RNL
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Post by RNL on Dec 13, 2005 23:30:27 GMT
1. The Holy Mountain (1973) 9/102. El Topo (1970) 8/103. Fando and Lis (1968) 7/104. Santa sangre (1989) 7/105. La cravate (1957) 5/10
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 14, 2006 16:08:09 GMT
From AICN:
Alejandro Jodorowsky, the greatest living filmmaker, graced New York City for the first screenings of his masterpieces “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain” since the 1970’s. Neither film has achieved distribution in America due to a longstanding feud between Jodo and rights-holder Allen Klein, but that is due to end soon, as ABCKO (Note: It's actually ABKCO, as in The Allen and Betty Klein Corporation, not ABCKO) Films has been restoring the legendary pictures for a proper DVD release. While there is regret that neither screening offered a fresh print of the films, we were getting a peek at the new ABCKO transfers, and boy, are they gorgeous. There were still discoloration issues and a few overtly digital enhancements, though all parties claimed the transfers were still a work in progress. Whatever the case, the American cinematic public will be truly blessed the day both films attain distribution.
Widely regarded as the first ever midnight movie, “El Topo”, Jodorowsky’s second recorded film (before “Fando Y Lis”, Jodorowsky claims he directed a mime film called “The Transposed Heads” that was lost forever) is perhaps the strangest, most unforgettable western of all time. Jodo stars as an invincible gunfighter who travels the west on horseback with his unclothed, primitive son. When he comes across a dilapidated monastery, he decides to leave the son behind in favor of a shapely female companion, who in turn demands he become the greatest gunfighter in the desert. In order to achieve this, he finds himself coming after the four contenders to that throne. However, he loses his humanity in the process, and when his companion falls for another woman, he is killed in an act of selfish sexual rebellion.
Underground, he is reborn, cared for by a collection of the physically disabled and disregarded. They have been shut out of a lawless western town because of their deformities, though El Topo’s newfound pacifism helps bridge a gap between the two worlds as a vaudevillian performer. But what of this young, black-clad stranger who has arrived at this godless town of prostitution and slavery at the same time?
To boil “El Topo” down to a mere description, synopsis or review is folly, but if this reminds any of you of the trials of Jesus, you’re on the right track. Like most Hispanic filmmakers, Jodorowsky is particularly fascinated with Christianity, though his target seems to frequently be the malleability and hypocrisy of its practitioners. El Topo is incensed that the villagers worship false gods, equating belief to a strong hand in Russian Roulette, while black slaves are treated like sexual conquests before hangings.
One of the items forgotten from the first time I saw “El Topo”, on a beaten down VHS dubbed in English but with Korean subtitles, was how strong the music was, and here, that comes through in full detail. The colors are vibrant, too- Jodorowsky’s imagery is second to none, and the beauty in violence is explored through his work through the most gorgeous colors one can imagine. However, certainly, Jodo is not PETA’s favorite filmmaker- after the fifth or sixth simulated rabbit death, a man behind me complained loudly and stormed off in a huff.
After the screening, the sprightly, joyous seventy-eight year old Jodo did a lengthy Q&A. Highlights:
-He absolutely LOVES Guillermo Del Toro, because he is fat, and also because of his movies. He also considers himself a Paul Verhoven lover, and he adores “Starship Troopers”.
-He doubts his ability today to film his script for “Son Of El Topo” because there are no investors eager to work with him, though he admitted the rapturous response during the Q&A had him excited. Actors willing to be in the film include Santiago Seguro, Nick Nolte, Alfonso Arau and Marilyn Manson.
-He marveled about the ability for older men of every type to find love and lamented the end of his previous relationship with a woman who wanted a child. He is currently dating a Vietnamese girl thirty-seven years younger than him.
-Marilyn Manson became a huge fan of his overnight, suddenly recommending “The Holy Mountain” to everyone, particularly fans through his websites, giving Jodo a new fanbase. Manson also wanted to be married off by Jodo, but only if he had the white jumpsuit he wore in “The Holy Mountain”. He didn’t, but a tailor made a remarkable replica.
-He has since made peace with Allen Klein, as they both remarked about how old and beautiful they both were. Jodo also made sure to go into detail on how Klein’s client at the time, John Lennon, was instrumental towards bringing “El Topo” to the masses. In the audience, Sean Lennon nodded approvingly.
-Both “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain” will be getting brief theatrical runs before showing up on DVD, possibly in NYC at the IFC Center.
-Jodorowsky didn’t do a Q&A for “The Holy Mountain” as it was a Saturday midnight screening, though he did openly admit he never tried drugs before or during “El Topo” but was introduced to LSD through initiation for “The Holy Mountain”. He spoke about his desire to work with a guru for the film, and then spent a week sleepless, enduring the effects of the drugs.
And it shows. “The Holy Mountain” is a fever dream, more elaborate, terrifying, funny and expansive than “El Topo” in every way. Much like Jodo’s previous films, “The Holy Mountain” isn’t at all married to narrative, beginning with the persecution and mistreatment of a would-be savior, crucified with flowers before eventually being used for a mold of his body and being forced to carry a cross with his armless, legless friend. This Jesus-figure yearns for something else, in the form of the Alchemist, a white-suited guru who recruits him with champions from each planet in order to participate in a soul-cleansing pilgrimage to the summit of the Holy Mountain, where enlightenment lies.
There are sights in “The Holy Mountain” that you can’t un-see. Jodorowsky creates intricate set-pieces the way fat people stack pancakes- each scene can be taken on its own as the most audacious moment in the entirety of seventies cinema. Revolutionaries spawn blood made of bluebirds, men bathe in the mist of their melted feces and in the end man must face the ultimate illusion of the film form. It’s heady stuff, enhanced by Jodorowsky’s calming, mesmerizing performance as the Alchemist, a role originally intended for John Lennon.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 18, 2007 22:25:04 GMT
>>> premiere.com John Lennon once said director Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo was his favorite film and convinced his manager, Allen Klein, to buy it. Klein loved El Topo so much he didn't let anyone else to see it. In an interview with Roger Ebert in 1990, Jodorowsky said Klein told him, "El Topo is like wine, all the time it gets better. I am waiting until you die, and then I am going to have a fortune." The hallucinogenic western starring the director as a gunfighter in black leather avenging the massacre of a town's citizens became an underground cult film, but hasn't been distributed legally for more than 30 years as the Jodorowsky and Klein feuded. Although pirated video versions of El Topo have been available, the film can now finally be seen on the big screen in a remastered version that premiered at the New York Film Festival and is opening around the country through January. A DVD box set of Jodorowsky's films including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando & Lis is also being released.
Why is El Topo finally being released again?
After almost 25 years of conflict with Allen Klein, we made a friendly arrangement. I went, some months ago, to New York to remaster El Topo, arranging the color. I made wonderful work with the daughter of Allen Klein, Robin. The DVD includes three of my best pictures Fando & Lis, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain, with two hours of bonus features including the first film I made when I was 24 years old, which was lost. The picture was a tale of Thomas Mann, a pantomime called The Tide. There are interviews, commentaries.
What was the conflict with Allen Klein?
He wanted me to make a picture and I didn't want to do it so I escaped. So he said, "If you escape like this, no one will see your picture [El Topo] anymore." We fought for a lot of years, and I gave away videos of the film. But after all these years, we talked on the telephone and realized we were spending a lot of money because we don't hate each other. We made peace. So I went there to see my old enemy. When he opened the door, he said to me, "You are beautiful. You are not a monster." I say to him, "You are also not a monster, you are like a spiritual master." We are old now. It is 30 years later. So now we are friends... Your best friend is your worst enemy always.
What kind of work did you have to do to remaster the pictures?
They have a new machine [to make] the colors I wanted. At that time , the technique was not so perfect. Also, some shots that were dark are clear and shots that were static, I gave them movement. It's perfect now. For the first time in my life I have the picture as I like it. I did this with all three pictures. The first picture was black and white, so it was not a problem, but El Topo was a problem because the color was not good. And The Holy Mountain is like a painting.
John Lennon was a big fan of your work.
I owe a big thank you to him because when I came to the United States with El Topo the big companies said, "We don't know how to open that. It's so different." It was impossible to show. Then one person showed it to John Lennon and he liked it. So he showed it with his picture with Yoko Ono [and] the public saw my picture. It began to show at midnight, the first time a picture was shown at midnight, which started midnight movies, pictures like Pink Flamingos. They called that "Midnight Mass." After a year, Allen Klein bought the picture. John Lennon recommended it to [him] and said, "Why don't you give him money to do whatever he wants." Klein gave me a million dollars. For me it was enormous, for you Americans it was nothing. I made an enormous picture in Mexico with that money, Holy Mountain. At the time, no one understood it and it never opened. Now that picture is admired by Marilyn Manson. He was inspired by this picture and included clips of it in his video ["The Dope Show"].
Didn't you conduct Marilyn Manson's marriage ceremony?
Yes he wanted me to conduct the ceremony in the character of the Alchemist in The Holy Mountain. I said, "Listen, Mr. Manson, 20 or more years have passed. I don't have the costume. He said, "Give me your measurements and we'll find it." So when I came to Ireland to marry him, the costume was waiting for me. That was his dream. Now the picture can be understood.
What was the movie Allen Klein wanted you to make?
He wanted me to make The Story of O. I didn't want to make something sexual. I am a feminist. I didn't want to make a picture about a woman who is a slave. When I made El Topo I was a South American machista. In The Holy Mountain I started to advance with the women in the picture. I realized we can't treat women like that. I was advanced for my time. Allen said why don't you want to make that picture so I escaped. He had reason to be angry from his point of view as producer because he put a lot of money in El Topo and Holy Mountain and when he wanted to make very big business with me, I escaped.
For someone seeing these film for the first time what should they know?
I am an artist. Now the pictures are not made by artists. They are made by companies and produced by multinationals. The art in the picture is lost. Now when artists make pictures, they make them for museums. But museums, for me, are cemeteries. El Topo is a western and Holy Mountain is an alpinist, about climbing mountains. El Topo is a modern picture. It doesn't get old. And Holy Mountain will be in its time in ten years.
What is your next project?
It's called King Shots. It's a gangster movie. There are a lot of actors who want to play in the picture. Marilyn Manson will play the role of a 300-year-old Pope. Nick Nolte called me and said he saw a picture I did called Santa Sangre. He said, "I want to work with you." I said, "How can I pay you." And he said, "That is not important." I want to shoot in Romania and in the desert in Spain where Leone shot his pictures. It's set at a casino in the middle of the desert and all the gangsters come to gamble. In the desert they find the skeleton of a giant man as big as King Kong. I wanted to make a film called Abel Cain which was the Son of El Topo but I could not raise the money. Too expensive. You know, I am a poor poet trying to make artistic, individual pictures. I am not a multinational. I think my pictures are some kind of an elixir that can change the mind for the better. I hate pictures where you go in silly and you come out silly, not changed. With my pictures I want to change the way you see the world. That is for me is the meaning of cinema.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Sept 25, 2007 12:05:16 GMT
1. The Holy Mountain 1973 2. El Topo 1970 3. Fando and Lis 1968 4. La cravate 1957
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Post by ronnierocketago on Sept 25, 2007 22:25:31 GMT
I don't care for Manson's music, but he's earned my respect.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Sept 26, 2007 1:37:21 GMT
I've never really cared for his music, but from what I've seen of his guest appearances on late night talk shows, he's really funny.
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Post by svsg on Mar 9, 2008 6:54:36 GMT
I am downloading El Topo and Holy Mountain. I can't wait to watch...
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 9, 2008 13:30:56 GMT
Holy Mountain is one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed.
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Post by quentincompson on Oct 31, 2008 18:12:24 GMT
1.El Topo 7/10 2.Fando y Liz 7/10 3.The Holy Mountain 6/10 4.Santa sangre 6/10
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Post by Anasazie on Nov 1, 2008 4:46:48 GMT
1. El Topo (1970) 8/10 2. The Holy Mountain (1973) 7/10 3. Santa sangre (1989) 6/10
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