ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
Contemporary Auteur
BACKGROUND
Born in Northern Chile to Russian-Jewish Immigrants.
Dropped out of college after attending 2 years.
Fascinated with forms of physical expression.
Worked as a circus clown, mime and stage actor.
At age 23 developed his own theatre company.
Moved to France to continue writing and directing.
Contributions are seen as Avant-Garde and
Surreal.
Is still an active filmmaker at the age of 85.
QUOTES
Every person, every artist makes his life an artwork.
People say I am mad. I am not mad. I am trying to heal my soul.
Life is a mixing of all kind of things: comedy and tragedy going together.
I want to liberate my imagination and my mind with every kind of movie. That is
what I wanted to do all my life.
I am like the rain: I go where I'm needed.
Every work of art belongs to his time. I would not paint again the Mona Lisa in the
third dimension.
I am an artist, you understand? For me, a picture is like poetry. When you make art,
this is not coming from an intellectual place. It's coming from the deep side of your
unconscious, your soul.
FILMOGRAPHY
Year
Title
Language
1957
La Cravate
1968
Fando y Lis
Spanish
1970
El Topo
Spanish
1973
The Holy Mountain
English
1978
Tusk
English / French
1989
Santa Sangre
English / Spanish
1990
The Rainbow Thief
English
2013
The Dance of Reality
Spanish
TBA
Abel Cain or The Sons of
El Topo
Awards
LA CRAVATE (1957)
Film short with a runtime of only 20 minutes.
Jodorowsky’s first attempt at filmmaking.
Adapted from the Thomas Mann 1940 novella The
Transposed Heads.
Stars surreal surreal humorist Raymond Devos and
Alejandro Jodorowsky himself.
Plot: A poet and a boxer each stop by a little shop
on a busy French street. There, a petite woman allows
patrons to switch their heads. Both men do, and later
regret the decision.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
FANDO AND LIS (1968)
Film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal play by
the same name.
Alejandro Jodorowsky's first feature length film.
When the film premièred at the 1968 Acapulco
film festival, a full scale riot broke out.
The film was later banned in Mexico.
Plot: Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis
search for the mythical city of Tar
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
EL TOPO (1970)
Definitive Cult Spaghetti Western.
Selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign
Language Film at the 44th Academy Awards, but
was not accepted as a nominee.
Distributed across the United States with the
assistance of Allen Klein, manager of The Beatles.
Plot: the film takes place in two parts. The first half
resembles a western; albeit a surreal one. The
second is a love story of redemption and rebirth.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973)
Jodorowsky as an actor, composer, set designer and
costume designer on the film.
Produced by Beatles manager Allen Klein.
Shown at various international film festivals in 1973,
including Cannes.
Plot: An omniscient view of what social engineering
caused by greed has done to the modern world, but
shows us how to live and not give in to a material
world.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
TUSK (1980)
French drama directed by Jodorowsky and
written by Nicholas Niciphor.
Exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual
style and was never given wide release.
A follow-up of Jodorowsky's attempt of Dune.
Plot: An English girl and an Indian elephant, born
on the same day, share a common destiny.
Click photo for more ------------->>>>>>>>
JODOROWSKY'S DUNE
Jodorowsky took over the film rights to create the film Dune in
1975.
Pink Floyd, among others, chosen for some of the soundtrack.
H.R.Giger, among others, chosen for set and character design.
Salvador Dali and Orsen Wells, among others, chosen for the
cast.
Ultimately, financial woes stalled the project in its
preproduction phase.
Film rights lapsed in 1982, when Dino De Laurentiis purchased
them and released the1984 film Dune, directed by David Lynch.
A documentary concerning Jodorowsky's effort at Dune was
released in 2013 and is pictured here.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
SANTA SANGRE (1989)
Mexican-Italian avant-garde Horror film
directed by Jodorowsky as well as written by
Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and
Roberto Leoni.
Stars of the film include Jodorowsky's sons.
Films Tagline: Forget Everything You Have Ever
Seen
Plot: A young man is confined in a mental
hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was
traumatized as a child.
Click photo for more ----------------->>>>>>>>
THE RAINBOW THIEF (1990)
Reunites Lawrence of Arabia co-stars Peter
O'Toole and Omar Sharif in a fable of friendship.
Jodorowsky's first British film.
Jodorowsky has since disowned the movie due to
allegations that threats were made by producers as
to his creative involvement.
Plot: A petty crook, in search of the proverbial pot
of gold at the end of the rainbow, hopes to cash in
by befriending the heir to a huge fortune.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
THE DANCE OF REALITY (2013)
French autobiographical film written and directed
by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Reflects Jodorowsky's philosophy that reality is not
objective but rather a "dance" created by our own
imaginations.
Screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Jodorowsky's first film in 23 years.
Very positive reception. Rotten Tomatoes gives the
film a score of 93% based on 44 reviews.
Click photo for more ------------------>>>>>>>>
SOURCES & LINKS TO VIDEO
Alejandro Jodorowsky on Wikipedia
Alejandro Jodorowsky Filmography via Wikipedia
Alejandro Jodorowsky Quotes
Alejandro Jodorowsky IMDb
Alejandro Jodorowsky News
Article about Alejandro Jodorowsky
Filmography, Facts and Opinions on Alejandro Jodorowsky
Jodorowsky's Dune
Official Dance of Reality Movie Website
Upcoming/Current Endeavors of Alejandro Jodorowsky