The films of Alejandro Jodorowsky are miracles. His vision and audacity are to this day unsurpassed in cinema. Whilst some of what he did was intolerable or incomprehesible, he is also responsible for some of the most beautiful, surreal and violent scenes cinema has to offer. Everything about him is mythical. Did he personally strangle 50 rabbits for El Topo? Did he and his cast undergo intense LSD preparation for Holy Mountain? Did he make cast members drink each others blood? I sure as hell hope so. His first feature, Fando & Lis caused riots when it was originally screened in Mexico, and whilst it’s difficult going, it’s imbued with an undeniable sense of the breadth and possibility of the cinematic art form. His movies are quests, visions, hallucinations, religious pilgrimages of earnest lunacy and unintelligable psychobabble. Jodorosky is simultaneously a guru and a charlatan, a spiritualist and a lunatic. John Lennon gave him one million dollars to make his opus Holy Mountain, though it’s more than likely he will never make another film again. This incredible 4dvd and 2cd box set consists of his first short film La Cravate, Fando & Lis, El Topo, possibly the most surreal western ever, and his masterwork the overwhelmingly extreme Holy Mountain. We get a doco from 1994 where everyone from collaborator and graphic artist Mobieus to Marecel Marceau wax lyrical on the Jodorowsky enigma. There’s also soundtracks to Holy Mountain and El Topo, both of which are peculiar experimental and inspired.
EXTRA FEATURES:
Jodorowsky commentary for Fando & Lis, Holy Mountain, and El Topo, theatrical trailers, script excerpts and scrapbook in liner notes. This is the most loving collection for one of the true cinematic oddities of our times
