being banned in Mexico after inciting audiences to riot at screenings across the country, a ban which has technically never been lifted.
El Topo (1970)
Easily the most famous movie Jodorowsky completed, 1970's El Topo defined a new subgenre that would spread across the world in the ensuing decades, the Acid Western. Coined by Pauline Kael in her review of the film, it has since come to be associated with films set within the western environment, but which drip with all manner of drug-induced imagery. Jodorowsky cast himself in the title role as a gunslinger dressed all in black and carrying both an umbrella and his naked son—played by Jodorowsky's own son Brontis—on horseback as he ridesinto a small town that has been decimated by a corrupt Colonel and a pack of bandits.
He drops his son off with the monks of the town's mission as he sets off to hunt down and kill the men responsible, takingwith him a woman (Mara Lorenzio) who had been held as a slave by thenow-dead Colonel. She eventually betrays him to a female gunslinger known as the Woman in Black (Paula Romo) and though he is presumed dead, he is nursed back to health by a group of mutant dwarfs who treat him like a deity. He is then reunited with his now-grown son Hijo, who swears vengeance against a father who abandoned him, but not before the two team up to take down the corrupt religious group that has moved into Hijo's town.
Literally everything about El Topo is bizarre. Paula Romo, as the aforementioned Woman in Black, had her lines overdubbed by a man, adding to the surrealist feel of the film. That doesn't mean she's not all woman, however, as she proves in a knockout nude scene with Lorenzio...
Mara Lorenzio also goes nude several times in the film's first hour, including during a brutal attack scene in the desert mentioned earlier in the column. If there was an actual assault during filming, Jodorowsky thankfully doesn't show it, only showing him violently tearing off her clothing before cutting to her sobbing face.She eventually gets her own form of revenge, however, absconding with El Topo's umbrella...
In addition to the many, many reasons you should check this film out if you've never seen it, El Topo alsofeatures an early screen appearance from Alfonso Arau, who would go on to play El Guapo in Three Amigos!. It is also essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of cult films as it is officially recognized as the first "midnight movie," playing to packed houses in America asthe film attained its cult following.
The Holy Mountain (1973)
Jodorowsky goes even further into left field with his follow-up film, 1973's The Holy Mountain. Once again playing the lead role, Jodorowsky stars as The Alchemist, a strange figure who sits in a temple atop the titular mount, awaiting the arrival of The Thief (Horatio Salinas). The Thief bears a striking resemblance to Jesus, leadingsome religious folk to cast his likeness to sell on crucifixes, though he makes a point of eating the face off one of the likenesses before sending it skyward on balloons. Still with me?
The Thief then ascends the Holy Mountain to find The Alchemist, who offers totake him as an apprentice. He willembark on a journey with the Alchemist, the Written Woman (Ramona Saunders) andsevenother people—each representing a different planet—on a journey to achieve immortality...
...a cosmetics manufacturer representing Venus, a weapons manufacturer representing Mars, a millionaire art dealer representing Jupiter, a war toy maker representing Saturn, a political financial adviser representing Uranus, a police chief representing Neptune, and an architect representing Pluto. [via Wikipedia]
The film relies heavily on Tarot Card imagery to establish its characters, playing out like the most psychedelic card reading in the history of the world. There's plenty of skin to go around, with nearly all of the women in the film appearing nude, including the director's then-wife Valerie Jodorowskyas Saturn...
Other nudity comes courtesy of Adrianna Page, Re Debris, and Guadalupe Perullers, all of whom have roles to play in the story, though only Page is one of the planets (Mars)...
The film's final moments find the fourth wall shattered as Jodorowsky himself breaks character and begins dictating the camera moves, eventually pulling back to reveal the entire cast and crew before proclaiming, "Goodbye Holy Mountain, Real life awaits us." Yeah, your guess is as good as mine, though I don't know that there's necessarily a "point" here. Like all great works of surrealist art, it's up to the individual to determine their own personal meaning for what they've seen.
The Dance of Reality (2013)
You might notice a 40-year gap between films here and while that period does contain three films—Tusk and the skinlessSanta Sangreand The Rainbow Thief—it's more marked by his inability to get films made. In addition to Dune, he also unsuccessfully attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, as well as a gangster film titled King Shot. He was unable to get financing for either of those films and seemed as though he would spend the rest of his life fruitlessly attempting to make art. Then came the age of DVD, and as audiences began to rediscover his earlier work, his profile began to rise substantially, allowing him to finally secure funds to make another films, 2013's The Dance of Reality.
Based on Jodorowsky's 2001 memoir of the same name, the filmtells the story of his youth in Tocopilla, Chile, raised by Stalinist father Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky, playing his own grandfather) and singer Sara (Pamela Flores). His mother believes him to be the reincarnation of her own father, though Jaime refuses to entertain such notions, hoping to toughen up his son by making him renounce god and eventually having him undergo a dental procedure without anesthetic. Satisfied that his son is sufficiently tough, he allows him to take a job with the fire department, though that quickly—pardon the pun—goes up in flames.
Continually ashamed of his son, Jaime attempts to prove his own manliness to the fire department, though this backfires in spectacular fashion when he attempts to aid plague victims, who turn on him. Returning home infected, Jaime collapses on the floor and Sara prays for a miracle and begins urinating on him, which does actually work...
What? You guys though old age had softened Jodorowsky's sensibilities enough that he wouldn't depict his mother urinating on his father to cure him from the plague? But I digress... The film depicts Alejandro's relationship with his mother as tender and loving, but also very strange. In one of the most bizarre sequences of the film, young Alejandro covers himself in black paint to play hide and seek with his mother, who is completely nude and showing off her beautiful body as she runs naked through the house, singing...
While not a huge commercial success, the film was acclaimed and did make its money back, which Jodorowsky hoped would finally give him the capital he needed to get Son of El Topo off the ground. History, however, was doomed to repeat itself as that momentum fizzled and Jodorowsky returned to his own life once more for his next, and to date, final film.
Endless Poetry (2016)
Jodorowsky spent a lot of his career being unfairly compared to Federico Fellini, but his two late period autobiographical films truly illustrate how much the two filmmakers had in common. Time and success never mellowed either man, both of whom raged against the machine well into their 70s, but nostalgia for their youth is the strongest common bond between them. When Son of El Topo failed to manifest by the end of 2014, Jodorowsky instead turned his attention to covering the next period in his life with 2016's Endless Poetry.
Now well into his 80s, Jodorowsky focuses on his time spent in Santiago, Chile in his late teens and early 20s, when he rejected his father's wishes to go to medical school and decided instead to focus on poetry and puppetry. He crosses paths with Chilean poetNicanor Parra, insulting him over his poem "The Viper," which was inspired by another poet,Stella Díaz Varín, played here by Pamela Flores in a dual role as she also reprises her role as his mother...
Alejandro's life is changed when he discovers that his father Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky) used to be in the circus, a secret revealed to him by the old man still running the circus, who offers Alejandro a job. While there, he meets Pequeñita (Julia Avendaño), a performer in the circus, who seduces Alejandro and sleeps with him, presaging his sex scene with a little person in El Topo...
The film ends with Alejandro being told his childhood home—including all of his poetry, puppets, and artwork—has burned to the ground. He goes to see Parra to get advice, the former poet now working as a teacher, but Parra encourages him to give up poetry and pursue a true vocation. Alejandro becomes embittered by this advice and decides to leave for Paris. His father pleads with him not to go and tries to physically restrain him from getting on the boat. Alejandro, showing his father that he truly is stronger than him now, breaks free of his father's hold and leaves for Paris as we're told that he would never see his father again.
It's an appropriately bittersweet note on which to end Jodorowsky's story because it basically brings everything full circle. Once he gets to Paris, he goes on to become the man we know today, so he has filled in the gaps. While it's certainly not a given that Endless Poetry will be his final film, he turned 91 in February and very few, if any, filmmakers continue producing films into their 90s. He did, however, give us a hint at what his next project would be upon the release of this film 4 years ago, saying that Son of El Topo would be his next film. While that seems highly unlikely, it's completely appropriate that he would continue tilting at that particular windmill for the rest of his life.
Alejandro Jodorowsky Films with Nudity Not Currently on Our Site
Check out the Other Directors in Our Ongoing "SKIN-depth Look”Series
Luis Buñuel |Atom Egoyan|John Boorman|John Schlesinger|James Ivory|Alan Parker|Walter Hill|Tony Scott|Louis Malle|Mike Nichols|Allison Anders|Jonathan Demme|William Friedkin|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part One|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Two|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Three|Federico Fellini|Philip Kaufman|Miloš Forman|Pedro Almodóvar: Part One|Pedro Almodóvar: Part Two|Blake Edwards|Catherine Breillat: Part One|Catherine Breillat: Part Two|Spike Lee|John Landis|David Cronenberg: Part One|David Cronenberg: Part Two|Ingmar Bergman|François Truffaut|Bernardo Bertolucci|Steven Soderbergh|Kathryn Bigelow|Oliver Stone|Roman Polanski|Nicolas Roeg|David Fincher|Francis Ford Coppola|Pier Paolo Pasolini|Ken Russell: Part One|Ken Russell: Part Two|Robert Altman:Part I|Robert Altman:Part II|Adrian Lyne|Martin Scorsese|Jane Campion|Park Chan-wook|Bob Fosse|Dario Argento|Wes Craven|Tobe Hooper|Todd Haynes|Danny Boyle|Stanley Kubrick|Paul Thomas Anderson|David Lynch|Brian De Palma|Paul Schrader|Paul Verhoeven
**Non-nude images courtesy of IMDb
